Don't Get Too Comfortable

Don't Get Too Comfortable

• 11.16.2009

Just when I was securely settled into a life of uneventful routine, fate decided to keep me on my toes and change things up.

It all started last Monday when news broke that Pfizer is exiting our Chazy facility.  Hundreds of people in the area will be looking for a new job within months, including me.  Bummer.

Wednesday I received a scary phone call from my mom that she and my two little brothers were involved in a head-on collision Tuesday afternoon.  The van flipped over and is totaled.  Thank goodness everyone is all right!  Everyone had their seat belts on.  The boys emerged unscathed; they just screamed and were really scared.  The driver's seat, however, took the big blow. The worst of my mom's injuries is her right foot. The brake petal basically went through her foot. The bones in her ankle and foot broke, the skin and ligaments tore, and her foot was facing backwards! It took 45 minutes, the jaws of life, and a team of emergency personnel to pull her out of the van. She had surgery on Tuesday night. Now she has lots of pins and metal holding everything together and is at home taking it easy.  She'll be a couch potato for at least 8 weeks. My sweet grandparents are there to help out for a little while. If her foot heals okay, she'll be walking again in a few months and will be back to normal mostly. So say a prayer that she'll heal up nice!  I was a little shook up after hearing the news.  I felt a lot better after the house got a good cleaning.  It's amazing how cleaning can be therapy.  I'm very, very thankful that my family is okay.  It could easily have been a lot worse.

Sunday morning my phone rang at 9:20AM.  It was the District President and he wanted to talk with Bron.  He asked Bron if he could speak with us before church.  It takes twenty minutes to get there and I was just getting out of the shower!  So we hurried like mad and made it there just five minutes shy of 10:00AM.  Whew.  The District President sat us down and explained that he was there to put in a new branch presidency during sacrament meeting.  He then extended Bron the invitation to be the new 2nd counselor in the branch presidency.  We were both shocked!  Tears welled up in my eyes; I had so many thoughts and emotions flying through my mind all at once!  As if Bron isn't busy enough already!  This new church responsibility would require so much more of his time.  In the same moment, I was proud of him too.  Accepting a big calling like this so suddenly says a lot about his character.  I'm so thankful for the man I chose to marry!

After church the District President and his counselor set the new branch presidency apart.  It was a really sweet blessing, one that both Bron and I needed to hear.

Following that, Bron got right to work learning what to do with all the tithing slips.  So I got to hang out for two more hours.  It's just the beginning.  We only have one vehicle and Bron will have a 7:30AM meeting every Sunday.  I guess I'll bring my piano books and teach myself how to play.

The shock of Bron's new church responsibility lasted all day.  No calling or job within the LDS Church is necessarily better than another because we switch it all up periodically and each take our turn.  Some callings just require more time and dedication, more thought, more leadership skills, more prayer.  However, I don't think we would be given these same opportunities to serve in the Church at home in Idaho.  There are simply many more able-bodied, older and wiser men capable of taking on leadership postitions.  This little New York branch of ours is definitely going to force us to stretch and grow.  Sometimes that hurts, ya know.  But I think we will learn things here that we otherwise would not learn until much later, if at all.  Maybe that's just one reason why we're here.

For example, my calling as the counselor in the Young Women's organization has forced me to take charge and get organized.  I don't have any experienced women around to lead me along and teach me "how it's done".  I'm learning the job on my own.  I started from scratch.  Thankfully, there are lots of resources for me to use to plan mutual activities and lessons: church manuals, the internet, and family that are only a call away.  I rely a lot on my own experiences as a teenager and try to emulate what my leaders did for me.  I'll admit, it took me a few weeks to step it up and get into the swing of things; I still struggle periodically.  However, as I have served, I have really come to love my calling in the Young Women!  I love my girls.  I dread that any one of them might graduate from high school and never come back to church.  I sincerely hope that they make the right choices in their lives to ensure true happiness.  I want them to have the same blessings I have.  Maybe that's the beginning of understanding just a pinch of Christ's love for us.

To put it mildly (haha), our branch is also a strange gathering place for an array of personalities and backgrounds.  Everyone has some weird quirk; some of them drive me bonkers!  I've noticed, however, that as I get to know certain individuals and anticipate their funny quirks, I'm not so bothered by them.  Instead, I'm able to look past and better understand the person.  The YW president and I had a rough start.  Now I think things will be okay because I need her as much as she needs me; if only she'd be more dependable!

Hopefully Bron and I will become better people because of our experiences here.  Hopefully.  Keep your fingers crossed.