My day at church.

I was called to the nursery in June 2006 and released from that at the end of the year so that I could teach the CTR 5's. I was in that calling until this past October when they released me, soon after having Brynlie. Since then I have not been able to sit all the way through a full day's meetings without Brynlie distracting me or making me get up and take her out. I feel like a lot of the time I am only there to wait for Kylie and Sadie to finish their classes. Sunday mornings always seem like chaos, no matter how much I do to prepare the night before. This morning was no different, and it didn't help that I had slept in. At the last minute I decided that I really needed to lose those 5 lbs I've been mentioning before wearing the shirt I had on. So I told Jared to go on ahead as I hurried to iron another shirt. He took Sadie and I followed behind a few minutes later with Kylie and Brynlie. When I got to church I immediately knew this was not going to be a good day. People were parking on the streets in the surrounding neighborhood because there were no available spots in the lot. Our lot is normally packed and requires some to park out on the streets, but the recent ABUNDANCE of snow was plowed taking dozens of spots with it. I finally gave up and dropped Kylie off before parking down the road and hiking in through the slushy streets. Today was ward conference and the Bishop and a counselor in the stake presidency spoke, both giving excellent talks about "murmuring" and things of that nature. Sadie sat with her cousins giving me a chance to actually listen to their talks today. The day was definitely getting better. Sunday School was also a good lesson, and I made it through the full class without needing to take Brynlie out. Relief Society and Priesthood were combined for the conclusion of ward conference, and this is why I blog tonight. They began by handing out the pamphlets about food storage and personal finances and the President began discussing the importance of both. Brynlie began to get really fussy and I had to take her out. I felt strongly that I should be in class and even though she hadn't fallen asleep I returned to class after several minutes of calming her down. I missed him talking about food storage and joined as he was finishing up on the part of personal finances. Jared loved the lesson on food storage (of course. :) He always loves talking food storage.) and said he was interested in the new emphasis on having a 3 months supply of food we regulary eat. I caught the end of the lesson on finances as he was discussing how no matter how deep in trouble we are financially we can still get out. He said that we need money in savings, and that we can't count our available credit on our credit cards as savings. He also said something that hit home with me. He said that the most important thing that we could do is to go home and discuss our finances with our spouses. He then asked for a raise of hands of those willing to do this! This is a problem in our house. Since I work for the credit union where our accounts are I see all of the balances and what goes on, but Jared does not. He is always questioning where our money has gone and I'm always immediately defensive, feeling he is blaming me. I see how we are wasting money, but Jared doesn't see it until he finally presses me and presses me and I tell him how much we DON'T have and then we fight. This is my fault because I need to be more open with him. He stresses easily so sometimes (okay, most of the time) I find it easier to just avoid the subject of money. Anyway, we finally had a good money talk earlier this week and vowed that in today's uncertain economy we needed to make some changes to help assure our financial well being in the future. I can't tell you how happy I was that we had had that talk BEFORE today's lesson. It made it much more comfortable sitting there knowing that we had already put this principle into motion. The next part of the lesson was given by President Murphy, who is actually in our ward. I could immediately tell that he was nervous. His lesson was wonderful. I find that in our church some subjects are uncomfortable and tend to only be very "lightly" address, leaving many gray areas for members to interpret. And let's face it, sometimes we need to be told in much bolder words. For those of you that aren't interested in some of the uncomfortable things he had to say you are welcome to skip on ahead to the next blog, my feeling won't be hurt. :) This blog is my journal, and I want to write down the things I heard today. Tawnie and Jamey, since you were gone, here's your recap! You missed a good one! He gave counsel on a few various topics that the presidency felt we needed to hear. I can't remember all, especially the beginning when Brynlie was a bit fussy, but here are a couple of highlights. He mentioned the Relief Society's use of the "good news" minute that they have at the beginning each week where anyone with good news can share. He said it is great, but to be sensitive to others situations and to not come across as prideful. He also talked about relations between a husband and wife. He said that more and more spouses are pushing the limits in these relationships and asking each other to do things that are not natural and causing things to happen that are not respectful to each other, and that can lead to a loss of temple recommends. He touched briefly on staying away from pornography, which leads to thinking that the things seen are normal and not a perversion of what is sacred. And this is where he got really brave. He talked about the "sex parties" that have become quite popular lately. These are parties that sell items of an "adult nature" for women. I'm sure he brought this up because the local news did a big piece on them recently, mentioning how popular they are here, and interviewing several LDS women that host them or attend them. (Yes, the news made sure to mention their religious beliefs. I hate that. Just because they are doing something and are LDS doesn't mean that the church agrees with it.) He said that these "slumber parties" have inappropriate dialog and lead to discussion about things that are personal and shouldn't be discussed, and that the things that they sell lead to inappropriate behavior. I won't go into as much detail as he did... Anyway, President Murphy then talked about the way we dress. He made a couple of very specific points. He said that at church, flip flops are not okay. Ironically, we had a lesson a couple of years ago in RS that hit on that and no one could agree. It's nice to have someone spell it out for us. He said that we also need to dress better when attending the temple. Men should be in long sleeves, and women should be wearing "hose". Funny thing...last year Meagan and I couldn't decided if it was okay to not wear nylons to the temple for Annie's sealing. No one had told us either way, and we really didn't want to. One of us decided to wear them, one of us didn't. Guess which one of us felt guilty sitting in class hearing that? :) I am happy to now have an official answer to that question! I know that the lesson was not the easiest for President Murphy to give, but I really do appreciate him being in tune enough with the spirit to say the things that we needed to hear. My only request is that next time they have a lesson about how it is the priesthood holders responsibility to take the garbage out. Tawnie and Jamey....can you agree with me on this one?