New Calling

So I was released 2 Sundays ago as the RS Secretary and I did get a new calling that day.

Drum roll please....
.
.
.
.
I am the Family Indexing Committee Co-chair!
.
.
I'm excited about it! Basically my calling is to do extractions and follow-up on committee members on whether they are doing extractions as well. I did get the software downloaded and running last night and did 10 names while I was there. SO...MUCH...FUN!! Seriously easy too. Not to mention the spiritual blessings too......have I mentioned how excited I am? :)

So everyone needs to go and check it out. SIGN UP! Do some names. You might just like it.

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/indexing/frameset_indexing.asp

If you've signed into your ward website before (your LDS Account login and password) then that is the same login you use for this. So click the "Start Indexing" button to download the software. If not, then click the "Volunteer" button to get registered. You'll need your membership number (on temple recommends) and your birthdate.

Try it and let me know what you think.

You just pick yourself up and do it again

You know the theory, if you fall off a bicycle, you just pick yourself up and try again. Well, I am picking myself and trying again.

Last May, I planned this really great trip to Texas to visit family, go to a couple of temples, and attend my friend's wedding. Sadly, that trip was altered when I fell and broke my ankle. While I did get to spend some time with one brother's family, I didn't get back to Houston to visit another brother. I have always REALLY wanted to go to the Houston Temple and that didn't happen either. Now, I did miss my friend's wedding and that isn't something I can try again, but I am going to Houston! Thanks to Southwest having some great deals at the moment, I have made reservations to fly there and get 4 days with my brother and his family.

Can you tell I'm just a little excited! Now, everyone pray that I don't trip coming out of the airport or something. :)

So apparently you really can't choose your own church calling...

...huh, who woulda thought it?

Story:
I serve in a RS presidency. In my ward, there are 2 relief societies, or rather, there were 2. Due to the increase in sisters attending my ward, the decision was made to make a 3rd RS. So they worked over the boundaries and created a 3rd RS from the middle of the other two, which incidentally contained all the members of my presidency, except me. This past Sunday a new presidency was called for the new RS. Last night, we, all 3 presidencies were invited to attend Bishopric meeting to be able to sort out callings. (We can discuss the soundness of the idea to invite 12 girls to a meeting another time.) :)

So the meeting started and we ended up splitting up to take care of our respective areas. Since the RS that we, my presidency, is serving in will get a new presidency soon, we opted for making very few changes and only making callings to make sure it can function. (the rule with student wards is that someone is usually in their calling for a year and most of the presidency hit their year mark in Sept.) So we went through the list and learned that our RS is pretty much staffed for now, except a pianist (we pretty much had most of the callings from the other 2 RS's after the boundary changes. Nice!) We start pouring over the list to see who could be called as a pianist... sadly, we had no idea who played the piano. Except one. The 1st counselor in our presidency plays the piano. I mention this and the other presidency members' eyes get big because we realize how perfect this is. She mentions that although being able to play, she hasn't really ever been given a calling as pianist. We discuss how it would be fine for her to serve in 2 callings for a couple more weeks (we have it on good authority that we will be released 2 weeks from this coming Sunday) and write the calling down for submission to the bishop.

Then we get the brilliant idea about giving ALL of us presidency members a second calling, so that when we are released we will already have a calling that can prevent us from being called to oh-so avoidable callings, such as: Activities Committee Leader & FHE group leader (which in singles wards, is pretty much the same thing).

Now, a pause in my story.... for those that are concerned..... we didn't REALLY think we could get away with this. It was more the fact that we had finished the seriousness side of what we were doing and decided to have a little fun. :)

Back to last night: So we start discussing what callings would be "perfect" for us. For the president, we decide a librarian is needed (actually there isn't a need for one, but since we were having fun....) for me, well see, you need to understand another situation before I tell you what calling we decided would be good for me.

My ward meets at an Institute of Religion building. We share the building with 2 other wards. We are the biggest ward, by a HUGE margin. The parking at the institute isn't sufficient for the amount of people in my ward let alone the other wards. So members park in the streets surrounding the building. Problem: homeowners are SICK of having their streets lined with cars. Understandable. Anyways, that is the problem our ward is faced with at the moment.

1st counselor offers the calling of "parking lot monitor" for me. We laugh. I explain that I actually like attending classes at church and so that wouldn't work for me, but we decide to go with it anyways, AS LONG as I get to wear an orange vest. As a backup plan (AS IF our plan would be rejected by the bishop!) we decided that I could serve as Assistant Librarian. :)

For the 4th member of our presidency (the 2nd counselor - I'm the secretary) who wasn't actually at the meeting last night, we decide on a calling that would allow her to serve with her boyfriend.

So we wrote down the following:

• 1st Couns - RS Pianist (seriously)
• Pres - Ward Librarian
• Secretary (Me) - Parking Lot Monitor OR Assistant Ward Librarian
• 2nd Couns - ..... Committee member

 Done. Oh we were pretty proud of ourselves.

So it comes time to reconvene and submit our names for callings. We allow the other 2 RS's to go first (mostly because we didn't want to disrupt the seriousness of such a meeting....well, until the end). When our turn comes, we explain about not needing very many callings and then say but we do have one for sure need. 1st counselor then says that we need a pianist and then submits her own name. It took a second and then the bishopric/exec sec/clerks all bust up laughing. We laughed too, but said that we really were serious about it. They discussed it and decided it was a good idea. ......Well then, we have a few more callings to submit... :)

The reaction of my calling as parking lot monitor: "Emily, do you carry a concealed weapons permit?" :)

Me: "No, I've never even shot a gun."

Them: "Well then, that one is out!"

LOL.... we laughed through the rest of the callings submitted and they said.... "I don't think so!"

Oh, well, we tried.

Clarification: For those predicting that I get called as RS president....let me tell you that the Bishop said that he has already chosen who will be the next one AND I haven't been called. So there. Also, with all the changes, I am actually in a different RS.....so its no use pretending to be fortune tellers! :)