Church

Today Doug and I were able to attend our new ward in Michigan. It was fabulous. We felt very welcome there, many people came up and introduced themselves.

I don't know if it's because it's the first time in years I've been able to sit through a meeting without kids, but I thought the talks were just exceptionally good. The first young lady who spoke is heading to BYU soon and after she finished I said to Doug, "now that's the best youth speaker I've heard in years!" So well prepared and sincere, and it lasted more than 2 minutes even! Very impressive. The next speaker was also very good, she said she had been the Sunday School teacher for the the girl who went before her and the young elder who would be following her. Finally, we heard from a young man who will be leaving on his mission to Brazil soon. It's great to see young people who are so well prepared. The spirit was there and it was a great meeting. After he finished, the bishop got up and said, "This is what we are trying to do with our young men..." and it just really hit me. So good to see strong youth. All three talks were about Christ's atonement, and it just really impressed me.

We went to choir practice and that was also great. Many excellent voices, and it's nice to not be the only alto. In fact, I think I counted seven of us altos. That was fantastic! Choir is a really important thing to us, it's so nice to see it supported so well.

Finally, we were invited to dinner with a family who lives not far from us. They have two little boys who are adorable and it was so nice to have a homecooked meal with children around again. We were going to heat up a frozen chicken alfredo from Sam's so this was definitely an improvement! It's nice to get to know some people. I know it's going to take me awhile to get to know everyone, but so far so good. It feels like home.

The best thing about this Sunday is that it's only one more week until my entire family is here together and settled in. By then, I should have the house in pretty good order and the kids can get settled into their new routines.