shabbat tov

I had a great day today! First, I got to teach the Relief Society lesson on the sacrament and Sacrament Meeting, which was wonderful. It made for a really productive week, as I kept reading and re-reading the materials and thinking more and more about the significance of the sacrament. I'm afraid that it didn't hit home as strongly as I would have liked, but I'm trusting the Lord on this one, that He touched those who needed it most.

During sacrament meeting today, they announced that we'll be having stake conference in three weeks, and that got me to thinking about stake choir. I've really missed singing in choirs over the last little while, and there isn't a ward choir in Lancaster. So I thought this would be a great opportunity to see if I could make it to stake choir for conference. I thought I would ask Ruth Johnson about it, since I know she has sung with the stake choir before. But before I could get to her after sacrament meeting, Leslie Lisgow had come up to me and asked if I was interested in going to choir with them! I'm sure she was inspired to see a need.

Anyway, last week the Greatheads had invited all four of us university students to dinner with them. One of the girls wasn't at church this week, so it was just the three of us, but we had a great time. The food was wonderful, and for pudding we had lemon meringue pie and Viennetta ice cream. And the Greatheads are wonderful people. Big John is quite the character, and Jenny is the very essence of kindness. Their younger son, Simon, is now married and living in Ammon, working at Melaleuca, so that's pretty cool too.

So, when we were finished at the Greatheads', Big John took me over to the Lisgows', and Leslie and I drove down to Chorley together. I got her to tell me how she joined the church, which was quite an unusual tale. And she told me a little about the stake choir, too, and how good they were. I took it with a grain of salt, knowing how people can be about their own choirs. But -- I was deeply impressed by the choir, and that was only after one practice! We're practicing not only for stake conference, but also for the Christmas program, and we're doing some rather ambitious pieces: The Spirit of God with Hosanna Chorus (the one that's always sung at temple dedications), and -- get this -- For unto us a child is born, the chorus from Handels' Messiah! Wow. That one's quite a challenge, mainly because of all the runs, which nobody quite gets yet. But I'm sure it will be an amazing Christmas program.

The stake is so larget that they can't fit everyone in the stake center anymore -- people keep moving to Chorley to be closer to the temple. So they're having two sessions of Conference, one for the south half of the stake, and one for the north half. We're in the north half, but lucky us, we get to go to both sessions, since we will sing for both of them. And then they're having a young adult choir for the Saturday evening adult session, so I get to sing in that as well.

*deep sigh of contentment* Life is good!