New Callings

I got a calling in my new ward. I'm the Sunday School teacher for the 16-17 year olds. I've never been a Sunday School teacher before, but i'm quite excited. It's nice to have a steady, small group of people to custom tailor my lessons to. I love being entrusted with a stewardship to help develop the testimonies of others. Michelle got called to be a ward missionary. Last week we had our interviews, and this week we were going to be set apart, but the bishop and his councilors were booked and so it got pushed to next week. But that didn't stop me from sitting in on my class this week.

Story time: During the sacrament I was thinking about the hymn Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd. And then began thinking about the ninety and nine versus the one. So often we talk about the one, but feel like the ninety and nine. We haven't gone off the deep end and so it feels like no one is paying much attention to us. Anyway, I felt strongly that I should write this down. So I pulled out my journal and started writing. It turned into an outline for a talk, and then morphed into a lesson plan. Then some scriptures came to mind, and then the speaker (we were well into the second talk by now) said something that really caught my ear. She and her husband recently returned from a mission and she said that "the Lord sees us all as individuals." I was really impressed by that simple bit of truth. To the Lord, there is no ninety and nine. He never has to leave us to go after the one. He is always with us. We are all always the one to him. It was very comforting.

Well, after sacrament meeting was over, I walked over to the 2nd councilor to make sure I wasn't expected to teach today, cause i haven't received a manual or anything, much less prepared the lesson. He said no, someone else had been taking charge of the class while a new teacher was called and that they had the lesson today, but I was free to sit in on the class this week and see where they were in the manual etc. So when I found the classroom, I sat in the back row as students filed in. They got to chatting and I introduced myself to those I hadn't met yet and waited for the teacher to arrive. Eventually no one came and the students decided they could just play scripture hangman again this week. So I stood up and said, no, I have prepared a lesson and if it please the body, I will share it with everyone. So I taught the lesson I prepared in Sacrament meeting an hour before. It went well, students participated, I learned people’s names, the spirit was present and I had a wonderful opportunity to share my testimony and I know everyone was paying attention. They even laughed at a few parts of the lesson. It was pretty great. I'm so glad I had the inspiration to prepare the lesson I did. And even more glad I didn't ignore the prompting to write down my thoughts.

Hollis

Enchantment hike (that was very LONG)

The day before our Wenatchee wedding reception, my dad and I planned to go on an 18-mile day hike through the enchantments. We had done it before, and had finished in a reasonable amount of time. And we both had loved it. This time, my dad had invited several people and brought his fishing rod to fish in the lakes with.

We got up at 4 AM so that we could arrive at the trailhead by 6 or so. The weather was quite comfortable for a hike. Brian found some moss along the way and posed with it, pretending it was a goatee.

After hiking around a lake, we came to the foot of Azgard pass - a steep incline that is normally the hardest part of the hike.

Hollis is super cute as he smiles at me; we're partway up Azgard and are looking down on the lake we climbed earlier.

We made it to the top just after noon. The weather was wonderful! Hollis and I were very excited to be that far up the pass.

We all ate lunch and then began exploring. Hollis's favorite part was the goats.

Then we started the long downhill portion. However, we were much slower than we anticipated, and took 12 hours to make it down. It was dark for the last 4 to 5 miles of the hike, and the flashlight Hollis and I brought was nearly useless. Natalie and Tim had run ahead - both were equipped with headlamps. In fact, I think they ran the entire last six miles. We were supposed to be in a group of 5 - Nat, Hollis, Tim, Brian, and I - so their headlamps would have been useful to spread between Hollis, Brian and I. However, Brian took a little bit longer to get packed up, so I wanted for Brian, and Hollis waited for me. And then we ran, thinking that we'd catch up to Nat and Tim. But we didn't. And then it got dark, so we went slow. GB caught up to us - he had a headlamp and a flashlight.

We reached the end of the trail, and then couldn't figure out how to get to the parking lot! It was extremely frustrating. We ended up hiking back and forth along the end before we found it. Nat and Tim were flashing the car headlights to let us know where the parking lot was, and that did help. It was after 11 30 PM when we reached the car. We were exhausted and filthy and sore. We waited for the last of our group to finish - it was 1 AM by that time. Then we drove home. I stayed up and talked to my dad (I think) so he could drive.

By the time we got home and Hollis and I got cleaned up, it was 4 AM. We had been up for twenty-four hours! Needless to say, we weren't all that helpful for setting up for our wedding reception. My mom then officially banned hikes of any sort the day before wedding receptions.

Wenatchee Wedding Reception

We had a reception in Wenatchee on July 30. This was our thrid (and final) open house. It sure felt good to be done. This was the first reception with a wedding cake. You can see how excited we are to be cutting that cake! Boy oh boy. We also did some dancing. Mostly only small children joined us, but we did convince one older couple to come cut the rug.

The cutest part was probably when I threw the boquet. All the girls (my cousins, mostly) lined up to catch my boquet. After my cousin Sarah caught it, my cousin Hannah handed the boquet back to me insisting that I throw it again (top right picture). I did, and aimed it specifically at her. She smiled to pose with me for the picture of when she caught it. It's an adorable smile that is much closer to a grimace than a smile :). I told her it was her turn to throw the boquet. She managed to send it straight up into the air. It was pretty adorable.