Not So New News

Brent has been made Elder's Quorum President. Goody goody. It will mean a lot of hours and time away from us, but it will be a good thing. He likes to quip that callings are given for two reasons: because the individual would be good in the calling, or because the individual needs to grow into a calling. He claims to be the latter. "Now I have to care about people." is what he said after receiving the call. So now that he's the EQP, do I have to be better at my visiting teaching because I'll be under scrutiny by association?

I have also received a new call. I am now the Primary Chorister. This will also be a lot of hours in preparation and planning, but it will be fun. In addition to teaching the children the primary songs, I hope to teach them a little bit about music. I want to teach a few basics about rhythm and reading rhythm. I also want to teach them to follow a conductor and how to lead a song themselves. The youth of our ward have no idea how to lead a hymn, so I thought I'd give the senior primary a head start in learning how to beat basic patterns. This will require careful planning, as I want to teach these concepts in a way that is both engaging and spiritual. It is church, after all, not a private music studio, and I'll have to watch myself to keep that focus.

I have been promised that I'll be released as the choir director, but I have no idea when that will happen as the bishopric is having a hard time finding a replacement for me. The one person who has the ability and hasn't done it before refused the calling. So I'll be doing both jobs for a while.

This has been challenging the last few weeks, because I have to take the baby with me to choir practice as Brent is in P.E.C. at the same time. I also need to have her in primary with me because Brent can't have her in E.Q. anymore. I usually have our friend Stacey Egan take Jenny to Relief Society, so that helps. Jenny misses her morning nap due to our block schedule, so she is especially tired and fussy, and that makes everything that much harder. Sundays are busy and hard days for us. However, we believe in consecrating out talents for the building up of the kingdom, so hopefully that's what we're doing.