9 AM Church

I maintain that the best time for the three hour block of church meetings to begin is 10 AM.  I loved that about Florida where there were very few wards per building, typically one, so the start time was 10 AM.  Done by 1 PM and plenty of time for an afternoon nap as well as some excellent family time.  The next best time for church in my opinion is the 9 AM start time and with the start of the new year our ward moved from 1 PM to the 9 AM.  I am quite happy about that.  I don't know that I was particularly thrilled at 6:20 AM when I had to get up for a ward council meeting but I survived and my three hour block turned into a 5 hour block but it all worked out just fine.  I came home with no meetings for the remainder of the day and settled in for an afternoon nap.  It was wonderful. 

I was invited to dinner by the Leko's so at 5 I headed over to their home. I have certainly grown to love the Leko family.  Kaden and I share the same birthday though 6 years apart and we have served as home teaching companions for the last 2 years.  We also served together in the 11 year old scouts for a year and had much success there with the boys. I was his first home teaching companion after he joined the church and it has been a wonderful experience watching him grow. Tonight I got to learn a little more about their family and enjoyed my visit there. They have so much to offer and are truly wonderful people. I quite enjoyed the visit and dinner.  Aiden, their 4 year old, is a kick and he showed me many a toy tonight including some enormous dinosaur thing he got for Christmas.  It was awesome.

Anyway, this was intended to be about 9 AM church.  I am excited for the time change this year and the early morning meetings are well worth the afternoon nap though I can't sleep the entire afternoon away as there are important things we can be doing as a family to further the Lords work.  Part of the meeting this morning was training on the Sabbath day and I heard things I quite liked like simple meals, time with family, discussions about what was learned, singing songs together, serving others and a number of other things.  It is easy when we think about things we should and should not do on the Sabbath to start counting steps and to get caught up in technical lists of garbage instead of focusing on what sign we want to give to the Lord.  I think the goal is to have families spending time together, away from the things of the world and engaged in things that will draw them nearer to the savior and further his work.  Napping may not be the most productive way to do that but Elder Bednar talked about the Sabbath being a day of refreshment, meaning a time to be refreshed.  That opportunity to rest from my labors and to get a little nap is quite refreshing to me. We have a Family History class that we are starting in a couple of weeks and I think I will try to sit in on that as much as possible to learn more about that work and how that can help us draw nearer to the Lord on the Sabbath.  There are other things we have discussed doing but have not officially started like making and taking pies to friends and fellow ward members.  We have done some of that but only once or twice over the last few years. I would like to do more.  So 9 AM church.  I am a fan.  Not only for the afternoon nap but also for other things we can do on Sunday.