Lots of changes for me. First and foremost, my roommate of five years moved out, and she took her three cats with her. I miss all of them every once in a while, but I do love being on my own. I have three blankets in process in the living room right now, and am in the process of turning one of the bedrooms into a crochet room. I also don't have internet, so am relying on my small data plan and the local public library to keep me connected. For now, it's a good thing, as I have lots to do around my apartment to get it into the kind of home I would like to have.
While I still have the same calling at church (Primary Music Leader), there have been quite a few changes there, too. Our BP had asked if the Primary could do a musical number for Easter and Father's Day, and I agreed. I'm assuming the Easter performance went off without a hitch because I didn't hear otherwise (I was out of town, but still helped them prepare). However, the Father's Day piece went through the following hoops.
1. Mid-April, I decided to do Teach Me to Walk in the Light (we have about 25% of our Primary without a father figure in the home, and some are rather sensitive about it). I was considering asking a group of men to sing the second and maybe third verse.
2. End of April, I met with the Presidency and the one over music suggested asking the one good singer in the branch and her enthusiastic five year old to do the second verse. No opposition from me; a good idea is a good idea, even if it isn't mine.
3. Shortly after Mother's Day, we happened to sing Teach Me in sacrament meeting. I was sitting near the aforementioned singer and family, and thought, "That would be a wonderful thing to do for Mother's Day." That same Sunday, we sang We'll Bring the World His Truth (Army of Helaman) in Primary, and I was overcome with the desire for all of the congregation to hear them sing it. "Father's Day song, it is, then," I thought.
4. End of May, we had a substitute pianist who accompanied our Primary as we sang Army of Helaman for a closing song. Almost immediately after, she pulled me aside and asked if we could sing that as a musical number during the sacrament meeting where her eldest son will be giving his final talk before he leaves for his full time mission. "Absolutely!" Back to singing Teach Me, it was. I also took that time to point out that our stake conference is Father's Day, so would we like to sing the week before, or the week after? We decided on the week before.
The next week, she thanked me again for being so willing to change it. Then she mentioned, without any intentions, that her daughter (our branch music coordinator) had been a little bummed about not participating in the musical number for her brother's farewell. "I can incorporate the youth," I said without any forethought. Her eyes lit up and she said, "Melt my heart!" Thanks to a facebook group for Primary Music Leaders, I had seen many people post about singing that song with their Primary and youth for Mother's Day, so I made sure to thank them.
5. First Sunday in June, I had previously recruited our Primary's favorite male teacher to help out with a tie cutting activity to help us prepare for singing in sacrament for Father's Day. Essentially, the better they sang, the less of a tie he went home with. (I had provided the tie.) Oh, man, did they love it!!! I still go back to the pictures on our branch's facebook page and look at their smiles. (One of our presidency members posted them.)
6. This past Sunday, there had been a lack of communication and the Primary's musical number was not in the program. So, the BP ad-libbed it after the sacrament and before the talks. Probably because we hadn't talked about it much in Primary, the kids came up there kind of awkwardly and didn't sing very loud. haha...I am positive they sang it louder to cut Brother J's tie. Oh, well.
So, that's the story of our Father's Day song. We also have received two new families in our branch, one right after the other. The first one has one who is about three, and she is just the sweetest singer in our Nursery! The other family has three children who moved with them, two of which are in Primary. The youngest was recently baptized and is having a hard time adjusting to the new place, so I'm trying to find ways to help her feel at home.
Of course, I always save the main reason for posting until last.
We needed to learn the third verse of If I Listen With My Heart, and the adversary has challenged me every step of the way with this song. He really does not want me and those kids to know it! Well, we sure showed him this past Sunday!
We're combining Jr and Sr Primary this summer, due mostly to vacation-related teacher shortages. We also have three 12 year olds who need to attend their Primary class second hour, which means our Sunbeams are sitting-still-outed by the time we get to Singing Time for the last twenty minutes of church. I've found that if the lesson/activity I have planned gets at least some of them out of their seats, one or two songs requiring movement after Sharing Time suffice. I think this week the novelty of doing the Macrena to the Books of the Book of Mormon finally wore off. (Going to search some Primary yoga poses to do with Books of OT for the next month or so.)
Anyway, I wrote the words to the third verse of IILWMH while they sang the first two. Since our strongest singers mixed parts of the first verse into the second, we sang it again, and added the third verse that was written on the board. Then I had good singers come up and erase words from the board, and instructed the teachers/adults in the room to NOT sing those words. At some point towards the end of our time, the lyrics "testifies of Christ" were erased, so the Primary kids sang those themselves, which gave me tears and goosebumps! I took the opportunity to point out the Spirit that was felt, and I hope they felt it, too. I'm still getting warm fuzzies thinking about it!
God is good, my friends!
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