It's been almost a year into my calling as first counselor in our ward's Young Women presidency, and as much as I've complained in the past about some of my callings, I want to go on the record as being extremely grateful for some as well.
I came into the calling all wrong. I thought I knew what was best for my girls (and to my credit, I was right), but entering a calling where the other members have already been working together for a year, I should have laid low in the beginning. I had it out with my president a couple of times (it wasn't me saying anything--she was just mean to me and rather rude), and I realized that I needed to change my attitude. I prayed that things would get better and that I would know how to sustain her, and everything changed after that. And I admit that she was working on loving me just as much as I was working on loving her. It just took some time, but now we are dear friends, and we appreciate what we are both able to do.
It didn't take long for the girls to see that I could still be "hip with the kids" as Glo always labels me. I'm funny, and fun, and I know a lot of pop-culture references, and I would much rather be playing with the girls than standing on the side, talking to the adults. And I'm probably more irreverent than the other leaders. Who am I kidding? "More?" I AM more irreverent than the other leaders. Just this last Wednesday, when there were no other leaders in opening exercises in the chapel (ten minutes after we were supposed to start), and none of the YM had shown up, and one of our girls was playing through the hymnbook and stumbled across "Called to Serve" and asked them if they appreciate that that hymn sounds like it was made for a baseball stadium organ. They weren't sure what I meant and they asked me to show them. So with the YW playing it on the piano, and me playing it with all stops open on the organ, we played it together. One of the other YW hopped up to lead us, and we busted out singing it. Yes, this was in the chapel. You should have seen the bishopric member in charge of the youth (I've never seen him at an activity) walk quickly into the chapel, looking for the switch to turn off the microphone because evidently, we were broadcasting across the church building. Hmmmm, I guess that's karma for you when you don't ever come to YW activities ;-) But the girls loved it. In fact, they asked to do it again....which we, OF COURSE, did.
And I had asked to throw a Celebration of the Egg party for the Young Women, so after dyeing eggs, we headed out to the back of the church and tossed raw eggs, and dropped them as well from a ladder. When we were done, they wanted to do it all again. Uh, YES! And when one of the young women realized that her egg toss partner wasn't particularly coordinated, and it was obvious that she wanted to WIN, she ran up to me, asking me to be her partner. It was awkward, leaving my own partner (we had just won the round before), giving her my winning partner, but I then paired up with the uncoordinated young woman...and she dropped the egg in the first round. But hey, she wanted ME!
That night, I received a text from our president saying, "I hope you know how much our girls love you." This is a meaningful text, coming from her, because she's been a bit threatened by me and my ability to relate to the girls from the beginning. But I think she's started to see it as something good; as my one little contribution to our presidency (they all know now that I am NOT the go-to craft or cooking person) ;-)
And in a strange turn of events, our young women's secretary asked to be released two months ago. She's got a lot going on her in her life, and she just didn't think she could do it all. Our president submitted several names, but the bishopric said "no", and when the bishopric suggested a name (yes, it's one of those names), Rachel just couldn't say "yes". So I told Rachel that Stacy and I could cover the responsibilities of the secretary until someone else came along.
So for the past two months, I've been creating the weekly newsletter and keeping things organized on the ward website and on the ward calendar. Our dear secretary before (who is also a dear friend) was almost illiterate, or that's how it seemed when she would send out any text or email. It would take me a long while to figure out exactly what she was writing because the spelling was so bad, and there was no punctuation or capitalization (even in an email). I wasn't always sure that parents even knew exactly what was happening, because it took so much effort to decipher anything she wrote. Knowing what kind of information I always wished I had when my girls were in YW about upcoming activities, I created a newsletter that I would like to see.
And it has taken off. In fact, last week's newsletter was nine pages long! People are now sending me all kinds of things to put in it. Rachel absolutely adores me for what I create and send out. And I won't lie--it's a calling I've always wanted but never been given ;-) I probably spend too many hours creating the next newsletter each Sunday night/Monday morning, but it's really just so much fun.
This best part though is that we have parents now responding to questions, and girls knowing what is going on each week (which allows them to fulfill their own presidency callings better), and girls are reading it. In fact, this past Wednesday, two of the young women told me (and thanked me) for sending out the newsletters. One of them said that on Monday, she keeps refreshing her Inbox, hoping for the latest edition. Isn't that so fun?
And today, I was asked to send out an announcement about Girls' Camp, but instead of just typing out the announcement, I kept it in line with what catches people's eyes and sent out this:
The best part is that I had asked one of the young women (who was taking a million pictures at Girls' Camp last year) if she could send me a couple for the flyer. However, I remembered the awesome boats (compliments of Mark and Allison) that the youth had built at Youth Conference, so I cropped one of those HILARIOUS photos for the flyer!
