Hi Jo,
I’m trying to think of what happened this month and can’t really think of much. That’s pretty sad. It seems like it has been an eventful month. I will just start mentioning the few things I do remember and hopefully more things will come to mind.
The month began with General Conference. I love to watch conference and listen to all the messages. I don’t usually have a favorite talk at the time of conference, and this time was no different. Perhaps after I have listened to them several times I will have a favorite. I love to bask in the simplicity of the Gospel. I thought it was interesting that both Andrew and I went into it hoping to get some inspiration about his job. He doesn’t have one still. The one we thought he was going to get he ended up not being offered. We are being blessed immeasurably by the Lord in the meantime, but we know that we need to have a job in order for things to keep working and we want to be self-sustaining. So as we watched conference I found it interesting to see that we both came away with something very different. He came away with the strong impression that he needed to help care for the poor and the needy. This is really odd to me since we could be considered the poor and the needy right now. I came away with knowing that the Lord would take care of us and that He knows our need. I don’t know what will happen, he continues to look for a job, but I know that we will be successful somehow because the Lord wants us to be just that. When we do all we can (and I feel we are) then He will bestow blessings on us that we need and desire in righteousness. I’m so thankful for the Lord’s mercy in our times of trial. I hope you had the opportunity to watch conference. If not, please take time to read it, listen to it or even watch the archived videos. You can access all three forms on the church’s website. If you get the Ensign, then it will be in the May Ensign as always. I like to listen to the MP3’s while doing other things, like getting ready for the day or working in the kitchen making dinner and such.
The second Sunday was our special Stake Conference where we received a new stake presidency. It was inspiring to hear the story of how these calls were made. Two men who barely knew each other and neither of which had ever been to Kalamazoo before flew in on Friday. On Saturday morning they began interviewing a list of about 30 men. Of those one was selected independently by the two conducting the interviews as to whom should serve as the new president of the stake. They both picked the same man. They called him back and extended the call. They gave him a list of 30 men to choose from for counselors and told him he had 30 minutes to make his decision. When he came back he had picked the two men that both of the interviewers had felt, again independent of the other, should be the counselors. The calls were then extended to those two brothers. Both the old and the new presidencies went out to dinner together on Saturday night. What an amazing process. Our new stake president is Mark Witt, the 1st counselor is Mark Montross (yes, our current branch president), and the 2nd counselor is David Decker. I was so surprised that they called Pres. Montross to the new presidency. I thought our branch was too small to take someone from. Obviously I was wrong.
As a result of Pres. Montross now being in the new stake presidency we will have a new branch president called. Due to many circumstances we will be having this done on May 29th, Memorial Day weekend. While I don’t know who will be called I look forward to seeing the change occur. It is a thrilling experience. It will be sad to see those who have served so diligently be released as it always is, but I know that the Lord will sustain the new leaders just as he did the old. If you are able to make it, I would love to see you there. If not, I will let you know who has been called afterwards. I will probably just send my letter a little late so that you can know as soon as possible who they are. I will send it out on Monday, but of course the mail won’t be delivered or picked up that day so it’ll probably be Wednesday before you get it.
On the 16th the youth had their temple trip to the Detroit temple. I hate getting up so early, but it’s worth it to be in the temple. We have such an amazing group of youth. I think it was a deeply spiritual experience for several of our YM and YW. I’m so grateful to serve with them. I had hoped to take a nap when I got home (I got up at 3:45am) but found out I had a meeting in Kalamazoo in only two hours. So I laid down for a while without sleeping and then got up and went to my meeting. I was glad I could go because it was a wonderful meeting and I needed to hear what was said. It was about girl’s camp and how to make it a good experience for the girls.
I have rededicated myself to the difficult task of losing weight. So far so good I guess. I have lost an average of 2 lbs. a week. I have a goal I would like to reach by girl’s camp so we’ll see what happens. I need to actually lose 3 lbs. a week to meet the goal. Still, anything is better than nothing. I feel very confident though and have already lost an inch around my waist.
I started classes again. They are an odd combination. My first class is learning how to teach grammar to children. The textbook is so boring that it’s difficult to even read without falling asleep so we are rewriting sections of it for the biggest part of the class. Not exactly easy or fun. My second class is much more enjoyable as it’s about children’s literature and drama. For about half of the class we will go to an elementary school and work with 1st and 2nd graders to do a dramatic poetry interpretation. My third class won’t begin until May 12th and it will be sociology. I don’t know how that will go, but it’s online.
We are trying to work on emergency preparedness a lot right now. We feel a sense of urgency about it. We also got the chickens outside finally. The room was so gross and dirty it took Andrew 8 hours to clean it. I was glad he did it and I didn’t have to because it smelled so awful in there I don’t think I could have done it without throwing up. I could hardly stand to walk by the door and would often gag in doing so. They are enjoying their home outside, except during the storms of course and I don’t really blame them. They do have a form of shelter, but not much right now. They are still too small to put with the big chickens so they don’t have access to the barn.
I’m so excited that spring seems to have finally come. It happened overnight I think. On Sunday I remember looking outside wishing there were buds on the trees and not seeing any. Yesterday I saw a little green and today (Wednesday) there is so much green it’s unbelievable. I’m glad to see it though. The part I don’t like is my dog is getting all messy and I have to keep giving her baths. Oh well. It’s worth it to have spring.
Yesterday I heard the tornado sirens for a few minutes, but thankfully it ended within five minutes so I didn’t bother going downstairs.
Andrew had his birthday on the 12th. It was a nice quiet day. We had homemade Panda Express orange chicken. Just typing that makes me want to have it again. That is some yummy food.
Easter was on the 24th and that was also quiet. Megan is 13, so we don’t do much of the traditional fare. The day before we had gone to a baptism down at the church and we did hide and find eggs at Megan’s insistence. She hid them and we still haven’t found them all. She decided to hide them extra hard so we couldn’t find them easy, sadly she did it too hard and didn’t keep a record of where she put them. I suppose that’s pretty much what happens every year. I remember once I found an egg 10 months after Easter. At least they are empty plastic eggs so there is nothing going bad.
Last Friday our main computer crashed, so we are limping along while Andrew tries to get us up and going again. He is really good with that stuff. I will be glad when he is done because so much of what we both do is on the computer from school work to church and keeping in touch with family and friends back home.
This Saturday is the “Fiesta for a cure”. Relay for Life is getting so close. I’m glad it will be over before girl’s camp, but I wish I had more than a day to recover before leaving for girl’s camp. That should be interesting.
Well I guess that’s about it. I knew it had been a busy month.
