Responses to Church Callings

"Church callings!"

Alex said...
What a dumb stake president. But i'm sure he had his reasons other than what we can imagine.

Kristy said...
sometimes i wouls like to be put on the do not contact list! But instead i have caller ID!

Kiki said...
Alex and I have both put in our aplications for bishop and relief socity president respectively, but as of yet we haven't heard anything back...suprizingly we haven't been given any callings.

Response: When I was younger I thought I could do better than some of the Bishops we had; however, I am very happy to say this calling nevr came to me.

Cathy said...
I remember you helped translate Spanish on Sundays... was that a calling or just something anyone could help out with?

Response: Translating was a calling. I guess I forgot, you are only going to get the things I remember. Soo sorry!

"Church callings 2!"

Alex said...
I remember that north carolina had a problem with racism. It was weird being called cracker and then the white people not knowing how to treat you. all in all I still loved it there. It was a ton of fun.

Response: That is only because that is where you grew up. I'm afraid you even have some of that racism in your makeup! Should I exorcize it? Maybe next time I see you I can call in a Catholic priest.

Cathy said...
Growing up in Washington we had really strong priesthood leaders in our wards, then moving to NC we were so surprised to see some of the "interpretations" that were going on...very interesting. I didn't remember your callings. Thanks for sharing them!

Response: Thanks for always being so supportive Cathy.

Kiki said...
What did the mouse look like?

Response: Kiki, I don't understand!

Ciria said...
Thinking back on the few callings I have held in my life, I really enjoyed being in the nursery. However, I do agree sometimes having parents in nursery is not the best thing for the children. I check up on Zoë all of the time and I always want to help her, but I know that I really won't be helping.

Kristy said...
I really don't remember a lot of the race stuff with in the church you are talking about. Every place you go to has it's problems...but I agree with Alex, I still loved it there. Would go back, too.

Response: Sorry to burst your bubble but I believe it was there.

"Church callings 3!"

Ciria said...
Funny thing, Adam and I were just discussing callings. I am amazed at all the different places you serve. What a great example!

Response: I am not an example; I just believe that one must serve where one is called as the Lord is directing His church!

Alex said...
I remember sometimes having to take you all the way out to the temple. but who did it the other times? i never knew it was a calling

Response: Well now you know. This was the easiest calling I have had.

Kristy said...
All my callings seem to be in primary....which sometimes I have a hard time not resenting b/c I am with children all the time already. I don't know which is worse though, primary callings or having to go to relief society.

Response: Well I believe we are called to where we need the experience as the Lord is directing His church!

Journal 01!

I found a part of my journal and thought I would share. I did not write a lot in journal form so this is probably all you will get. I wish I could say differently but there it is. The parts in brackets are not in the journal.

01/29/1981 Last night I could not sleep. I kept thinking of my situation at work and decided that I must look for another job that is with a secure institution and that pays me more like what I feel I am worth. I set this figure arbitrarily at $2000.00 a month or more. (Not worth much am I?) I am so sure that Diana will feel that I am worth at least this much and hope dearly that she will understand my need to go out in search of another job that is rewarding, challenging and tha I can enjoy as much as I have enjoyed working for the city of Moses Lake. (Never did find a job that I enjoyed as much as working for the city of Moses Lake.)

and I pray the Lord will bless me with enough money to go out into his vineyard once again only with Diana this time. I feel that my Heavenly Father has something in store for me so as to make my patriarch cal blessing so specifies. And I can see no other reason why He would put up with a sinner such as I unless He wants me to repent and finish the job He has set for me to accomplish here on the earth.

Just to let you know; it took me a little over two years to find a new position.

Church callings 3!

As we left the Chapel Hill Ward I was almost totally blind and for this reason Diana, Ciria, Alex, Andrew and Calixta all got out of the car and refused to go another inch with me driving. I wonder they let me drive as far as I did because we were in Arkansas when they rebelled against me. It is also the reason that I was called to few church callings from then on.

It is amazing to me at the number of callings there are that can be done by people with almost no physical abilities. The Lord truly loves His children. It is amazing to me that I was called as a name extraction person. It also amazes me to know that I am most effective when I am most faithful and I do not feel very faithful right now as it has been at least six months that I finished my last packet of names, the current one seems to have too many problems. Oh, I already I need to get on the ball or get busy!

Back to the story, when we finally got to Harrah, OK I was called to be the Elders Quorum secretary and while in this position the Elders Quorum president taught me how to use both Microsoft Access and Microsoft Publisher with the idea of writing a Ward newsletter on a monthly basis. We got no support and although we did put out a few publications we were stymied at a feasible way of distributing to those who were unable to get to church on Sundays. We thought of mailing them to everyone, too cost prohibitive; to those who did not get to church, we were afraid of stepping on toes. All in all we were always boggled with another problem with each new idea. The only good thing that came of it was that I did put together the Ward ulletin each week, and even that had problems in that the auxiliary leaders were always late in announcing what was about to happen this week let alone this month.

