Monday mumbling.

Church yesterday was a spiritual feast, even though I only stayed for sacrament meeting. Our new stake president was there, and he is just amazing. He was serving as the stake patriarch when he was called to preside over the stake, and he has held both callings for about three months.

Yesterday he presented the name of our new patriarch for a sustaining vote. Goosebumps. This brother served as a counselor in the former stake presidency, and because of my former calling I got to know him a little better than I might otherwise have. So it was very much my pleasure to feel the Spirit, to know that the calling was inspired, and to raise my hand in support.

The stake president also presented for our sustaining vote, the advancement of various brethren in the stake to the high priest quorum, including two brothers in our ward. They are about the same age as my sons-in-law. When he gave the first name, my thought was Oh, of course; this brother, though young, has much of the gravitas I associate with seasoned leaders. He is not stuffy; he is steady.

When the stake president announced the second name, my hand flew to my mouth to cover a delighted gasp, and the tears started up. He was the elders quorum president in this ward when I moved in, far more spiritually astute than he would like anyone to know [he was one of two people who knew I was going to be the RS president before the former bishop did; the other was the RS president (and yes, I knew before I moved into the ward; I just didn’t know it was going to be quite so soon after I got there)], and far more outspoken than the average elder. So we have always gotten along quite well.

Nothing more was said, so I just wiped my eyes and settled in for the rest of the meeting.

Bishop also announced changes in our RS presidency. The dear woman who was my secretary, and continued in that capacity with my successor, is now one of the counselors. And one of my visiting teachers is the new secretary.

The stake president took back the podium after we had all partaken of the sacrament, made us chuckle with a couple of quips, and explained that he had neglected to tell us why these brethren had been advanced in the priesthood [because he had forgotten for a moment that he was not addressing another, nearby ward; his duties take him all over the stake, and he rarely gets to attend meetings in his own ward; it’s understandable]. He then released the bishop’s two counselors and presented the younguns for our sustaining vote as the new counselors, telling them to kiss their wives goodbye and come sit up on the stand in their new capacity.

There was not a hope of my remaining dry-eyed for the rest of the meeting. The two just-released counselors gave farewell remarks and testimonies. The wife of one also was invited to speak. The other is single and said he understood that this was when his wife should speak, which cracked us all up. And then the two new counselors were invited to speak. The stake president finished with a few remarks, I handed in my tithing, and I came home.

The wife of the feisty counselor is my other visiting teacher. I am going to have to figure out a way to make visiting teaching easy for them, because my house is not child-friendly, and their husbands are no longer available to watch the kids so the moms can come give me a monthly lesson. We’re smart women. We will figure something out.

Today I will be taking care of car stuff. Possibly a new catalytic converter, but more likely an O2 sensor, which is significantly cheaper. And once that is done and the computers have re-set themselves, getting the safety inspection because hello! tomorrow is the first of March.

I also need to tackle Mount Washmore, which is once more approaching critical mass, and get my nails done.

All of the napping and the resting-with-feet-elevated which I did yesterday, have made my ankles far less cranky than they were. I will endeavor to do more of the same today, when I am not running around like the proverbial headless chicken.

But for now I am going to go sit on the couch and grab my knitting and see if I can figure out the chart, because there is going to be a whole lot of sitting and knitting today while my checking account gets liposuctioned, and I would like for knitting to be the one non-frustrating part of the day which lies ahead.