Something new for me to wear

Don't laugh, but this is the first pair of dressy slacks I've owned in about six years.  My weight has fluctuated and I prefer skirts, so I just haven't had a pair of slacks.

Now I have something to wear on those "wear slacks to Church" Sundays, right? ;-)

I was the music conductor in Church today!

In LDS Church sacrament meetings in the United States we typically sing in four-part harmony, accompanied by an organ and led by a music conductor.  Our usual conductor is out of town for a couple of weeks and he asked me to be his substitute.

I used to have this calling--to lead the music every Sunday in church and I shouldn't have been nervous, but I was.

source

The opening song went fine, then came the sacrament song.  It was in 2/2 (not my favorite meter) and slow.  In addition it had a bunch of fermatas, which were awkward.  I got through it and was grateful the priests finished breaking the sacrament bread quickly so I didn't have to into the extra verses.  The closing song was short and zippy, so things closed well.

Next week:  I get to lead my favorite sacrament hymn.  Come visit my ward meeting next Sunday to see what it is. :-)

One of my best Easters ever

From a letter to my LDS women's group:

We had a great day. My son's wife just arrived from Idaho with her father and a truck with all their belongings (not dad's--he goes back to Idaho on Tuesday), so we had them over for dinner. In addition, dh's niece moved here a few months ago, so she got an invitation as well. We didn't do a traditional ham, but had a big pan of homemade macaroni and cheese, asparagus, salad, and rolls, with carrot cake for dessert.

Dh and I love living in Tucson and our only regret is that we live so far from our other family members. Other than my mom who lives with us, the nearest family has been in Los Angeles, 8 hours away, then Idaho and Florida. So far away. Then! Dh wanted to hire his niece to work for him and it was a good time for her to leave Pocatello, Idaho and move here. Then! David and Alicia got tired of fighting Jerome, Idaho weather and decided to move here. I don't know who else might move here, but just having those three young adults living in town has made me so happy. Being able to have family over for dinner has been a dream of mine for years and finally I'm able to do it.

My brother and his fiancee from Florida also came for a short weekend visit and I was surprised to find out she is his fiancee now and not his girlfriend only. There is no date, but there is a fabulous engagement ring.

Sacrament meeting was one of my all-time Top Five sacrament meetings. Since our ward was recently split, we haven't had a choir, so I was surprised to see folks sitting in the choir loft when I came in. It turns out we imported the ward choir from the other ward in our old building to perform for us. In addition to our own Primary children, the choir sang 2 pieces, the choir women sang another, a quartet sang, and 2 soloists sang. One soloist sang an unfamiliar piece called (I think) "Were You There?" that nearly brought me to tears. There were three short talks about Christ and the atonement interspersed with the music.

In the early evening we had an egg hunt outside for the girls. It was one of my best Easters ever.

 

A neat visit to another LDS Church meeting

In my area we have three large church congregations (called wards) and six small congregations (called branches). Because the members in the branches get tired of hearing the same people speak in church over and over, once a month the speaker is a guest from one of the wards. Today dh spoke in a small branch about 23 miles from here and the girls and I decided to go with him.

The church building in this town burned down about three years ago and had to be replaced from the ground up. I had heard the new church building was a double wide trailer and wondered what that would look like. It was beautiful! It may have come in on two trucks, but it was manufactured to be an LDS Church. It looked nothing like a "home trailer." I think it was two sections 16' x 80' each, so the square footage was about 2,580 square feet. One end had a small chapel with 48 chairs for the congregation and about 10 in front for the branch presidency, etc. I was impressed with the excellent organist until I saw her put both her hands up briefly during the song. She wasn't playing! It was some kind of electronic organ with a small screen that was used to select the hymn, then it played automatically OR it could be played manually. I've never seen such a thing before. Down one side of the building there were several small classrooms and on the other was a small lobby and offices and bathrooms. It was such a pretty, functional building that I'm sure the local church members there are very proud of their church.

We had obligations back in our town so we couldn't stay past the end of sacrament meeting, but we would have enjoyed staying and visiting. I think they were disappointed we couldn't stay because we increased their attendance by about 25%. :-)