We moved into the Allen 4th Ward and there I was ordained a High Priest, I was called as an Employment Specialist, something I was and am little capable of doing, and I was called to work in the Dallas Temple a calling I dearly cherished as long as I could get to the temple on time. Well, I will talk some more tomorrow.

Church callings 2!

When we moved into Spokane I was first called into the Elders Quorum Presidency where I served as second counselor to a guy who was the son of a man my father was in the bishopric with in Stevensville, MT. This Elders Quorum Presidents name was Paul Skaggs who worked as a electrical engineer for Hewlett-Packard and he showed us the mouse he was designing at the time. I don’t believe I have ever seen the like.

I had only served in this position for a few months when I was called into one of the hardest positions I have held in the church “Ward Financial clerk”. It would have done me more good than any thing I could have done if I had paid good attention to what I was doing. Unfortunately I didn’t have a strong enough testimony at the time to really learn anything and so we suffered financially for many years after this calling.

After moving to Durham, NC I was called to serve in the nursery and then in the Sunbeams class. In this position I had Andrew in my classes both years before I started traveling away from home so much. I probably did Andrew more damage than I did good for the poor tyke. You see he was in the same class as Skip Lezzettes son (name not remembered) and I was always protecting Andrew from the roughian. I was also called into a genealogy class while we lived in Durham or the “Chapel Hill Ward – Durham Stake”. This ward consisted of Parkwood, Chapel Hill, Carrboro and a couple other little towns in North Carolina.

I think I came closer to totally apostizing from the church while we lived here in the Chapel Hill Ward as a result of the way the black converts were treated. And you all have heard both Diana and I say that these people in North Carolina still acted as if the civil war was still in progress. And I am saying that the south still wants the black people to be slaves and I believe there is no greater harm anyone could do to one of Heavenly Fathers children than to take away his/her freedom to choose for himself. After all this is the only reason anyone came to this earth for, to make correct choices. And if ones chance to make those choices is taken away then we are in essence following Satans plan. And I don’t believe some the Chapel Hill Ward quite follow that line of reasoning.

And finally while in this ward I was called as Sunday School President where I believe my greatest efforts were in trying to teach some of the parents that if they do not attend class then their children will not go to class. And on till tomorrow or next week or at least next time.

I want to complain!!!!

It seems as if no one is writing a blog anymore, rather they are calling Diana and telling her stuff. I just as well not even have a phone for all the calls I get on it. It seems as if I have absolutely no communication with my children and I feel useless as a result.

Is there a fix for this? I do not believe I can do anything to aid this fact as I am willing to talk and or read. I realize that I am not as fun to talk to as Diana is but I have feelings just like you.

And this post will stay up just long enough to make you all feel guilty.

I guess I am defeated in that I don't believe that gossip is a very good thing for anyone to do and it seems as if all my children want is gossip!

I think I will write a short note from Calixta. She got a brand new 2006 Hyandi because she got the Job. And Andrew says that he is very happy now as he has a car that does not break down on him. I was told both things from Diana. I guess gossiping isn't that bad when a wife tells her husband all that she is told. Now aren't you scared?

And I love you all too.

Church callings!

As I stop to think of each of my church callings, I remember none in my youth except for that of Teachers Quorum secretary and of this I have no remembrances; however, I can remember most callings since I served as a missionary but not all or I am not sure I want to admit to the poor job I did in some callings, such as ward financial clerk.

Shortly after Diana and I were married, we were called in Laredo to be the young men and young women leaders. I don’t think I ever understood what it was that I was supposed to do as I had a very hard time associating with the young men. I couldn’t seem to et them to understand the importance of setting goals to make them want to plan on a mission and this frustrated me to no end. I think if I were asked to serve in this position again today I might have a better chance of helping the youth to have a good time and of making plans.

I did not hold another calling until we moved to Moses Lake, WA. Once we moved to Moses Lake I was called to the calling of ward membership clerk, which I think is the best calling I have ever held. While serving in this position I was responsible to report to the Bishop who was less active and then which members were totally not active. Once these people were identified we would go out as members of the bishopric to visit these people and ask them what they wanted to do with their membership records, to which approximately 1/20th of the people would ask to have their names removed from the church rolls and the Stake President wanted to get them off the records to lessen our inactive members but the Bishop disagreed. When we were asked to remove the names we would work even harder to get these people activated and involved with the church once again. If this were not possible we asked if we could just mark their records with a “DO NOT CONTACT ORDER” where the home teachers and/or visiting teachers would be relieved from trying to visit them. I believe our Stake President was a person who was very interested in showing good numbers and not so interested with what happened to the people.

While we lived in Moses Lake both Diana and I took the teaching course. It was only Diana that obtained anyrhing from this though; I don’t think I will ever learn how to teach someone else anything. Tomorrow we will go on to Spokane.