The Gospel is true even in the 4th Ward

We survived our first week in the 4th ward! It may be awhile before we enjoy it though. Most of the members were very welcoming, but there are huge differences that are going to take some getting used to.

Lucas is the only boy his age and seems to be the only active teacher age boy. He boycotted the Sunday School class he should have been in and instead went with Landon. There was a combined young men/ young women meeting and since he really likes girls he had no complaints about sitting between two girls instead of the guys.

Landon is also the only boy his age, but there are 3 priests who are seniors. Also Landon has never had a boy his age in our ward so that's not an adjustment for him. He was very excited that of the two callings extended one was to Trent Whipple as  the Young Men's President. The former president was called as the  2nd counselor in the Bishopric when the boundaries were changed. Both boys are happy that Trent will be with them, they know and respect him.

Logan went with us and spent most of Sunday School wishing he could be back with his boys in Primary. I know that feeling, it took months for me to remember not to go there automatically when sacrament released. He still has not decided between the 4th ward and the YSA ward.

Todd seems to be handling the change in stride. There are definitely differences between the way Bishop Hathaway does things and the previous bishops he has served with but he is adjusting. It is a little different trying to get to know a bishop you didn't know as a regular person also, he didn't even know at first if he had a sense of humor....thankfully he does. Todd is so used to knowing everyone in the ward that I think it is bothering him a little that he doesn't know the majority of the ward members. He is already hard at work to put names with faces and make the family connections. There are a alot of them. There are several families where Mom&Dad and their married kids have seperate houses within the same ward boundaries. Considering the small area the boundaries cover it is a little unusual to us. We have never been in the same ward as our family members if we weren't temporarily in the same house.

As for me. I worried in sacrament meeting that I might have taken someone's spot, but found out for sure that I had in Relief Society. The people I already knew were very welcoming, and I was surprised that there were more people I knew there than I originally thought. I felt like a visitor though especially after I heard someone in front of me tell another transplant that it was a bigger change for them (the original 4th Ward members) than for us(the transplants). I spent a long time biting my tongue to keep from yelling at her. I just wanted to say "Really, were you ripped away from your friends and ward family, are you going to a new building at a new time, are you the one who knows none of your leaders or teachers, were you all released suddenly from your callings without even being able to say goodbye? Because from where I sit the only thing that changed for you is that there are more people in the room and more children in the ward." Everything was just a little off and a little weird.. I am sure that once I have a job to do and get to know more people it will get better. But mostly I just cried all day. From his vantage point on the stand Todd told me I was not the only one either. I don't know how long it will take, but I am sure eventually it will be a good thing. I have known all along it is a good change for the stake to stengthen the wards, I just wish I knew it was a good thing for the Gifford's as well. I am trying to be positive, I really am. And as I said at the beginning the church is still true and the Spirit is still there so that's what matters most.

I am a Mom

Sure I am also a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a worker, a teacher, a chauffer, a chef, a maid, a laundress, a crafter, a seamstress, a movie fan, a reader, a daughter of God, and more. But the way I actually define myself is by my role as a mother. I have gotten into the habit of thinking of myself as a mother of teenagers with all the relate craziness. We spend alot of time getting kids to activities, making sure homework is done, enforcing curfews, doing tons of laundry, and trying to keep bottomless pits full.

A couple of days ago at work someone was asking me about my kids in a "how big are they now" conversation. The result was a bit of an identity crisis for me. I don't know how it snuck up on me so quickly, but I actually have only two kids in school and two almost "working adult" children. I am not quite sure I am ready to be a Mom to adults. It's definitely time to figure out how to do that though because they aren't going back.

I call them almost working adult children because neither of them are quite all the way to that title. They are in limbo yeasr. Raylee is technically still a full-time student as she completes her internship and doesn't get a full time paycheck but she spends all of her time working. She spends so much time working that she realized it didn't make sense to live in Provo after all, and was not sure that half of the pittance we pay teachers would actually cover rent, ALL the gas required to drive back and forth and still allow her the luxury of food, so she is living back at home instead. It is going to take some adjusting because she is a student and she isn't, she hasn't lived at home for more than the summer since she started college four years ago and wont have the same  freedoms or as much fun as she is used to.

Logan is almost a working adult because he is working full-time but isn't really thinking much beyond the end of the year and doesn't have any bills. He seems to find enough fun activities for 2 or 3 people, so he is seldom home to do more than sleep. He is in play rehearsals for "Hello Dolly" at the Empress, he will share the role of Cornelius, so be sure to check his schedule before buying tickets. He has had a pretty hard year since high school graduation and is also in a state of limbo as he works towards being ready financially, emotionally, spiritually, and in all other ways for a mission. 

