It's all relative

When we moved into our current ward, nobody really noticed that we were new because "everybody is new in this ward". They had just combined with the "leftovers" from another ward to create our ward and everybody just assumed that the people they didn't know were from "the other ward". Just like at a wedding.

The bishopric knew we were new because we had to fill out our new member resumes. For everybody else though we were just leftovers. We thought we'd be "the new people" for a while, like more than a week at least, but with so much turnover and so many people who didn't know each other anyway, we really weren't new for more than the 5 minutes it took to fill out our resumes.

We settled into a comfortable lull of ward membership. We were regularly attending church, we sit in the front (because, like a child, I get distracted and stressed if I have to see all the entertaining people in front of me before the speaker), we go to our meetings, we sometimes do our visiting teaching/home teaching, we got callings, we pray in RS/Priesthood, we go to activities when we can, we're just normal every day average members of the ward.

When I was called to be in the Primary, Brother Royal told me that he's been really impressed with Josh and I because we are such active members of the ward. I laughed thinking that we were borderline inactive, but I guess in such a young ward, it's hard to find people to do things when they're so stressed out with their own families. For us it's easy to be what is apparently super-active because all we do is work. Then we come home and we're excited about upcoming activities and events because we have something to do. It's not hard to go to church because we actually hear the lessons and speakers instead of chasing kids up and down the aisles. For us, it's just really easy to be in our ward.

Two weeks ago, Josh informed me that we were asked to speak in church in the coming weeks. Frankly, I thought he thought it was funny to joke around with me like that, but he insisted he was serious (just like he does when he's joking). Last week, when Brother Litster asked if we were still on for next week, I realized that Josh really was serious.

So, today we had to speak in Sacrament Meeting. What is amazing to me is that when I wake up at 7:10 and realize I only have 20 minutes to get ready for work and get my butt out the door, it goes by like that (insert snap here).  But when I'm asked to speak about Faith and Repentance 20 minutes goes by more. l-i-k-e. t-h-i-s. (that's really slow in case you couldn't tell). When we timed our talks last night, just to see what we'd need to do, I thought I was done with my talk, but it was only 12 minutes long! Geez! That's a LOTTA talking. I was barely over halfway!

Anyway, we survived our introduction talk, and I'm glad it's over. Now we don't need to be anxious about being asked to speak anymore, because it's over. We're done, and chances are we won't have to speak again until we move, and if we do that fast enough, we probably won't even have to do that. Whew!

Anyway, I guess we weren't really that new, we weren't really inactive, and 20 mintues really is a long time. It's all relative.