Baptisms and New Callings

As the old saying goes, the only constant in life is change and that has certainly been the case recently here. It is true in any aspect of life, but it seems even more so in the church. I have had the opportunity to be part of a few changes in our fun little Rootstown Ward these past few weeks that I thought I'd share!

The first was just over two weeks ago with the baptism of one of my sister Katie's best friends, Caitlin Vanderground. Caitlin, known mostly by her nickname "Gizmo," met Katie when they both worked at Camp Ledgewood (a Girl Scout camp in Peninsula, Ohio) for a few summers. It's always a neat experience to see someone learn about the church and then decide to join by way of baptism, but even more so when it's someone you've known for a long time! Granted, I haven't known Caitlin that long and for the most part our meetings have been in passing when she has come over to visit Katie at various times or when we saw each other at Bowman Hall on the KSU campus. I didn't even know her real name until just recently, plus it took me forever to figure out which one was "Gizmo" and which one was "Re-run" (another camp friend). I would just lump them together ("Gizmo and Re-run").

Caitlin started meeting with our wonderful sister missionaries a few months ago after she started attended church with us in February. I'll never forget it because Caitlin came with her "Mormonism for Dummies" book and was reading and checking it during much of the meeting. I thought it was cool. I didn't really do much with the discussions (the missionaries teaching) since I didn't really need to. Katie is also a former full-time missionary, plus the missionaries we have had here do such a great job relating to people and teaching them. On top of that, my relationship to Caitlin is much more of a casual one, so no need for me to crowd the discussion! Honestly, I thought Caitlin might join the church down the road, but I never expected this. What a wonderful surprise! I know it made my sister Katie incredibly happy too! To add to my surprise, Caitlin asked me to baptize her, which I did. I hadn't actually baptized someone since 2003 when I was on my mission. It's been awhile! The baptismal service went well and I thankfully didn't mess up the actual baptism either!

The next day Caitlin came to Kirtland with Katie, me, the missionaries and some friends from church. We had a lot of fun seeing the sites again (we'd all been there before) and seeing the Joseph Smith movie. It's pretty good!

In other news I officially got my new calling at church. I found out last week (April 20) that I was being relased as pianist and called as the teacher for the 10-11 year olds. I was pretty disappointed to be released as pianist as it has been the best calling I've ever had. I don't think I've ever had a bad Sunday since I've been pianist, even when I've struggled with some of the songs (which happens frequently). I was sustained in sacrament meeting this past week, though I have not officially been released as pianist yet. Even if I am formally released, no one has been called to replace me, so I will still be acting pianist. Because Primary is divided into two one-hour sections, known as Junior Primary for the 3-7 year olds and Senior Primary for the 8-12 year olds) I won't be able to play during Junior Primary because that's when I'll be teaching my class, though there is a possibility we could go back to having just one Primary, in which case I would be able to play piano for. In addition to my new calling, there were several changes in our ward as we got new presidencies in both Primary and Relief Society (women's organization). In fact, our new Relief Society president had been the Primary president (go Sister Horning!)! We also got three new teachers in Primary (including me). I'm excited to be a teacher again even though I will greatly miss being full-time pianist. I haven't been a full-time Primary teacher since 2004 when I taught the class with the 6-8 year olds (all of whom are now almost 12). I'm hoping I can apply more of what I know about teaching into my class and use more resources to make it more interesting. We'll see how it goes!

Notes on pictures: 1. Oliver Lamprecht, age 3, in Junior Primary pondering a question on April 21; 2. Caitlin and me just before her baptism on April 20; 3. the group in Kirtland, Ohio inside the historic Whitney house; 4. Me happy behind the piano in Primary!!

I'm 26!

So I am now officially 26 years old. Honestly, I always assumed I'd be married by now, but I guess not. In fact, growing up, I always said that 26 was the ideal marriage age (it's actually pretty close to the average age in the U.S.). This is the first birthday I've celebrated at home since 2004. Since my 19th birthday in 2001, I've only celebrated 2 others at home, counting this one, due to my mission and being at BYU-Idaho for three years. Today wasn't too bad and I really enjoyed the presents I got from Mom and Katie to go along with the present I got from Becky a month ago (she gave it to me before they moved). Mom got me a Kent State basketball shirt, a nice blue shirt, and a new pair of denim shorts. Katie got me the EXACT gold fitted KSU hat I asked for (sent her a pic with size too) =) and a "Captain Planet" t-shirt. Yes, Captain Planet was one of my favorite cartoons growing up. Becky got me a Kent State jacket (seen in yesterday's blog) that I've been wearing as often as the weather has allowed me (it's actually a pretty warm jacket!). My dad gave me a $25 Visa gift card. I still have get-togethers with both sides of the family. Not sure when we're getting together on the Derby side, but on the Ridinger side, we're getting together next Sunday. I can't wait because I picked out a really good cake =).