Thank goodness Landon and Lucas are actually still filling their assigned role as teenagers. They are both involved in early morning swim team practices and after school play rehearsals. Landon is playing a princely chef named Philipe Alfredo Mignon in a musical adaptation of the Grimm Brothers fairy tale "Twelve Dancing Princesses" and Lucas has just been cast as Troy Bolton in "High School Musical" at Brockbank.  They are both doing their best to stay on top of their school work and get enough sleep. They are always eating, calling for rides and are rarely without their ipods in hand. They are typical teenagers and I am grateful--mostly.

My Comfort Zone Explodes

Earlier this year I had some adventures that really stretched my comfort zone. I went to India to do training for work. I had never been to India, never away from my family for so long, hadn't done any training in over 15 years, never even eaten Indian food, and the list goes on and on. Since then I have had more stretching opportunities in the training arena at work. All my new adventures were just a little bit scary but also exciting and turned out great.

Now my family and I are about to embark on another stretching exercise and it has me more than a little scared and not even a little bit excited. Saturday September 8th at the evening session of Stake Conference it was announced that four of the wards in our Stake would have boundary changes made a week from Sunday and that three of those four wards would have leadership changes as well. Ours was one of the wards that would have both type of change. So I spent the next several days making myself crazy (I do not do well with anticipation) with every possible scenario my brain could think up along with any that my friends and neighbors thought up as well. Tears were never far from the surface. Finally last Sunday night we went to a special meeting where all the changes were officially announced and we were asked to vote to sustain the changes. As I looked around that room I saw many people raising their hands to sustain the changes with tears in their eyes. The changes were necessary but painful for many.

So after 16 years in the same ward in two different houses we are no longer in the Spencer 5th ward. Our entire subdivision has been reassigned to the 4th ward. The Bishop of the 4th ward was and will continue to be Chase Hathaway, the leadership change was that he called new counselors and a new Elders Quorum President. Todd will be making a lateral move to be the 1st counselor in the 4th ward instead of the 5th. The new EQ President is David Ward from our neighborhood, and Josh George will be the Executive Secretary. So the integration has begun. I am sure that there are many wonderful people in the 4th ward that I do not yet know. In the interest of full disclosure I do know several families there already and I really like all of them. I just did not want the change. I don't want to go to another ward right now. Mostly though I am concerned for my sons, the teenage years are not the best time to move and from what we can tell there are not any boys my sons ages in the new ward. All of the teachers and priests in the old ward, except Lucas and Landon, are south of the canal that forms the new boundary. There are apparently several boys a year older than Landon but that's it. Logan is sad to be leaving "his boys", he has enjoyed teaching the 10 and 11 year old boys class in Primary. He also has to start the whole "getting ready to serve a mission" thing with a new Bishop. He is still trying to decide whether that will be in the 4th ward or if this is the right time to switch to the Young Single Adult ward, people his own age might be nice since he hasn't had that in years.

There are so many people in the 5th Ward that I will miss. I have served beside them, lived beside them, they have helped me raise my children, I have become accustomed to seeing them every week and watched their children grow. Yes, I know they are not going anywhere, but it will not be the same. We won't even be in the same building so that we could catch up in passing. My family and Todd's both were a bit nomadic growing up, so we never really lived anywhere very long and Todd and I have lived in three different states ourselves during our marriage. Neither of us has lived anywhere else as long as we have lived in this ward. I  will miss my ward family. I am also a little worried what the original members of the 4th ward will think of me. Anyone who knows me at all knows I cry over everything. What will they think when I sit in Sacrament meeting and cry before things even really get going because I am sitting alone in the wrong chapel missing my ward?

At the beginning of the year I knew that this would be a year that stretched my comfort zones and forced me to move outside it a little but I never imagined this. It feels like my comfort zone has exploded into little pieces. It remains to be seen whether I will be able to gather enough of the little pieces together to feel that the 4th ward is eventually comfortable. I guess that is up to me- I need to find some way to twist this around in my brain so it becomes an adventure. Any ideas??

Last Days in Delhi

Here are just a few of the many wonderful people I worked with in Delhi. Sherry Holden, Maria Pensabene, Suzi Persing, Marsha, and Mary Sarsi. Sorry Marsha I never did hear your last name. Can you even tell who was s-UA and who was s-CO? Not likely. We all got along really well and had a ton of fun together.

Friends old and new. Donna Wilson from Honolulu was my training partner for the Service Director classes. John Sandefur was my travel partner on the incredibly long trip from Salt Lake City to Delhi, and was roped into more than one adventure in Delhi by both myself and my Mom. And of course Elsa Pinillos came to visit John and so Donna and I also roped herinto a few adventures.

