First Ward Activity

I was chatting with Caitlin at the "Linger Longer" Potluck our ward had after church today, and I asked her, "When was the last Ward Activity we attended?" To which I received a bit of a shock when she replied, "In this ward? This is our first one." We have been in the ward for thriteen months, and we have never attended a ward activity. NEVER. Until today. I would think that attending church would at least count, but the activities commitee do not have a hand in planning sacrament meeting, or any of the other meetings in the three hour block. Now that I think about it, we haven't been attending church for the full three hours for quite some time either! Man, you have got to love Nursery!

It feels a little cold to drop off Rini and then leave as quickly as you can so that you don't hear the ear-piercing shriek that emits from her frame. But we both know that she only does that for about five minutes. Then she gets distracted by the other kids, or the toys, or the toys the other kids are playing with. When Caitlin went to pick up Rini last week, she was chasing bubbles around with the other kids. This week when I went to pick up Rini, she was asleep in one of the Nursery workers arms. I apologize that I don't remember this Sister's name! Turns out that Rini was falling asleep - yes, she was that tired that she was falling asleep in Nursery! - and this Sister picked her up so that she didn't get stepped on. Rini had only snoozed off for about ninety seconds when I arrived, and she woke up straight away. She is currently sleeping like the dead.

Funny thing happened in Priesthood. I was sitting through opening exercises, taking it all in, when I'm snapped out of my trance when I heard my name called. Turns out that I was going to be giving the "Hometeaching Moment" that day. I should not have been surprised, because Kurt assigned it to me over a week ago, and gave me a reminder last Sunday. Nevertheless, I had realized when he announced my name, that I had completely forgotten and by so doing had prepared nothing. I walked to the front as calmly and collected as I could. It was much like bearing a testimony, because as I spoke, the words came. I thought back to my hometeaching experience this past week, and yes, I had done it, and I had helped out my family because they had not gone through the lesson yet, and I got to meet a few more people in the ward. Something I had been lacking in doing for the past year. At that moment I realized what my story was for hometeaching. My hometeacher had been my link to the church for the past year. When the Bishop thought we had gone inactive, and statistically I think we had, my hometeacher knew that it was just a matter of scheduling that blocked us from attending church. He knew we wanted to go, and he was constantly checking up when he hadn't seen us at church for a week or two. After I told that story I closed things up saying that I hope that I would be that kind of hometeacher to my families, and I sat back down.

I then confided to my hometeacher, who was sitting beside me, about my folly in not filling the hole in my head that allowed that speaking assignment to fall out. We had a good laugh, and then someone sitting behind us mentioned, that no one could tell I had just winged it.

Sometimes that works. Sometimes it really, really does not. I recall a 30 second rendition of a five minute youth talk I was to give in sacrament meeting back in St. Albert. You could feel the heat from the firey crash on that one!

Time for bed. My commutte is going to be a lot longer tomorrow, since I'm going to be driving in from Beaumont. Caitlin and I are camping out Chez In-laws this week, so Caitlin can help with a sewing consignment project. Yeah, money! Boo, long drive! Mind, I might be able to car pool a couple of days this week. :)