Change

“I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.” Georg C. Lichtenberg

While we were in France we had the opportunity to attend the local church branch. That is one thing that I love about the church…it doesn’t matter that I was half across the world. There were people there that all had the same beliefs as me and welcomed our family. We met the nicest couple while we were there….Tiare and Mithona. Tiare grew up in France, but her mother was Canadian, which meant that she spoke perfect English. It was so nice to be able to have a real conversation with someone. We would walk to church each week, and she was nice enough to give us a ride back to our hotel each Sunday. They truly were the nicest people, and they have the cutest little girl Elena! The kids just adored her! They even had us over for dinner one of the evenings that we were there. I was excited when I found out she had a blog so now I can check in on her cute family from time to time. We are even due to have babies at the same time!

During one of our conversations at church we talked about how small their branch was. (For those of you who aren’t members of my church, a branch the name we use for a congregation that isn’t large enough to be a ward –which is what most people are familiar with). They only had about 30 members. I told her about our ward, and how small we were compared to other wards in our stake. This is something that our ward had been dealing with for quite some time. Our primary and youth program were really suffering. We just didn’t have a lot of young kids/teenagers in our ward. We have known that something needed to be done, but never knew if it would happen.

Only a few days after my conversation with Tiare, Shawn got an email from our Bishop. The following Sunday they would be dissolving our ward! I was shocked, saddened, and curious all at the same time. I think the main reason why I was shocked was because I never thought that our ward would no longer exist. I just assumed that we would encompass more people into our ward. I was sad because some of my really good friends were being put into another ward (where you live is what determines where and when you will attend church). I was curious to see who would be in our new ward and what it would be like.

I was disappointed that we weren’t going to be home when all this took place. It is funny how attached I had become to our ward. We moved into our home 4 years ago, and I had grown really fond of it. As much as we complained about how small it was…I think we also found comfort in the coziness of it all. Everyone knew everyone, and we were a tight knit group. It was and has been hard to get used to.

We were able to come home in time to be here the first time our two wards meshed. My feelings have been so mixed. One of the best things that came out of it was that Shawn got released from the Bishopric!! I know we have been blessed having him serve…but I am so thankful to have his help with the kids during church. It definitely was nice to have him back!

They spent the whole last hour of Relief Society (just for women) by having us all stand up and introduce ourselves. There are a lot of fun ladies in the ward. The thing that I have to get used to is that most of these ladies are old enough to be my mother. Not that that is a bad thing, but I was hoping to meet some more young mommies like myself. It will be nice when I feel like I know everyone better.

One thing is for sure…it may have not been what I had envisioned in my mind, but Heavenly Father really knows what he is doing. He knows our needs and he was mindful of the situation that our ward faced. We needed to be put in this new ward. I know that, but as is with all things…change is never easy. I will defiantly miss my little comfort zone that I had in our old ward, but am looking forward to growing into my new one.