Sat up in the middle of the night and bumped my
head on the bunk above me, hah.
In the morning, before church, the ‘Twixtmas’
group of coach guests left (a few stayed on – didn’t want to miss out on the
promised fun to come!), and later in the afternoon, a much smaller group
(twelve this time), my third, arrived on the scene. These will be here for the
New Year’s revelry and escape on Wednesday. (All of Loraine’s extended family
is STILL here, while some of her children have gone to visit their dad, his wife,
and step siblings in Devon.)
First ‘ward,’ (quotations ‘cause we’re a branch)
I’ve been in, whilst in England, where sacrament meeting precedes the other two
meetings – pretty much the way it’s ALWAYS done back home. Last week, my first
week, we’d had to leave after the first hour, as everything was in a great
uproar over the coming coach. This Sunday, while the 2nd coach left
this morning and a third arrived in the early afternoon (to stay through New
Year’s Day), things have settled down substantially and we were able to attend all
three meetings. (As we were leaving out the door, I encountered Ricky in the
kitchen, working on breakfast cleanup duty. He said I looked awfully nice, I
replied teasingly, ‘so, next week, are you going to come with us?!’ to which he
lamented, ‘I’d just get bored’ – an expected, and sad, response from a kid that
no doubt has learning disabilities AND ADD, plus having sustained a serious
head injury – and, very well, all three! He also said something like the church
would get hit with lightning if he put a foot in. I told him ‘we all are
sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God. Come, join us – ours is a
church for the imperfect.’ That’s why we’re here, isn’t it, after all?)
The first speaker in sacrament meeting talked
about the comparisons she saw between Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith – in a
multitude of ways. Several examples were that they both possessed divine
knowledge of God’s purposes from their youth upwards. In particular she
mentioned the Joseph Smith translation of Matthew 3:24-25 that says that Jesus grew up with his brethren, and waxed
strong, and waited upon the Lord for the time of his ministry to come. And he
served under his father, and he spake not as other men, neither come he be
taught; for he needed not that any man should teach him – pretty magnificent,
the thought of that; also that neither of them were accepted by their peers/contemporaries/neighbors.
It was a very interesting dissertation. She said that she had gotten many of
her remarks from the writings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and especially liked
one title he had used to describe the Saviour – Lord of the Universe – disclosing
that that particular phrase is not found anywhere in the scriptures.
Sister Venables, our Relief Society president, was
the other speaker. (My computer tried to change it to 'venerable,' but nope, it's Venables!') Probable resolutions for the new year was her topic. An important one was to not go into debt in the year
ahead, as admonished by our stake president – even better, to put a little aside for when the hard times come. She
also made mention of the picture, we all know, of the Saviour knocking at our
door, hoping to enter, but the door knob is only on one side – OURS! She talked
about the things (ALL the things that we ALL know) that will help us be able to
bring the Saviour more into our lives.
As it was the 5th Sunday – worldwide
even! – we had a combined RS/Priesthood session in the chapel, at which time we
were shown a clip from the 2012 Women’s Conference at Brigham University. (Did
that make me homesick OR what?! I would
still have been at home when it took place – in fact, I’m pretty sure I was
able to take in some of it. Kind of a crazy time for me at that point, trying
to get ready to leave and all, but Women’s Conference is an awesome place to
be!) It was Mary Ellen Edmunds – an especial favorite of mine. (And right here
in Weymouth, England, and everything – wow!) She said that: a) this church, THIS
gospel, is for the broken - for those who don’t see a way out, (Ricky?!), b) so
many miracles are just beyond the statistics, c) let’s put the relief back into
the Society. She made us laugh and she made us ponder.
Sang ‘Beautiful Zion’ for the closing song (ten days later and the chorus is still a brain worm coursing its way through my mind - no kidding! That's gotta be ONE catchy tune.) – has
always seemed so much NOT like an LDS hymn to me – much more protestant. (I
have observed that the songs we sing in church in England are much more often
the old traditional hymns, the ones we were more apt to sing when I was growing
up, way before the new hymnal came out. I like that – more memories for me!)
Here, where I am more ‘in the world’ than ever before, it is becoming more and more apparent that the
activity of attending church fills up my spiritual reservoir like nothing else,
that there is much to be said for ‘meeting together oft, both to pray and to
hear the (pleasing) word of the Lord’ (4 Ne. 1:12).
Hurray, got my own bathroom again – had a bedroom before (well, shall we say bunk!). Towards evening
Loraine said ‘why don’t you use the bed and bath in the room down the hall from
the bunkroom, leaving most of your stuff there for now, till we get through the
next week or so.’
Photos_
1- the Saviour is knocking - will you open the door
and let him come in?
2- view out my window in 103 (my fourth room), looking
upwards toward the back of the adjoining buildings
3- stark contrast between the soothing melodies of the hymns of Zion and the lounge ‘lizardry’ going on this same evening in the bar
