One Busy Meeting

There are some Sundays when church is a challenge. Perhaps it is adjusting still to the 9 AM schedule but my goodness Jack was a lot to deal with in sacrament meeting today. He had to be rubbing my head or sticking his hands in my collar or laying across my lap or sticking our faces together and staring directly in each others eyes. I probably did not do myself any favors today by allowing him to reverently walk out of the chapel for a drink of water three times but it did give me a small break in which to listen without distraction. Well, almost without distraction. I also had Natty begging me non stop for back scratches and Andy pressing for attention as well. We may have to discuss reverence during sacrament meeting in our Family Home Evening tomorrow. I was exhausted by the time the meeting ended and am exhausted now just writing about it.

Saying that, we had a repeat lesson in Elders today. I had given the Gospel Principles lesson on the Sabbath Day last month. Well, it was supposed to be open and I wasn't paying attention to the schedule just made the assumption that I taught the 3rd Sunday out of the Gospel Principles manual. With the new Presidency nobody noticed the change in the schedule. Today we had the same lesson again. It is a good lesson. Brian Allen taught this time and he does a great job. He told a story in closing about a Priest Quorum advisor he had that took all the boys in the quorum home from church and had them change into work clothes. Then they went up the canyon and cut some trees, split logs and then delivered firewood to an elderly widow in the ward who had no other means for getting the wood. He then taught about how the Sabbath is meant to lift others.

It reminded me of the Sunday that the Highlands Ward and others in the Stake gathered on the roof of Sister Pat Holly. Her roof had been damaged during the hurricane season of 2004 when 3 of the 4 storms that hit Florida came directly through Lakeland/Polk County and the Lakeland Stake. We had been out for a few Saturdays already, stripping the roof, replacing sheets of plywood,laying tar paper etc. There was a lot of damage to the roof from the storms but also a lot of damage by age alone and termites etc. This was a big project. I remember being up there with Pati Tanuvasa one Saturday and he and I discussing High School football in Hawaii. He was a Kahuku Red Raider and I of course was a Henry J. Kaiser Cougar. I asked him why it was the only school they made us wear our helmets on the bus for was Kahuku right there in the heart of Laie and all those mormons. He laughed and we had a lot of fun working together. Well, these were amazing days. We worked very hard.

Sister Holly had waited patiently for her roof and we were heading into another Hurricane Season. There were actually storms on the horizon and we needed to get her roof done. I remember getting the call on Sunday morning. The brethren were not attending church that day, rather we would be up on Sister Holly's roof working. The sisters and children attended but the brethren did not. I loved the service we rendered that day and I loved serving with my brothers. Jeff Holmes, John Schatz and I did a lot of work together that day. These were two of my closest friends in Florida. Mike Williams was in there as well as Jeff Jackson. Scott Shuman and his boys were there as was Mike Bingham. I don't recall if Fred Buss was still in town at that point but I worked on a few roofs with Fred and he was amazing. There were several other brothers out there as well and the work went forth. The ox was certainly in the mire.

As the work came to a close and the roof was completed we began cleaning up. Bishop Olds had come out and we held a small service in Sister Holly's yard. The Sacrament was blessed and passed. We sang a couple of hymns and offered prayer. I remember thinking about the neighbors across the street that were gathered out front looking at a motorcycle and wondering what they were thinking. I am sure they found it humorous to see this large group of men and young men gathered to rebuild a roof, sing and pray. Where the heck do you find a work crew like that? I will ever be grateful for this day and the lessons taught. There were bonds of friendships made and brothers that I will forever love because together we worked in the service of the Lord. It was the most important thing we could be doing that day and we did it with glad hearts.

Perhaps a roof to rebuild would have been welcome today though the weather in Cedar is a bit colder then it was in Florida that day. Only joking, I love my children and though the meeting was exhausting today it was also somewhat amusing. We will see what we can do to fine tune our behavior and hopefully make things a little easier henceforth and forever. If a roof or other project comes up and the work needs to go forth, count me in, every time.