Her is Donna with our last class at IGT Delhi. My camera battery died right after this picture so although there are copies out there with me in them I don't have one.

We did a last trip to one of the local markets for scarfs and more scarfs. I couldn't resist taking a shot of this saree stall even if I can totally resist the idea of buying or wearing a saree.

I think these guys are supposed to guard the unsuspecting tourists from the vendors trying to take advantage of them. Somehow on this trip I ended up being pressed into service by a couple of others as the designated bargainer. How does that happen exactly to a woman who doesn;t even like to shop? Maybe that's why...I truly don't really care whether I end up with the item or not so I really can walk away if it's not the right price.

Chhattarpur Temple

It was a big deal when the Prophet announced that a second LDS temple would be built in South Jordan Utah. However in Delhi they are hundreds of Hindu temple large and small. The Chhattanpur complex has several all in one area, each with a slightly different look to it. The complex had lots if signs in Hindi and only two in English so I still don't know why they had a gigantic red monkey statue. You can see it from far away, so it is easy to find your way from the nearest metro stop. Maybe that is its purpose?

Look at the detailing on this building, even the fence and gateway.

Another completely different look.

Inside one of the buildings there was a little wax museum featuring stories from the life of the founder of this particular temple complex. Including his bed. All the pictures and the wax replicas of him show him as a simply groomed and dressed man yet he slept in this overly opulant bed. I thought it was a striking example of the contrasts always present in India. There are people living in tents less than a block from major modern shopping malls in the shadows of the modern and efficient metro system.

I thought this one was interesting. It was inspired by Southern Indian architecture but it made me think of Latin America. Inside it looked completely different from the outside. but there was not enough light for good pictures.

It is customary to remove your shoes before entering a Hindu temple. This was the first one we went to that required us to remove our shoes and then walk barefoot across the city street to the security screening entrance. I wonder what the point of barefeet is when they make you get them dirty before you can possibly get inside.

This adventure left a lot of questions unanswered.

Kingdom of Dreams

One of the last things I did before leaving Delhi was to go to the Kingdom of Dreams. It is a mini Disneyesque entertainment park there is a huge theater, a little area with shopping and food designed to reflect the different states of India, and live entertainers.

There are shops, restaurants, and bars on the first and second floors. They have everything set up to use a prepaid card at each seperate business or a credit card. Very differnt from most places we went to that only deal with cash.

All around the entrance area and outside the theater they had musicians in traditional garb and a few other performers dressed up to represent animals and mythical creatures.

This monkey was as mischevious as a real monkey. She enjoyed sneaking around and startling people, myself included.

Alot of detail went into decorating every area of the park. Each of the little niches had a light in it that reflected of the mirror mosaic inside. It was a very cool detail.

Cameras were not allowed in the theatre, so no pictures of the Bollywood spectacular we saw. Let me tell you though they danced and danced and sang and danced like crazy the whole time. There was one particular actor that reminded me of Justin Turpin, same stature and build and wow could that guy move. I have no idea if Justin can move that way, but I bet he wishes he could. It had amazing staging and costumes, it really was a spectacle, and of course all in Hindi.

Red Fort

Today's adventure was a visit to another World Heritage Site of India. There are 15 total spread around the country and this was number 4 for my trip. Every one I have seen is older than our country, it's bizarre to contemplate. Red Fort was built in the 1630s when the capital was moved to Delhi. I have no idea how tall the walls are, but they are immense expanses of red sandstone. The thing I enjoy most seeing is what the craftsmen here can do with stone. Look at the details that they put into everything, with hand tools, even the ceiling is ornately carved stone. I like seeing all the carved stone but my very favorite is what they did with gemstones inlaid into marble. The detail astounds me. There were dozens of panels just like this, each with hundreds of tiny pieces of various stones hand ground into the exact shape needed for every individual petal or leaf. It made me very sad to later see a similar panel that had been emptied of all the gemstones.

Inside the walls of the Red Fort there is alot of lawn that attracted families and couples on this beatiful day. I couldn't resist snapping a picture of this little guy turning somersaults. I didn't quite catch the fact that he was following in the path of his older brother. It made me laugh and remember days of Landon and Lucas trying to do everything their older siblings did. Most families in India don't have a lot of family time because the work day and work week is longer here than in the US, so it was good to see some quality family time.

It both encouraged me to see these workers restoring parts of this heritage site and scared me to death when I saw the nature of their scaffolding and lack of safety measures. I have discovered through my time over here that I am braver than I thought in alot of ways, but I am quite sure there is still no way I would ever be brave enough to get up there. Adventure has its limits!!