feasting

I really don't even know where to begin on this great and wonderful day.

I know I will say this 100 more times, but I can't figure out why our family has been so lucky to have this awesome experience of serving. We have learned so much already. A few things we noticed from today, which are small blessings:

1. I want to keep my car clean at all times because we give people rides from time to time and I don't want them seeing my cheerio-french fry infested car.
2. We are not as intimidated by this part of the city any more and feel so much more comfortable (not as scared)
3. The second Sunday the congregation stays after to have dinner together. It is teaching me to try to learn how to cook for many people as cheap as possible. (any tips would be appreciated)
4. We rent a small townhome. that was a bit humbling for me to move into after years of thinking we would have been in a house by now. Everytime I come home on Sunday I feel like I live in a mansion and could not be more grateful.

We made great time downtown today and came in 10 minutes early. I put my 25 Las Cruces Burritos in the small oven which is in a closet in the church's basement. We made holiday cupcakes again, which seem to a big hit with the kids. They love the little toothpick topper. ( I am on the hunt for Easter ones, so if anyone sees any let me know) I made yellow cupcakes with white cake mix in the middle dyed green and the kids loved it. I found these great storage containers at Sams for transporting.

Our chapel is packed every Sunday and they have folding chairs lining the isles and into the hallway almost to the front door you walk in. I wonder if because we are so physically close and packed in if that is why there is just such a feeling of unity vs. bigger chapels where each family can fit in their own row.

A woman sang a musical number that was incredible. It is a song I have heard a million times and if I was in any other ward, probably would have said to myself, "enough already, this song is so 10 years ago" but hearing it today was like I had never heard it. I think it was because seeing the congregation hear it for their first time was beautiful. The words touched so many and our Kleenex boxes were emptied.
some of the words from the song

Making His home with the lowly,
spending His days with the poor
Bringing hope to their hearts,
giving Man a new start with His cure

A teenage boy spoke who had just been baptized in the church. He comes every Sunday like most of the youth without his parents and is just amazing. He started is talk with, "What's Up?" not the usual Good Afternoon as you could tell he was really nervous. He ended his talk with saying, "Everything is so new to me but I know it will never get old, seeing all ya'll every Sunday feels as good as the first time"

The next speaker was our Missionary Couple. The wife spoke first, she is in her mid 60's from a small town in Idaho. They have been here 23 months and this was their last Sunday. She got up, could not even speak because she was so emotional and then started her talk with , "What's Up?", just like her new friend. Hearing her incredible journey of not knowing how to drive in a big city and being timid and scared to being strong and brave was wonderful. Her and her husband give many rides and help many people especially the youth. They have carried a lot of the weight of the ward on their shoulders. She said, "Many of you have said that you don't know what you will do with out us here, but the truth is we don't know what we are going to do without all of you"

The tradition in our ward when anyone moves out is that after Sacrament Meeting they come to the front and we all sing one verse of "God be with us until we meet again". Talk about emotional. It was just wonderful.

My favorite part of Sunday is immediately following Sacrament meeting those visiting stand and introduce themselves. I counted 24 visitors. Many will say, "if I could just bottle the feeling I have here I would take it home with me"

Primary was great but has so many challenges. So many. It will be interesting learning how to help these children the best way possible. Last Sunday I did sharing time and I kept thinking this 20 minutes of me teaching the children is likely the only 20 minutes they will have like this all week. And I assume that any primary across the country has at least one child that may fit that as well. So, I kept thinking what will I say when I have their attention. I realized it is not what I say, what I bring, what they color, but how they feel. If I can help them feel the spirit and feel peace, they will want to come back. When they are teenagers and they feel this way again, they will remember feeling that as a child. This has been good for me who is one that has been worried about themes and handouts to now be worrying about the meat of the message instead of the packaging.

