exCHANGE

Today was our last Sunday in this ward. I started crying when I got up to do Singing Time. It's hard to say goodbye, even when you aren't technically going that far. It's still an ending. And tonight is our last night in this apartment. Everything will work out swimmingly, I know. But even good change can be difficult.

I know that I'm leaving the primary in good hands, though. The presidency is awesome, and I was privileged enough to be a part of finding my replacement. I was lying in bed one night thinking of all the changes that were taking place and I started wondering about who they would get to be the new chorister. I knew they'd been having a difficult time, so I tried thinking of people with knowledge of music. A name popped into my head, and it seemed so perfect. She studied music at SUU (something the presidency probably wouldn't know), and she already knew the program songs because she was a teacher in the primary. I felt like I should tell the president, so I wrote her an email telling her my experience and thoughts. I told her I had full confidence that she would receive the inspiration she needed, but I felt compelled to share. Maybe it would spark a needed train of thought. Or maybe it would just let her know that I didn't want to leave them in a lurch. She emailed me back saying that she loved the idea and that sometimes inspiration comes through other people.

This week I was able to meet with the new chorister and pass along acquired knowledge. She's nervous about it (she's an instrumentalist), but she's excited too. I know she'll do great. I think it was one of Heavenly Father's tender mercies to include me in this process. It has made it easier to let go.

Building Change

Well, we had a very different church meeting today. Thursday the word went out that all our regular meetings  were cancelled and we were to meet combined with the 2nd Ward in the old 7th Ward building at 2:30.

(I just realized that I may not have mentioned on her that last August our Stake realigned some ward boundaries and made two wards out of three. Our previous ward, the 7th, no longer exists.)

I had songs planned for this Sunday, but I was glad I had not yet planned the details for singing time. It was kind of nice to have a break from that. And after our trip yesterday, it was nice to sleep in and not worry about rushing to 9:00 church. We had plenty of time to walk and enjoy the (finally!) pleasant weather. It was also nice to sit with some of our friends in the 2nd ward, and see more friends from the 7th Ward. If you can't tell, I rather enjoyed this Sunday. :)

Well, to get to the point of it all, the building we have been meeting in is deemed unsafe. It is currently the oldest church building in Cedar City, and they didn't put reinforcements in the foundation back then. They haven't had time to figure out what they are going to do about it, but it sounded like they would try to save historical aspects of it, like the stained glass window and organ, even if they do have to tear it down. In the indefinite meantime (at the very least a 1 to 1 1/2 years) they have reassigned buildings to the 2nd and 8th Wards. The 2nd Ward will be going to the building we met in today, and we will be going to the other Cedar Stake Center. I'm rather happy to have a building that will better accommodate our needs (and not fall down on us!), but I am just a smidge disappointed that our ward got assigned to the building we did  because now we won't be able to walk to church. Just when the weather is getting better, too. Oh well.

It is sad for some people to hear the state of the building because it does have so much history, and they have a lot of memories there. I, of course, don't have that big of an attachment to it, but it was the site of one of our wedding receptions and also Jaymon's funeral. Terral attended church there from the time his family moved into their current house until we got married. Before that, he actually went to the building we are now assigned to, but he doesn't really remember it.

So it will be interesting to see how things play out. Next week it's back to worship as usual, only we'll have to figure out our new situation. They left everything in the 2nd & 8th Ward building, and I'm not sure when they will transfer things from closets, etc. So now I'm glad I don't really use the closet resources and have all my own stuff at home. :)

Primary Truths

 Today was my first time back in Primary for about a month. I was not looking forward to planning singing time again, but I did love being back with the kids. I love focusing on the fundamental principles of the gospel and sharing my testimony with them. It really brings home the importance of it all, and helps me realize how I sometimes take my blessings for granted. 

I love working with the other leaders, and I love helping the kids learn songs that can help them for the rest of their lives. Today we sang "Did Jesus Really Live Again?". I was not familiar with this song until I taught it as the song for April last year. I had some special experiences teaching it, and I love it now because of the simple truths it conveys so well. 

He lives. And because He lives again, we will too.

