The Spirit Speaks To Me

Yesterday I had a long day of church activities.  The day began with a visit to another ward's sacrament meeting wherein the Laurels of that ward spoke and the YM/YW did a special musical number.  The whole program was centered on the For the Strength of Youth standards.  The girls were fantastic and the musical number was lovely.  Following that meeting, President P of our stake presidency sat down to visit with us--us being three of the four members of our Stake YW presidency.

Long story short, here, but he asked what our plans were at camp in  July when the Bishops came up to meet with their ward YW and provide dinner and have ward testimony meetings.  After some "well, we could go with our own wards..." kind of talk, he asked (but it was already decided, according to his tone) that we meet together as Stake leaders.  The stake presidency would bring up dinner and they wanted to talk to us.  We would not be visiting with our own wards that night.

Following that request/decision, our fearless leader, Pam, shared some connection he has to a new location for trek, possibly, for next summer.  It is off the BLM land, away from missionaries' overly watchful eyes, and on private land where we can run a trek any way we want to.  Oh, and it does actually include a portion of the Mormon trail...and it is in Wyoming.  Jokingly, I jumped in with a snarky comment about "May we negotiate an invitation to trek is Pam gives you this information?"  And President P just smiled his wise, knowing smile at me.  Again.

I regularly ask about trek when I see our stake presidency.  They know I'd love to go.  But they haven't ever said if our presidency will still be serving when the time comes to do that.  That said, let's fast forward to a few hours later.

It was also a ward conference yesterday, so after visiting the sacrament meeting where the Laurels did the program, and then sitting through my own sacrament meeting with The Boy as the other half of our family was home nursing Pink Eye, then I went to another 3 hours of meetings in yet another ward--and another building for that matter. 

Our lesson seemed to go well, and I didn't take quite so much time--I tried to quell the rambling and chatting and stayed on topic.  So far, so good.  Eventually I'll get the time management of this lesson down and we'll be done with ward conferences.  Anyhoo, we made our way into the final sacrament meeting of the day (this was number 3, remember).

We began to sing "How Firm a Foundation" and I recalled a trek moment with that song...and suddenly the tears well up and the I felt the Spirit tell me "You won't be in this calling for long.  A change is coming."

I love this calling.  It is the best in the church, if you ask me.  I get to work with the YW leaders in the six wards in our stake.  I get to see the YW of our stake at the activities we attend, at girls' camp, on planning committees, and for their recognition nights. 

But I also get to work with the cream of the crop YW and YM on our stake youth committee each year.  These kids are the BEST.  And, inevitably, I end up loving them.  I really just adore them.  And that group--though it changes each year--is the group I will miss the most. Well, that and the ladies I have the privilege of serving with in our presidency.  I love them all.  Totally and completely.

Now, I'm pretty sure that President P's insistence on meeting with us at camp may very well be the meeting where they tell us they are going to release us.  As i recall, two stake camps ago, the former presidency I was in got word we'd be released at camp...and Fearless Leader Pam was actually called while we were at camp.  In that case, I got recycled.  I doubt I'll be that lucky this time.

Then to finish off the day--and my personal well of tears and love for these kids--I attended Seminary Graduation last night.   Seeing the majority of our most recent stake youth committee kids graduating...knowing the HS graduation is next week...and that they'll be leaving for bigger and better things (including the Young Single Adult ward) just brought that feeling of the Spirit back once again.  I need to let them go.  And be ready to do it, like it or not.

I guess, knowing how much I love change...the Spirit is just warning me. To be ready.  To say goodbye.  And to be open to whatever comes next.  Dang.  I hate it when that happens.