I have waited a week to write this because I wanted to soak up the feelings and make sure I wasn't just imagining what I was feeling last week.
We moved out of our old ward. It is very sad to leave a ward where you love the people, and you know they love you too. I was the RS president and felt a deep love for all the sisters there. Leaving was painful. At the same time, we felt very good about leaving. We felt the timing was right. In fact, I was super excited to attend our new ward.
The last Sunday in our old ward was the first Sunday in our new ward. So I will tell you about that wonderful Sunday. I hadn't been 2 church in 3 weeks. I had worked the Sunday before and the Sunday after General Conference. That meant that I hadn't taken the Sacrament in 4 weeks. I was looking forward to getting myself right with the Lord. When we got to our old ward building, we were met by our best friend in the ward. We practiced with the ward choir. Every time I saw a sister, I had a sweet feeling of love, and I was able to go up to her and tell her how much I loved her and that I would miss her. Lots of hugs and laughter. It was a wonderful good bye. The choir got to sing 2 songs, and we did great. Paul did a great job with the choir. He turned us groups of non-singers into a handsome chorus.
We said our final good-byes and drove up to our new ward. We were 30 minutes late, but it was the primary program, and we had already taken the Sacrament. We had to sit in the very last row. A sister sitting next to Paul chatted a little bit with him, asking if he was a visiting grandparent of one of the grandkids. The kids did great, and I leaned over to Paul at one point and said, "I feel at home." There were a ton of visitors. There were so many visitors that no one really paid much attention to us. We were off to Sunday school. A woman came up to me and said that she was a member of the years for 30+ years and that she felt like she should know me. She said her name was "JoAnn Roberts." I thought I had misunderstood and asked her to repeat it. I couldn't believe that the first (and only) person to introduce themself to me would have my mother's name. I believe it was a tender mercy from the Lord. (I would have to explain that in another blog.)
Priesthood and Relief Society were combined because a missionary couple who had just returned from Kosovo were going to give their report. That was another reason for so many visitors. It was FABULOUS. It made me want to serve a mission. I wanted to hear more about their mission than they were able to talk about in that 3 hour. In fact, I think the church should maybe consider using the 3rd hour for missionary reports. But, alas, who am I? After church, we met up with a counselor in the bishopric to get our records transferred. It took all of 6 seconds. There was a little bit of finality in that. It feels so good and so fresh for me. I love it.
After church we then went over to the Spanish branch. They were having their primary program too. It was so wonderful to hear those little children sing. Our granddaughter gave a little talk about Joseph Smith. She did a great job. But the most stunning part of the program was when they sang Love One Another. They sang the first verse, then for the second verse, they were silent and just signed the whole second verse. Many people cried. It was quite emotional.
All in all, it was one of my very favorite Sundays ever. I couldn't wait to come back to church this week. I am home again.
