Beneath the Wraps

            In the Church of Jesus Christ there is a meeting in which members of the congregation are encouraged to make their way to the stand to bear their testimonies.   This meeting takes place once a month – usually the first Sunday of each month.   General Conference also falls on the first Sunday of the month and so testimony meeting gets moved to either the last week of the month prior or to the second week (depending on the ward or stake).   In the South Umpqua ward we have held testimony meeting the week prior – except this year. On March 26 we had stake conference – which is a geographical boundary made of up several wards April 1 and 2 was General Conference (which is when the meetings are broadcast world wide) April 9 Easter program Thus our testimony meeting was not until the 16 th of this month.            I recall sitting through a many of sacrament meetings as a you...

  Today is stake conference. There are several who are eager to go to the Church to attend in-person meetings that haven’t been an option for many.   In October they had encouraged it.   “Attend where you can but a zoom option will be available for those not comfortable to meet in person” My desire to zoom vs. meeting in person has nothing to do with the pandemic or fear.   I don’t like crowds nor do I appreciate sitting in the back rafters.   For as much as I normally get out of in-person attendance, I might as well be in another building.   I am surprised there is still that option.   Thus far I haven’t been in awe as I was with the last meeting – wishing that it could have been recorded just as general conference so that I could/can rewatch some of it.   I am grateful that I am able to review the general conference meetings.   Have been reading posts left on the "Come Follow Me" facebook page and continue to be grateful for those who p...

  Before moving to Oregon, the last ward (church boundary) I had attended was in West Valley.   As I think about it there were always activities – primary activities on both ward and stake levels, youth activities, adult activities, family activities, holidays such as Halloween, Easter, and 4 th of July breakfast.            There have been youth activities and dances on both ward and stake level – no primary activities that I recall – and I was in primary FOREVER thus you would think I would have noticed.   My last ward is the only ward I had been in where I hadn ’ t served in the primary for the duration.          I miss introducing others through said activities.   In this ward we have some activities and LOTS of meetings – mostly on a stake level.   Each meeting I have attended has been less motivating than the one before.   I don ’ t think I ’ ll be attending ...

           Once a month, the church holds a sacrament meeting known as “fast and testimony meeting”.   This meeting is normally held at the first Sunday of the month.   The exceptions are just prior to or after General Conference.   Conferences take place the first weekend in April and October.   The ward I reside in has always done the testimony meeting the last Sunday in March and September.   This gives members of the congregation the opportunity of standing at the pulpit to express their understanding of the gospel and to share their testimonies.         Yesterday’s meeting was quite powerful and the Spirit was delivered in such reverent manner.   I had worn a clean mask which was no longer clean as it was filled with moist emotion. It had started before the bishop had invited the congregation to come and speak.  The sacrament hymn was "I Stand All Amazed" ( here ) which I have memo...

           I don’t know what platform is currently being used by stake.   There have been several complaints coming from our ward but I don’t know if it’s like that for all wards.   Recently three of the wards have been upgraded.   We are among the four that receive not-so-great viewing options.   Last week seemed fine, but we did have lots of interference yesterday.   We also had lots of rain.   So I suppose the weather interfered with – I’m guessing Frontier though I had suspected it had gone out of business as it is awful.           We heard the opening hymn four times intermingled with Mormon Tabernacle Choir who were vibrant and definitely easier to hear.   I had the volume up as loud as it would go.   We heard the opening prayer three times.   Announcements twice.   And the first part of Elder Miller’s talk.   And then it reverted back and I finally t...

            The first meeting we had attended in our current ward happened to land on Fathers’ Day -  though I don’t recall any mention of Father’s Day whatsoever.  The two talks given seemed to focus on Social Media which I thought was a strange topic to be delivering over the pulpit on a Sunday morning. I didn’t realize that only five years later it would become a necessary tool for the missionaries. We didn’t have social media when I was on my mission.   Facebook was out when my three boys had served their missions, but it certainly wasn’t encouraged and now the missionaries are required to have facebook accounts. We had two elders over on Saturday night and they asked if they could leave a thought before they drove away.   Their thought was on contacting others through facebook – which is what triggered the memory of our first meeting which one elder said must have been an inspired theme. Though many churches have met as a congre...

A virtual stake conference was scheduled for Sunday.  Of course we couldn ’ t watch it at home as we had no internet.  Our options were to either miss church or watch the video at the church building. I think Roland was planning on working with connecting the internet as soon as it was warm enough, but I told him if he wanted to be blessed that he would have to go to Church with Jenna and me. When we hold ward meetings each Sunday, the podium and microphone are wiped down between each speaker.   They did not do that at stake center in Roseburg (we did not go to Roseburg but watched the broadcast at the building in Myrtle Creek) and it was kind of freaking me out – especially since two of the stake presidency were quite moist with emotion.   I guess when you are on the stand behind the speaker you don ’ t notice what the speaker is doing or how he/she might be spreading germs around unintentionally.   I personally don ’ t enjoy sitting behind the speaker as I ...

