We left home about 7:30 am this morning for the drive to Bend, Oregon where Nina is meeting up with her cousin (she only has two first cousins, one on each coast). This has been a singularly boring drive. The middle of this state has only one claim to fame: US Route 20 is a nice, smooth road. We’ll be glad to see it end, though.

It looks like the second Sunday of the month will be a busy Sunday for the foreseeable future. It starts with a High Council meeting at 7 a.m. and ends with a regional Single Adult fireside that gets over about 7:30 p.m. I did have a bit of time for a sandwich for lunch and dinner before the fireside this evening. It was a good Sunday, though, and I’m enjoying the work … but it’s only the first full Sunday in this calling!

Tomorrow we’re headed east. I want to go to Montpelier to check into the newspaper published in that county. Then we’ll go to Soda Springs to take care of the swamp cooler and outside water for mother and dad.

Dad took a very hard fall last Monday on the concrete on the north side of the house. He really banged up his elbow and scrapped a chunk of skin off his forehead. By Tuesday he was really hurting. He’s made several trips to the doctor for checkups, x-rays, and a CT scan but nothing is broken. Never-the-less, he’s having a lot of pain. He’s also fallen twice more in the past couple of days in the house. This is not a good sign.

Well, this lovely Sunday is coming to an end. Good night!

When we were living in Colorado Springs there was a den of coyotes not far from the house. Whenever a reasonably full moon would rise, they’d start howling until the moon was at least half way up the sky. Now that the wolves have been re-introduced into our area, I wonder what they sound like when the moon is rising. Coyotes would yip and yowl which is probably a poor imitation of what wolves do on nights like tonight.

This evening we were at the Kinport Branch picnic. That’s the Church unit that serves at the Womens Prison and where Nina is the Relief Society President. There was a good group there, lots of food, and a good time for all. We played a kind of a bingo game that I’ve never even heard of before, called Playing Card Bingo (or something like that … the name doesn’t come up on a Google search).

We played with eight people and three decks of cards. One deck is dealt out to one group of four players, the other deck dealt out to the other four players. All cards are turned up. Then the third deck is turned up one card at a time. Whomever has that card, turns the card over. The first player to turn over all thirteen of their cards wins the hand. We had a fun time playing and visiting.

Tomorrow morning starts early and goes late. First Sunday in my new Church assignment. I’ve gone from being fairly unbusy to being very busy. It’ll soon become routine, I’m thinking.

We haven’t had any measurable precipitation for about three months. Today I mowed the grass and trimmed the edges and that’ll probably be the last time this year. We’re going to be doing a fair amount of traveling over the next six weeks so I shouldn’t have to be concerned about the yard while we’re gone.

Well, wolves may howl at the moon, but I’d rather be studying the back of my eyelids!

For the past couple of years I’ve had an absolutely delightful set of Church assignments. I served as the Stake Sunday School President and as a teacher in our Ward’s High Priest Group where I taught the lesson on the second Sunday in the month. As the Sunday School President I visited ward and branches throughout the Stake on speaking assignments as well as Sunday School coordination assignments. Perhaps my first love in the Church is to be a teacher.

Perhaps some clarification and definition of terms is useful…. The Church I speak of is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also called The Mormons. A Stake is a geographic region within the Church, kind lf like a Diocese in the Catholic Church, and is usually made up of eight to ten Wards and Branches. A Ward is a congregation of members in a specific geographical area and is expected to carry the full spectrum of Church organization and activities. A Branch is also a congregation of members in a specific geographical area, but generally has a much smaller membership than a Ward and doesn’t necessarily have sufficient membership to carry the complete Church program. A member of the Church attends the Ward or Branch in whose boundaries the member lives. If the member moves into the boundaries of another Ward or Branch, then they become members of the new Ward or Branch.

Since the Church has no paid clergy, it is staffed entirely of volunteers at the Stake and Ward levels. However, a member doesn’t volunteer for a position, but rather is “called” by someone in leadership to serve for a period of time in a specific position, such as a Sunday School Teacher. Every two or three years a member can expect to be “released” from the position where they are presently serving and be “called” to do something else.

With all that done….

Last Sunday I was released as the Pocatello Stake Sunday School President. This Sunday I was released as a teacher in the Juniper Hills High Priest Group. Today I was set apart by the Stake President to be the junior member of the Pocatello Stake High Council.

Each Stake has a High Council consisting of twelve men. The role of the High Council is to advise the Stake Presidency on matters concerning the Stake and to oversee specific programs as well as specific Wards or Branches in the Stake. My assignments in this new calling are:

1. Attend the meetings of and advise the Bishop and leadership of the Cedar Hills Ward. That means that most of the Sundays during the month I’ll be attending the leadership meetings (Bishopric, Priesthood Executive Committee, Ward Council, and Ward Welfare) as well as the normal worship meetings (Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School, and Priesthood Meeting).
2. Oversee the programs for adult unmarried men and women (never married, widow, widower, and divorced) in the Pocatello Stake
3. Oversee the emergency preparedness programs of the Stake
4. Oversee the music for the Stake
5. Provide training for Melchizedek Priesthood Leaders on quorum and group committees and Church ordinances
6. Conduct Personal Priesthood Interviews on odd months with the Cedar Hills High Priest Group Leader and on odd months with the Cedar Hills Elders Quorum President
7. Attend and participate in High Council, Stake Council, and Stake Welfare meetings as well as a monthly personal priesthood interview with the First Counselor in the Stake Presidency
8. Speak once a month in an assigned Ward or Branch
9. Other assignments as given by the Stake President

I’ve definitely gone from a fairly straight-forward and relatively light set of Church assignments to being very busy. But, it should be very rewarding and a lot of fun!

As we were driving home, Nina said that she really wanted to stop at a house to take some pictures of the flower garden, as we passed the house. So, I turned right on the next street, right again on the alley, and right on the street beside the house. “Just pull over there,” she said, gesturing to the left side of the road, “even though it’s illegal. You won’t get a ticket.”

So, as a dutiful husband / driver, I pulled over on the left side of the road with the car pointed into traffic, while she took a number of pictures of the garden.

The flower garden is very pretty and very nicely maintained. The elderly woman who lives in the house has certainly put plenty of work into developing and maintaining the flower garden. There also had to be around a hundred bees making their way from flower to flower in the garden. I’m certain the bees were as happy as Nina was.

Nevertheless, it’s not often that I get asked to do illegal things. It made me laugh, it made her laugh, and it made my day.

I’m also in the process of making some changes to the blog. The two Amazon ads on the blog have done absolutely nothing. A couple of people have clicked on the ads, but nothing more. Meanwhile, they are problematic for me and for people reading the blog because they are constantly updating the ads with Amazon. So, these ads are going away and will be replaced with ads much less intrusive. If you ever see anything interesting on the ads, feel free to click on them. There’s no obligation!