We stayed for our true feast after to eat with everyone. It is so great to look forward to this every month. The girls in Annie Kate's class were sitting together, I still have not met any of their parents and think they all come together as just girls. They were all sitting on our row in Sacrament meeting by themselves, but as still as they could be. Our family is speaking next Sunday and Annie Kate was going to sing a musical number. She had told the girls at the table and they all asked if they could sing too. So me and these girls ran upstairs to the chapel to practice a song. (keep in mind I have NO musical skills what-so-ever) I told them the song was, "I love to see the Temple" none of them knew the song so I asked them what they wanted to sing, they all wanted to sing "Dearest Children God is Near You" They all know all three verses.
I was a sight I am sure trying to teach the girls to sing, when this is something I would never do now or did at their age. They are all so excited for next Sunday.

After church we took one of the Young Men home. When we do this it is so fun to always see Annie Kate making conversation in the very back of our car.

We went to our friends house, from the ward to share in the blessing of their baby. They live in a very cool row house with a magical garden for a back yard. They must have had 50 people there from every walk of life and religion. It was such a magical experience. We felt fortunate to be included.

Annie Kate and her favorite buddies stayed out front most of the time and helped people find parking spots for their cars. She felt so grown up being with the older kids instead of running in the garden with the little ones.

The couple is the ones who had us over for breakfast last month. He grew up near Jeff and they had figured they played each other in H.S. tennis in Washington. Andy put himself through college/law school by being a baker. He made about 10 loaves of bread for the event and had different butter, jams and spreads to put on them.the "cup of soup" (minuature Soupie) we gave to the baby with monogram and blessing date

We had to grab our bread and run because I had a Stake/Regional Primary Meeting at the Stake Center by the Temple as was already late.

The girls were getting quite tired as it was now 7:00 pm (we left the house a little before noon) this was Sally Jane covered in Spaghetti sauce, nutella, strawberries, jam and honey in her leprechaun St. Patrick's dress getting in the car to go home.

My Stake Primary Meeting was great and I had to share a few ideas so I don't forget them. (Andrea I thought of you the whole time) The theme was finding the lost sheep. The back drop for the room was photos they had taken of the children in the stake. There was about 60 they had blown up to 8 1/2 x 11" and mounted on black foam board. It was really great because it reminded us the whole time why we were really there.The other idea was making invitations for the fall Primary Program to send to some families in the ward who may not know about the program, or for the children who may not come as often.

Each ward/unit was given a "SOS" bag. Save our Substitutes. It is a bag to keep in the closet to had a last minute substitute for a primary class. It has crayons, a children's hymn book, a manual, paper, photos from the Gospel Art Kit. I thought this was a brilliant idea and something I think we will use often.

The Sheep theme was carried out the whole night.

Jeff had dropped me off to the meeting and I got to ride home with girls from my ward that we live in. It was fun to catch up with them and the ongoings. I felt like I had to hold back my emotion when they asked how I felt about our experience downtown. I could have talked about it the whole way home. It was a 9 hour day of pure feasting from beginning to end. I was exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open as I got in bed.

Just when I thought I was too tired to do anything else, my phone rang. My dear friend from New Orleans called me. She is in her 60's and has had so many trials in her life. My Christmas card was returned as she has not moved back since Katrina. She told me her entire Katrina story about being stuck in her house for 4 days trying to flag down helicopters and seeing floating bodies in the water. She has very poor health and lives in a very humble home. It broke my heart to hear of her trials but felt blessed to be talking to her. Her spirits were so high. The last time I saw her Annie Kate was 18 months old (she is now 8) It made me kind of sad because I had a hard time remembering that sweet ladies face. I have sent her a Christmas card every year and never knew if she even got them. She talked to me of how she has loved seeing my girls and watch them grow. She said she had wished my moving card had shown the front of our faces. It made me giggle and now I know who needs some good mail this week and see some photos of my girls.
I had a hard time keeping my eyes open the whole time we were talking, but after all that I had been given today I felt I needed to stay awake and give something back.

I may have to change my blog name to "Life is too good" because right now if feels like it is.