21 November 2021

Felicity had her fall concert band show on Monday night.  It was an enjoyable concert and I thought they did a pretty good job.  She switched between flute and piccolo and performed well.  Monday was my weigh-in day.  With four weeks under my belt I was actually up 0.4 pounds, but I didn't let it worry me.  I took four week pictures and could see how much I've changed in just that short amount of time  and am encouraged to keep on going!   

A few weeks ago we tried to go to the Mesa Arizona temple open house, but it just didn't work out.  I was able to get tickets for Tuesday night and we jumped on the opportunity as it worked better with our schedule.  We got kids off the bus and then picked up Felicity from school and headed to Mesa.  The Mesa temple had been for many years the temple I attended because it was the closest.  When the Tucson temple was completed I switched to attending there, although the Mesa temple will always be close to my heart.  The Mesa temple is one of the older temples the church has and they have been making restoration and refurbishment efforts as of late on the pioneer-era temples and so Mesa has been closed.  On May 19, 2018, the Mesa Arizona Temple closed for a three-and-a-half-year renovation that included new roofing and drainage systems; upgrades to the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC systems; interior improvements consistent with the historical character of the building; replacement of the furniture and finishes; preservation and augmentation of the historic murals; replacement of the windows consistent with the originals; an overhaul of the grounds that preserved shade trees, replaced reflection pools, introduced new garden spaces, and better accommodated the annual Easter Pageant; demolition of the on-site visitors' center and construction of a new visitors' center and Family Discovery Center street.

We went to dinner at our favorite Mesa restaurant, Organ Stop Pizza beforehand.  I was afraid it would be hard to get it in seeing as its usually very crowded and with new COVID restrictions, but we only waited for a table for a few minutes.  We really enjoyed dinner and the music, Jude also really enjoyed the food and music.  

When we were done we went over to the temple for our walk through tour.  When a temple undergoes major renovation they hold an open house where people from the public can go inside and tour the interior of the building.  Following the open house, the temple will be rededicated and used for worship and ordinances for recommend holding members of the church again.  I honestly have mixed feelings.  I love the Mesa temple.  I was first endowed in the Mesa temple, ordinances performed in the Mesa temple sealed three children to me, I attended monthly for years.  It was a place where I went for solace, for peace, to find comfort during the hardest times in my life.  I received some of the sweetest and most comforting revelation in the Mesa temple.  The renovations to the inside were pretty significant.  They moved interior walls and put up walls where there had been none.  The murals in some of the rooms were repainted.  It was beautiful, but it wasn't the same; it was familiar, but also different.  I'm grateful I had the opportunity to be in the temple with my family and I'm excited to go back and visit when its dedicated.

While I was in the temple I got a voicemail from the Stake Executive Secretary.  I called him back on our way home and he asked if Phil and I could meet with the Stake President on Thursday.  I told him we could and tried not to (rather unsuccessfully) let it worry me.  

On Wednesday night Phil and Felicity and I got to finally use the Broadway in Tucson tickets that Felicity got for her birthday in April.  We went to see "Hamilton".  The show was very good, the performers were excellent.  

There were only a couple of down-sides.  Phil had to sit behind us since his ticket was an "add-on" and the second was far more obnoxious.  In my line of sight to the stage was a person who throughout the first half of the show was bouncing up and down in their seat and just creating a lot of distracting movement.  It kept catching my eye and I was a little annoyed.  I was shocked to find during the intermission that what I assumed was a child that someone ignorantly brought to the theater was a grown woman.  We're talking about a thirty-something year old woman attending with her spouse.  Her enthusiasm, shall we say, was intensified during the second half of the show and included bouncing, throwing her hands around in the air to the music, and I kid you not, audibly singing out loud.  From my seat, in the role of the Marquis de Lafayette was this obnoxious woman.  She was having her own Hamilton party right there in her chair...completely distracting me from what was going on on stage.  So freaking rude!  What do you do in that situation?  Felicity loved the show and is excited to come back for the next performance, My Fair Lady, in January.

On Thursday we had the very talented Aubrey Prestwich come out to the ranch to take family photos for us.  I wish the kids had taken it more seriously, they were hard to get focused and to stop giggling and I wish it hadn't been so windy, but otherwise the photos turned out really well. 

I even put a coordinating scarf on Maggie and had her join in on our pictures. Hobo also made an appearance.  

When we were done with pictures Phil and I drove into Tucson to meet with the Stake President.  He explained that the stake was reorganizing the Stake Relief Society Presidency and I was being extended a calling to serve as the second counselor in that presidency.  I was very humbled that the Lord and the president had that much confidence in me.  I also was a little sad because I didn't want to stop serving as the first counselor in our ward's Relief Society presidency; however,  I accepted and was told to be prepared to be sustained during Stake Conference this Sunday.  

Friday was business as usual around the ranch with Phil back at work.  On Saturday afternoon I, with the sisters I have been serving with in the Corona ward Relief Society presidency, attended the stake leadership session of Stake Conference after which Phil met us and we went to dinner with two other couples.  Dinner was pretty good, the company even better, and when we were done we attended the adult session of Stake Conference.  

Sunday morning we were back at the Tucson Stake Center for the general session of the conference and first thing in the morning the Stake President released the current Stake Relief Society presidency and called a new presidency , asking the Tucson South Stake to sustain me as the second counselor in that presidency.  President Thomas S. Monson said “When we are on the Lord’s errand, we are entitled to the Lord’s help. Remember that whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.”  I certainly hang my hope on that promise, because I have a lot of growing and learning to do to feel capable of my new calling.