Last night while working at the temple (in the sweaty, humid, back-breaking baptistry, no less), Brother Castro (my male counterpart) asked how I felt being an "empty nester". I kid you not, with the young women in my back pocket, it doesn't feel near as lonely as I imagine it could :-)
I came into the calling all wrong. I thought I knew what was best for my girls (and to my credit, I was right), but entering a calling where the other members have already been working together for a year, I should have laid low in the beginning. I had it out with my president a couple of times (it wasn't me saying anything--she was just mean to me and rather rude), and I realized that I needed to change my attitude. I prayed that things would get better and that I would know how to sustain her, and everything changed after that. And I admit that she was working on loving me just as much as I was working on loving her. It just took some time, but now we are dear friends, and we appreciate what we are both able to do.
It didn't take long for the girls to see that I could still be "hip with the kids" as Glo always labels me. I'm funny, and fun, and I know a lot of pop-culture references, and I would much rather be playing with the girls than standing on the side, talking to the adults. And I'm probably more irreverent than the other leaders. Who am I kidding? "More?" I AM more irreverent than the other leaders. Just this last Wednesday, when there were no other leaders in opening exercises in the chapel (ten minutes after we were supposed to start), and none of the YM had shown up, and one of our girls was playing through the hymnbook and stumbled across "Called to Serve" and asked them if they appreciate that that hymn sounds like it was made for a baseball stadium organ. They weren't sure what I meant and they asked me to show them. So with the YW playing it on the piano, and me playing it with all stops open on the organ, we played it together. One of the other YW hopped up to lead us, and we busted out singing it. Yes, this was in the chapel. You should have seen the bishopric member in charge of the youth (I've never seen him at an activity) walk quickly into the chapel, looking for the switch to turn off the microphone because evidently, we were broadcasting across the church building. Hmmmm, I guess that's karma for you when you don't ever come to YW activities ;-) But the girls loved it. In fact, they asked to do it again....which we, OF COURSE, did.
And I had asked to throw a Celebration of the Egg party for the Young Women, so after dyeing eggs, we headed out to the back of the church and tossed raw eggs, and dropped them as well from a ladder. When we were done, they wanted to do it all again. Uh, YES! And when one of the young women realized that her egg toss partner wasn't particularly coordinated, and it was obvious that she wanted to WIN, she ran up to me, asking me to be her partner. It was awkward, leaving my own partner (we had just won the round before), giving her my winning partner, but I then paired up with the uncoordinated young woman...and she dropped the egg in the first round. But hey, she wanted ME!
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| Our Mia Maid advisor (Hilary Edwards) and I won the first round! She says it's because we have boobs to soften the blow. I would agree. #DreamTeamInEverything |
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| Rachel and Stacy won the second round. Evidently, we WOMEN have something going for us ;-) |
And in a strange turn of events, our young women's secretary asked to be released two months ago. She's got a lot going on her in her life, and she just didn't think she could do it all. Our president submitted several names, but the bishopric said "no", and when the bishopric suggested a name (yes, it's one of those names), Rachel just couldn't say "yes". So I told Rachel that Stacy and I could cover the responsibilities of the secretary until someone else came along.
So for the past two months, I've been creating the weekly newsletter and keeping things organized on the ward website and on the ward calendar. Our dear secretary before (who is also a dear friend) was almost illiterate, or that's how it seemed when she would send out any text or email. It would take me a long while to figure out exactly what she was writing because the spelling was so bad, and there was no punctuation or capitalization (even in an email). I wasn't always sure that parents even knew exactly what was happening, because it took so much effort to decipher anything she wrote. Knowing what kind of information I always wished I had when my girls were in YW about upcoming activities, I created a newsletter that I would like to see.
And it has taken off. In fact, last week's newsletter was nine pages long! People are now sending me all kinds of things to put in it. Rachel absolutely adores me for what I create and send out. And I won't lie--it's a calling I've always wanted but never been given ;-) I probably spend too many hours creating the next newsletter each Sunday night/Monday morning, but it's really just so much fun.
 |
| This is just Page One of Nine ;-) |
This best part though is that we have parents now responding to questions, and girls knowing what is going on each week (which allows them to fulfill their own presidency callings better), and girls are reading it. In fact, this past Wednesday, two of the young women told me (and thanked me) for sending out the newsletters. One of them said that on Monday, she keeps refreshing her Inbox, hoping for the latest edition. Isn't that so fun?
And today, I was asked to send out an announcement about Girls' Camp, but instead of just typing out the announcement, I kept it in line with what catches people's eyes and sent out this:
The best part is that I had asked one of the young women (who was taking a million pictures at Girls' Camp last year) if she could send me a couple for the flyer. However, I remembered the awesome boats (compliments of Mark and Allison) that the youth had built at Youth Conference, so I cropped one of those HILARIOUS photos for the flyer!
Last night while working at the temple (in the sweaty, humid, back-breaking baptistry, no less), Brother Castro (my male counterpart) asked how I felt being an "empty nester". I kid you not, with the young women in my back pocket, it doesn't feel near as lonely as I imagine it could :-)
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