Thursday, May 29, 2008

Stake HFPE

Went to our Stake's HFPE tonight. I didn't really feel like going for some reason as I was getting ready to leave, but I knew I needed to go and should be there. As I was leaving, C asked me why I didn't want to go. I told him I didn't feel like going because I would probably end up sitting by myself because I don't have any friends there (other than Casey and she had to work tonight) and I was hungry and wanted to eat something good. He said he thought we were eating dinner there. I said we were, but because it's a Stake thing, we'd probably have a little scoop of salad and a roll - meaning they are chinsy with the food - not that I wanted a 5 course meal or a huge, heaping plate of food, I just wanted something tasty and filling such as a plate of spaghetti, a piece of chicken, a slice or two of ham, or something like that. Alas, I left for the church and when I arrived, I had hit it spot on. We had a scoop of this gross, greasy, ramen salad, a roll, a couple of strawberries, and a piece of this graham cracker pudding something for dessert. Even the bishop's wife said, "where's the rest of the meal?" Maybe I've spoiled them in our ward's HFPE nights when we have dinner!

Anyhow, after we finished eating, we moved into the chapel. I have NEVER heard the noise in the chapel as loud as it was. The chapel was completely filled with women. Women talking with their friends...and not caring that they were in the chapel. It was horrible! Even on the worst of Sundays, the chapel is not as loud, before or after Sacrament Meeting, as it was tonight. I could not believe it! Some lady from the Stake had to get up twice before they started the meeting to ask the sisters to quiet down. It was unreal.

We finally started the meeting and the opening song was "Love at Home". I was afraid. I have a difficult time with that song lately because that is the song my mom would sing to us as we kids would fight when we were younger. Because I'm missing her a bit lately, hearing it is difficult for me. Well, imagine what the tear-meister goes through when she hears it sung by 300 women! It was so beautiful. It sounded so pure and lovely, everyone's voices blending together. I was crying just like I knew I would. But it was for joy and GRATITUDE, because I belong to a church that believes in family, in love, in singing, all of it, and the women who were there believe in it too. We strive to live righteously every day. We are elect ladies who are God's daughters. I was just so filled with the Spirit that that is what brought the tears.

After the song, President Hancock got up and gave a talk on taking care of ourselves so we can take care of our families. He admonished us not to get so caught up in doing everything that we forget to take care of ourselves or that we spend too much time on ourselves, but rather that it's a balancing act likened to two horses going side-by-side (or something like that - I can't remember because something else was happening that was distracting me).

I forgot to mention that when I arrived, I saw Melissa Beutler walking in by herself. She is a really new member...maybe 4 months. We walked in together and spent the whole evening side-by-side. She is on my HFPE committee and she is just the sweetest thing. She is so happy being a member of the church and she is learning so much. The evening ended with the two of us walking arm in arm out to my truck and then sitting there with it running for an hour (at $3.79 a gallon for gas) talking. Well, I think I did most of the talking, but I felt us developing a friendship. She and her husband, Jason, are going to come for dinner on Sunday. I'm so excited! They seem like a very nice couple. They have 5 kids between them but this is their "alone" weekend while the kiddos are at the other parents' houses. This is a great type of relationship for us to have with people...the kind where they do and "don't" have kids since we don't have any. It's good because we can have adult time without kids and then we can also have time with the kids when we want to. Anyway, it was an awesome conversation and I hope we will do a lot of other things together!

2 comments:

Casey Lu said...

Sorry I had to work :( I so badly wanted to come! Maybe next time. Yes, Melissa seems to be such a sweet lady, always smiling! I have been a bit timid to get to know a lot of the others as I tend to keep things to myself. I will have to work harder on putting myself out there a little more.

Cindy said...

The evening sounds like it turned out nice, all things considered!