Anyway, the real fun was, as always, in Primary today. I've said it a million times, but if it weren't for Primary, I'd have a hard time being motivated to come to church every Sunday. I've always said my calling is the best ever...I get all the benefits of being in Primary PLUS I get to do something I enjoy (and need to improve on) and I don't have to put a whole bunch of extra planning or effort into it. So today in Junior Primary (ages 3-7) Sister Horning had a lesson on the address of King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon, which is found in Mosiah chapters 2-4. In the actual story, people from all over the Nephite nation gathered in the capital to hear what was to be King Benjamin's last address. All of them camped out in tents outside of the city and so many came that King Benjamin built a tower so more people could see and hear him. He also had what he said written down so more people could read what he said. To Latter-day Saints, this is pretty much how our General Conferences work...the prophet and church leaders address the entire church at once and all of it is recorded so we can read (and now watch) it again. The Conference Center in Salt Lake holds 21,000 people so lots can see it in person (I've been there on three different occasions), plus it is broadcast over satellite to the remainder of the church around the world. The Conference Center also contains translation facilities which allow the talks to be translated live into something like 80 languages.

Back to Primary, we made "tents" for the kids out of chairs and sheets and had one of them stand on a chair to be King Benjamin. That honor fell on Sam Mars, age 4, who had a rough start to the day, but reminded us that "when we're all done here we should put our toys away." He also asked if "there were any bad guys" in the story of King Benjamin. Unfortunately for Sam, the story of King Benjamin is not much of an action story! Sam was also moving around a lot, so Sister Horning said "Hey King Benjamin, you need to stand still." I added "hey, you're OLD," as King Benjamin gave the address shortly before he died. It was an all-around fun time and got the point across about the story. At the end of the day, the kids sang our happy birthday song to me (usually I'm the one playing it) and I got a little bag of Hershey's kisses, our standard birthday gift for all our Primary kids and teachers.

Notes on the pictures: 1. getting everything set in the tents; 2. the kids in the "pink tent" and Sam (far right) wait; 3. Sister Lisonbee showing Jed and Tony where we are in the Book of Mormon; 4. Curtis Rohal "looking up" where we are in the scriptures in his tent; 5. Sam Mars being King Benjamin while the Primary teachers have a laugh. Every Sunday has something fun; 6. The kids watch from their tents; 7. Tony Jeppson gives his talk while his mom (left) watches with Sister Custer. He did a fabulous job, by the way, and did not need any help reading it. Kids in the Church start speaking in front of groups at a pretty young age!

My ward

Current mood: content

Most of the year I'm in a singles ward at BYU-Idaho, so my time in my home ward (congregation) is only in the summer and at Christmas. Even though the ward has many problems, it's still home and I'm so glad to be a part of it again. We have a singles branch here, but it's a 45-minute drive there (Canton), plus I just love being a part of Primary (children's organization), something that obviously doesn't exist in a ward made up of single people. I know many people who like being around lots of people their age, but I prefer diversity. Yes, I enjoy hanging out with people my age, but not being around them every day like I am at school. There is so much we can all learn from our different levels of experience with a diversity of ages, plus I love kids, so being in Primary is just the best. The spirit is always so strong back there and it's just a lot of fun. Our Primary presidency and our teachers are awesome too. I also feel like I'm making a positive contribution because I can use my talents and abilities back there more and I'm appreciated (I sub as piano player or chorister). I'm also the music chairman and the ward chorister, so I get to use my talents there too and people actually respect and value my opinion. What a change from the rest of the week!! It helps that my ward has very few music people in it (hey, if you're an organist, we need you!!). I haven't been too excited about my singles ward and I really jump on any chance I get to go to a regular ward (usually my aunt's ward in Utah). That's just me though. I know a lot of my single friends disagree. Oh well, just one more year or so of my singles ward and then I can come back to my home ward if all goes as planned.