When we first moved into our ward and had our first meeting with the bishopric I was asked a question that no one had ever asked me before--"What calling do you NOT want to have?" At the time I was constantly wrestling my children at church each week. I had two in nursery who never wanted to attend and my oldest was finally content in Primary and I didn't want to disrupt that, so I responded, "I need to not be in the same place as my kids on Sunday." And our bishopric respected that. (A few weeks later I kind of wished I had responded differently to that question when I was called to be Ward Activities Chairman. . .but I digress.)
I have nothing against Primary. I have had several other Primary callings in the past and have very much enjoyed it, I just felt that it was initially not for me in this ward. But things change. I have had the opportunity to substitute in the primary twice in the last month and I started to realize that I could really make a contribution there. In fact as I sat in Primary last Sunday I had a strong impression that I was ready to give it a try again. Our current primary president had been serving for three years and with the program now out of the way everyone was pretty certain she would be released.
I have been in an instructor in the Relief Society for over two years and although I have loved it, I've kind of been feeling lately like I had nothing new to say. I was kind of expecting a change soon and was not at all surprised when the ward executive secretary called me yesterday and said the bishop wanted to meet with me. It was my week to teach so I got nostalgic thinking about this being my last week in Relief Society and I even started to plan out what I would say about leaving.
Well, "shock" is the only word that can describe how I felt when the bishop asked if I would be willing to be the Enrichment Counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. I had to suppress the urge to say, "Umm...don't you mean Primary Presidency?"
But I had walked in there ready to say "yes" to whatever was extended to me so that's what I did. Turns out the previous Enrichment Counselor was called to be Primary president. So I wasn't totally wrong in my impressions that I would be somehow be involved in the leadership change in our primary. But this came totally out of left field.
My mind has been spinning ever since.
I don't know anything about enrichment. I'm not very good at being crafty and I have real aversions to things that are overly "special." I have to go to lots of meetings now and visit people and be a real grown up. AND to top it all off, I'm not even completely free from the whole teaching gig!
It never pays to try to second guess the Lord or your leaders. You just never know what's going to happen next.
8 comments:
Sarah - This is one of my most favorite callings. I have had it twice and LOVED it. You will be great. Call me if you need any help! I am sooo excited for you.
I know firsthand that the RS president is rather averse to "craftsy" and "special." You're seriously the perfect person for the job.
Who could have predicted, nearly 30 years ago at your 5th b-day party, that some day we'd be serving in a RS presidency together?! Trippy, that.
The only bad part in all this is that I have to find ANOTHER instructor to replace you. Not an easy task--you were dang awesome. ARGH!
I am on the enrichment committee right now and it has been the most challenging calling I've had (nursery wasn't this hard) just because it stretches me in areas that are not my strengths (I don't really care if the tables have centerpieces or not). I think we'll both learn a lot.
I loved reading your blog! And I totally understand how it feels to read the signals wrong and go in to meet with the bishopric and say yes to a COMPLETELY different calling than what I had expected.
I also enjoyed your comment about how your children are not allowed to touch anyone else, ever again. I think I may start using that one!
My congrolences... That calling was the best of times and the worst of times for me, but I sure grew a lot. Best of luck to you!
Whenever I get a new calling, I can say to myself, "At least it's not early morning seminary again." Right now, I'm just playing the piano in primary. I hope that they forget about me for a while.
Yeah, that is one that I'd never had any pull toward--not because I have anything against it but it isn't one of my strengths. But I heard a member of the RS General Board say that relief society is where you learn the principles and enrichment is where you apply them. Now THAT sounded cool and very intriguing.
Wow! Good luck with that...I'm sure you were wondering what to do with all of your extra time:)
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