Sunny Snow

Don't have much time to write a post tonight. I've spent all evening getting my singing time plan for March in place and setting things up for a sub on Sunday. Singing Time is kinda hard to do without a voice. This will be my first time having a sub in more than 7 months. And I'm going to be gone the last week in March too. Weird.

So here's a random picture from this morning. It was snowing while the sun was out. It doesn't look quite as impressive in the picture, but it was pretty cool. And it's the second time it's done that in less than a week.

Not exactly the storm we were expecting, but we'll take it.

Vox-less Fox

Yesterday was the first Sunday with our new primary presidency, and I must say I was impressed. They were organized and had such a good energy! And the primary president already knew every child's name. Wow. I still have a handful I don't feel comfortable with.

So primary went quite well. I had been feeling better (remember how we've had some sickness around here?) but I still wasn't tip top. Terral and Ethan stayed home to try to get better faster and avoid spreading the "fun". Well, I stayed after church to go to choir, and apparently that was a big mistake. After two rounds of singing time, my voice was starting to sound just a bit raspy, so I decided I would take it easy and not sing the high notes in choir. I even switched to alto the second half. By the end of choir, it was pretty obvious my voice needed some rest. Okay, point taken. I decided not to go to stake choir that evening. Well, all evening my voice got worse. And then I had a horrible coughing fit. Like, I-almost-threw-up kind of coughing. I foresaw vocal rest in my immediate future. I just didn't foresee quite so much.

When I woke up this morning, I had only the barest sliver of a voice left. A short conversation with father of a boy I babysit, and it was gone. Whenever I open my mouth, only a whisper comes out. It's the strangest thing. I'll go without talking for a while, and then I try to say something and it completely surprises me. It doesn't hurt, but I know it's not good. I'm kind of worried. Having a hoarse voice has been a rare occurrence for me (thankfully). I've never lost it so bad before. I'm hoping there is no permanent damage from this.

So, if you happen to find my voice as you're going about your day-to-day activities, will you tell it I miss it something fierce and would it please come home? I'd be awfully appreciative.

Choose the Right

We didn't sleep very well last night (Ethan kept crying in his sleep), and what with us being sleepy-heads and the blizzard-like conditions we woke up to, we were late to church. . . again. I found out during primary that I had missed a rather important announcement in Sacrament Meeting. We have a new primary presidency! For now I'm just supposed to continue business as usual, but it will be interesting to see if/what changes they make.  I'm a little bit sad because I felt like things were starting to really work well with the old presidency, but I'm excited for the change too.

Anyway, I've obviously got primary on the brain, so I thought I'd share what we did for Singing Time today.

I've been hanging on to the peek-a-boo game I made for Ethan's birthday party. The theme for primary this year is Choose The Right, and I just knew I could implement it in some sort of activity. On Saturday, I finally figured it out.

We are learning the hymn Choose the Right this month, and I decided to work on the third verse this week. After we did our Article of Faith song and I introduced the wiggle worm jar that I just made, I brought out my cardboard contraption. I had the kids put on their listening ears (they just cup their ears), and I sang the first phrase for them, and then we all sang it together.

Choose the right! There is peace in righteous doing.

Then I picked someone to come up and open up the first two trap doors and we all decided together which choice would bring peace. The first picture shows some kids cheating, and the second one is supposed to be a boy studying.

Choose the right! There's safety for the soul.

The kids were pretty quick to decide that eating a carrot was much safer than smoking a cigarette. 

Choose the right in all labors you're pursuing; Let God and heaven be your goal.

With this one we talked about how money in itself isn't bad, but if we are talking about what you want most in life—your ultimate goals—heaven should be at the top of the list.

After each choice was made, we closed the bad choices and were left with this to remind us as we reviewed the verse. (They learned the chorus last week.)

And here's a picture of the whole thing just in case you wanted to see it.

For the pictures, I just found free clip art online, zoomed in on it till it was the size I wanted, held a blank piece of paper up to the screen, and traced it with a pencil. Then I went over them all with a sharpie. That way I didn't use any expensive printer ink and I didn't have to worry about sizing the clip art or making sure it didn't go all pixelated on me.

The kids had fun with it, and I did too. It wasn't difficult to make at all, but it did take some time, so I wish I knew of someone nearby who would want to use it. Seems a shame to just throw it away. At least the cardboard was used multiple times!