I knew it was coming...Kelley and I have talked about it and I think it was time. We have been in for three years and are about out of ideas. Stephanie is busy enjoying her new little boy and Stacey and I are on our last nerve. My only regret is that we didn't have more time with Tina. She has just been in since January (after I waited patiently for her to have a rest after being released from being Relief Society President)and it has sure been a treat to get to work with her. She is so great with the young women and has become close with them in the short time she's been in.
It has been a wonderful experience for me and I have enjoyed it thoroughly. All the activities, lessons, girls camps, youth conference, good talks, New Beginnings, memorizing Living Christ, Personal Progress, Volleyball, trips to Temple square, Moab, Basketball, parties, Baptisms for the dead, and service we have done together have brought us close and developed relationships over the years that are priceless to me.
There have been some hard times too. Some of these girls can really be stinkers. There's a couple of girls that dominate the conversations in class, and about every other situation, making the other girls feel intimidated to even speak and it's really been a problem. We tried talking to them about it...even coming right out and telling them that it was keeping girls from wanting to come to young women...didn't phase them one bit. We even had our very blunt Darilyn have a very serious talk with them...they improved slightly, but soon went back to their old ways. So that will be something that the new presidency will get to deal with.
We had a few incidents with girls taking off after guys during young women, leaving us wondering and worrying where they even were...then the parents would call us looking for them! Wow. I wanted to wring their little necks. We really lowered the boom when we found them that night. Ha! I had to remind myself that I was a boy crazy stinker like that too when I was 15. But I would have never thought of doing some of the things these kids do. It seems like some of the youth don't have a lot of respect or even care about what adults think of them these days.
There are some girls that come from a pretty tough home life and my heart just breaks for them as we watch them reaching out to find someone to love and appreciate them. I think that is one of the hardest things about this calling...just watching the girls struggle...it's tough to be a teenager now. They all want so much to fit in and be accepted and there are lots of scary places out there where they will be accepted. We can talk till we're blue in the face and even physically remove them from these places, but in the end, they have to make the choice. I only hope that some of the things we talked about sunk in and they will remember it when they get in a bad situation.
Stacey has been a lifesaver in this calling. She always has great ideas and puts 150 percent into whatever she does. (Between the two of us who will wander around Joanns for hours, or go to 10 different stores, looking for something to do for the girls for an activity or a lesson handout, (It's kind of a mental problem) we could really get out of control...good thing we had Bonnie to reign us back in....(just love them...Bonnie was so good at that! I miss her!) But she would always come up with the cutest things and funnest ideas and wasn't afraid to put some work into it to make it nice. The girls were comfortable calling on Stacey too when they needed anything and that says a lot about their relationship.
She has had some tough beehives and has really gone above and beyond to help them feel loved and accepted in young women. They all just adore her.
Stephanie is also very loved and will be dearly missed by these young women. She has been their confidant, their friend, their second mom.
So last Sunday after church, the bishop had us all come in and he said we would be released this next week. I think that's when it really sunk in. We talked after and all of us were feeling kind of sad...change is hard.
We had the bishops summer party Wednesday night so it was nice that we could just go and have a fun evening with them at the Bishops house.
Thursday afternoon, we went over to the church and cleaned out our closet. It was quite a mess. We had just been tossing everything left over from lessons and activities, camp and sports in there so it had gotten kind of deep. We threw away a lot of stuff that's become obsolete like old lesson manuals, personal progress books from before they added "Virtue" and old camp books. We found a bunch of old photo albums from yw groups clear back from early 1990s. and sat there and laughed and laughed looking through them. It was funny to see all the young women who grew up with our girls who now are leaders their selves and all the old ward members that were so young back then.
We took down all the old pictures off the bulletin board from last years camp and put up this years pictures. That sure brought back some fun memories looking through them.
So yesterday when Jerry released us, it was kind of hard.
It was sweet though when all the girls came up and thanked us and gave us love and a big hug.
They called Carol Berlin as the new president, Jenni Arnold and Mindy Smith as her counselors and a new lady in the ward named Jessica as the secretary. I thought that seemed just right. Carol is an amazing lady who I have always admired. This new gal really impressed me too. She has such a happy positive personality, I know the girls will love her.
I had a hard time getting through the theme as we stood with our arms around each other. Looking into each of the girls eyes as we repeated those profound statements was pretty emotional. There is a connection we have while doing that that doesn't happen anywhere else. I will really miss that part of young womens. After we had a real nice testimony meeting with all the girls and the new leaders. After hearing the new presidency talk, I felt real peaceful, and I knew the girls were in good hands.
Feeling kind of empty now. It's like going ninety miles an hour, then coming to an abrupt halt. There was always something going on or we were planning something, or preparing something or going somewhere, but suddenly, I don't need to worry about any of that anymore. I was called to this position at a time when I needed something to fill up the hole in my heart left when I was missing Camille and the grand kids so very much. I know it sounds lame, but it's hard for me to have them so far away. I'm glad Heavenly Father knows what's in my heart and sent me on this journey for the past three years. It's kept me so busy, I didn't have time to dwell on my own issues. I'm a little apprehensive thinking about what's coming next. It's hard to beat a calling in the young women.
No comments:
Post a Comment