Busy Sunday

 Roy and I had planned to head to Lake Powell today for about a week, but then I remembered I was in charge of seminary graduation in our stake, so we sent Caitlyn and Dallin ahead to use the first night in the family trailers since it was all paid for.  Today has been busy because as soon as Roy realized we weren't leaving town, he was asked if we would speak in church ane he agreed.  I was surprised he'd accept when my cough is still so terrible (I managed to get through my talk coughing only once).  I also had a 7:00 am Stake Council meeting.  I hate having to be all dressed and ready to go by 6:45, but I don't mind our meetings at all.  I love our stake president, and he makes the meetings worthwhile.  He spent a few minutes asking each organization leader where we were at and if we needed anything, and then he spent the rest of the hour speaking of the Savior.  I think I've mentioned before that our stake president's desire is that these meetings are more "ministering" than "administrative."

It's also fun to be "in the know" just a little bit.  I don't want to know a lot, but it's fun to know a little.  Today President Daines talked about this transition back from Covid.  He said that it's a lot harder transitioning back than it was transitioning out of our meetings.  It's interesting to see where the challenges lie.  It seems like in our stake, a lot of the difficulties come for the stake primary president, Sister Wright,  some of the things I probably wouldn't even think about, such as "These kids haven't sat through meetings for over a year..."  Our primary president is the reason our second meeting is only going to be 35 minutes for a short period of time.  Also, baptisms have been extremely time consuming having to do only one baptism at a time.  Sister Wright has also made me look bad this past year because she has done darling videos weekly to support families teaching the kids at home.  We were asked to put some videos together, too, and we did one.  My rationalization is that the youth were still meeting and being taken care of for the most part, while our primary children were not. 

Another interesting fact is that our poor stake president has taken a lot of guff throughout this past year dealing with everyone's different Covid opinions.  He was not complaining when he said that there were no boundaries where these  opinions were concerned--no one went through the bishop to be heard, they all went directly to him, and probably most of them were not nice giving their opinion.  I only know this because the stake executive secretary spent a few emotional minutes expressing his love for the stake presidency and asking us to pray for them as they had to deal with a lot, especially throughout this past year.

Our discussion was on the church as an institution, vs. the church representing our relationship to Christ.  Pres. Daines said that when he was younger, people didn't "leave the church," they just stopped going.  Now it's an event that's posted on social media.  He said, "you never hear anyone say, 'I'm abandoning a Christ Centered Life," when they leave because they generally don't leave because of the doctrine, they leave because something about the institution bothers them.  We spent the hour discussing how to make the institution of the church a place where people come because they want to learn about Christ.  They want to strengthen their connection with Him.  We spent some time talking about the reasons for gathering each week.  

I could wax long, but I'm out of writing time--lucky for you who are reading this.  

One fun thing that happened this week: I ran into a couple of cousins from Springville when Roy took me to Market Street Grill for dinner Saturday night.  Wilford and Natalie Clyde and Dianne and Wally Carr.  We talked for a short time and caught up.  They were in SLC to go to the Symphony.

A new favorite lunch  or snack--Watermelon, Strawberries, 
cucumbers and jicama (the jicama is optional), lime juice and
Tajin to spice it up a little.  Delicious!

Caitlyn sent me this cute picture of Yuli.  She
took it when Jieun went to the dentist (where Caitlyn
works).  It works out well for Jieun--she has someone
built in to watch the baby while she's being 
treated!