             Jenna took the college placement test – more for practice than for placement.   But ever since she has been receiving brochures from different colleges and is a bit fed up with the amount of mail she’s been getting.   Yesterday she received a piece of mail that wasn’t college related and thus felt very excited about it.             One of the YW leaders had contacted us by phone, and another had sent the mail which contained a brief note, a word search puzzle, a recipe for something called tail mix bites and a coloring page.             Jenna handed me the word search while she worked on the coloring page.   It was quite a challenging puzzle with 900 letters.   Who does that?             Most puzzles are less than 250 letters.   I ne...

I was on my computer Tuesday morning when I received a call from one of the schools.   It was 8:35 and the shift started at 9:00.   It was for the school that is farthest away, but I thought I could be there on time.   At that point I didn’t know if I’d be working with the elementary or middle school age children.   I wish it had been the older kids instead of the younger ones. I was over my sore throat but still had that darn dry cough, and because I was using my voice all day (except for recess) my cough became stronger and my throat started hurting again.   I did not work yesterday. The RS presidency meets once a week.   Initially they met on Monday but had changed it to Wednesday to accommodate me.   I don’t particularly enjoy working on Wednesdays as it is the short day and school lets out at the same time I get off.   I’d rather not deal with school traffic – which I don’t on any other day.   If I know there is not going to be...

My initial post is costing more time than I am able to give for the moment anyway.  Guess this one will have to tie my readers over:             The meeting ended early today and so the bishop decided to call a few members from the congregation to come and bear their testimonies.   I smiled as I thought about how often meetings were based on impromptu due to short meetings or just lack of speakers.   In this post I mentioned the majority of youth had their favorite impromptu meeting which was sharing one's favorite hymn and a little bit about why it was/is our favorite (or one of our favorites) and then we would sing that hymn as a congregation.   I think that is something we could do in this ward with our regular pianist, but I know there several in the ward who would not be comfortable playing some hymns out of the blue that they hadn't practiced for a while.       ...

                Before I applied to the position of a library board member, my neighbor had told me that the library could close.   I did not want to see that happen, and wondered if I would have something pertinent to bring to the table.   As I was the only person in Myrtle Creek to apply for the position, I ended up on the board.   Two months later it was announced that the libraries would close by the end of March.             The Friends of the Myrtle Creek Library formed at the end of February, I believe.   I believe there were over 30 people who attended that first meeting.   I was in awe. Where were all those people been nine months before when the library had asked for another board member?             No one had really been against keeping the library open.   The opposition had been to the ...

            I went to my first   Library Futures Task Force meeting - only it isn't called that anymore.   The meeting was referred to as Douglas County Library Rescue Coalition .   About 100 people (I thought it had been more) attended the meeting in Winston last Thursday (August 17).   I think most were volunteers, some onlookers and concerned citizens, some who would like the libraries to continue to operate just as   they had before, some there for support, some there to share newfound growth and remain independent ; cooperative but not restricted . . .             Mary Kay - who represents the state - was there to raise awareness and provide options for those who needed or wanted the support.   The libraries who seem to be most successful would like to share materials but not guidance that feels mandatory.   Most representatives expressed that they are doing fi...

            I am the administrator of two groups in facebook.   The first is a Relief Society page that I had started for the ward that I'm in as it has been the only not to have a ward or RS page, and I missed it.   The second group Jenna and I had volunteered to get started in April (I believe) after Myrtle Creek Library closed its doors and several library users wanted to form a group in hopes to reopen the library.   The group page has existed for less than three months, but twice as many members and A LOT of contributors.   Though each says she really appreciates the group page, getting other sisters to post their thoughts on the RS page is like pulling teeth.   We have twice as many members in our "Friends" group and thankfully I'm not the only one who has been posting everything.             We had a meeting last night for the "Friends" gr...

          The tax proposal didn’t pass in November.   It wasn’t so much because people were opposed at having or keeping the library – they’ve just been opposed to paying for it.      On March 30, the Myrtle Creek library closed its doors.   They remain locked as some of us continue to fight for the cause.   I don’t know who is responsible for establishing the group, or just where everybody came from.   It was announced that a group would be forming for a non-profit organization which we had yet to name.           The first four meetings or so took place at the school part of the Nazarene church.   There were over 30 people who attended.   Where were they when the library was looking for a new board member to replace Marilyn?   The only ones I recognized were those on the library board – and though it appeared some were on this new-founded...