As we approach our moving date, I wanted to stop for a minute and reflect on my current calling in our ward. Right now, this blog is my only journal, so I want to write some of my thoughts down. I should get back into regular journal writing, but until that happens, this is it.
August of 2012 was a life-changing month for me. First of all, I took a little test that told me that I had just been given the biggest surprise gift ever–a new little one was on his way to our family. Wow! I remember calling my mom, a little shaky, and telling her the news. Then, about one week later, Bryce and I got called into the bishop’s office and I got some more big news. I was being called to serve as our ward’s Relief Society president.
I knew something like this was going to happen because they only ask both spouses to come in for an interview if one of them is going to be asked to dedicate a lot of time to serving the ward. Bryce had just been released from the bishopric, so I figured he was off the hook for a bit. We sat down to talk with our wonderful bishop and he asked me about my testimony and my feelings about the gospel and our Savior. I remember telling him that I felt like my testimony was almost a tangible thing–something so real and such a part of me that I couldn’t imagine trying to get through this life without it. When he extended the calling, I remember putting my head down on Bryce’s lap, taking a deep breath, and then accepting the calling. Our bishop asked if there was anything that might make accepting the calling difficult for me and I told him that we had just found out that baby #4 was on the way. And he said, “Well, that’s what counselors are for.” This couldn’t have been more true. My two counselors have been my rocks and I will dearly miss them both when we move. With this calling, I gained two wonderful friends and sisters.
I felt overwhelmed and totally inadequate when I accepted the call. Those feelings really haven’t changed. But I moved forward and trusted in the Lord and His timing. And as Bishop Haws told me once when I confessed my feelings of inadequacy to him, “Who doesn’t feel that way?” As it turns out, both the calling and the baby, the August Surprises, have brought so much joy into my life. Liam, well, words cannot even express my devotion to that little man. And the calling, well, that, too has been a gift.
I think a better title for what I’ve been doing for the past year in our ward would be Service Facilitator. I contact members of our community (not just of our ward) that I’ve been told are in need and get a food order filled out for them. They take this order form to our local Bishop’s Storehouse and come home with two weeks worth of food for their family–everything from fresh veggies to roasts to toilet paper. I oversee the Visiting Teaching program and try to see that every woman in our ward is visited on a monthly basis and knows that she is loved. I meet with other leaders in our ward every other Sunday for one hour in the morning before our Sunday services start and discuss needs in our community and how we can better serve our neighbors. I reach out to new mothers and try to visit them, to chat with them about babies, and motherhood, and life, and to let them know that they have friends they can reach out to. And that they are loved. I organize our ward’s Giving Tree by contacting families who need a boost during the holiday season, figuring out what specific items would bring some cheer to their homes at Christmas, and giving ward members a chance to help with that effort by picking an ornament off the tree and donating the listed item. I get to wrap the gifts and deliver them to the homes of my friends and neighbors. I reach out to my sisters in the ward, though email or through a visit, just to remind them that our Father is mindful of them and that someone is thinking of them.
The truth is, I am a Witness to Service. Working with these women has been amazing. I have watched them serve each other, in big and small ways and usually very quietly, and have witnessed their charity and their good works. I have witnessed the Lord’s hand guiding His daughters and His arms around them as they struggle with challenges. It has been such a pleasure to serve as this Witness. I don’t know if I’ll ever have this opportunity again, but I look forward to my next calling, my next chance to serve and to witness service.
It hasn’t always been easy. Juggling this calling and the needs of my little ones has been hard at times. But, goodness, it has been so worthwhile. I have learned and grown and been amazed by the love and service of those around me. Whatever ways I might have failed, when the juggling act didn’t always go as planned, I hope that my sisters know that I love them and that their Father in Heaven loves them. Because that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?
