For blessings which He gives me now

I had a really fabulous Sunday yesterday. I've been working with the kids a lot on behavior during Sacrament meeting, and they pulled it all together! We had Stake leaders as the speakers, which meant that Sacrament meeting was mostly English. That does help the kids behavior a lot. But giving credit where it's due, Sam and Martha tried really, really hard. The result of this was....(fanfare, please...) I got to listen to Sacrament meeting!!

The second speaker was an old friend from Capitol Ward. He was Marriner's Elders' Quorum president for years. He spoke about Ministering. He started by reading some emails he'd gotten of Home Teaching reports that show how to minister in a Christ-like way. It turns out they were all from our current Branch President. I, of course, knew all the stories. "I tried to visit ___, they didn't have time for a lesson, but I helped them move a couch." Or, "_____ was in the hospital, then she got out, and now her husband is in." I remember at the time the stories were happening. There was nothing heroic going on. There was maybe some frustration at trying to teach someone who didn't seem to be responding, or dealing with canceled appointments. Or the inconvenient calls from someone in crisis. Marriner frequently felt disappointment that he wasn't meeting the Lord's expectations as a Home Teacher. But sitting in Sacrament meeting, hearing a friend read the condensed version - it sounded down-right heroic. I was inspired to love more. It was powerful! Marriner did NOT enjoy the recital, but as we talked about it over dinner, he admitted that personal examples are great teachers, even if the person is yourself :) We realized that life is like this: nothing we are doing seems that heroic, but by following the Savior, the small and weak things we do add up to something wonderful and inspiring. Be not weary in well-doing, friends!

After Sacrament meeting, I happened to walk up the stairs with President Volk, from the Stake Presidency. Maybe because Lillian had said the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting, he made a comment to me, and he told Marriner the same thing. "We call a lot of people, and we know that it will have an impact on their family, and we see a lot of blessings for those families. But of all the callings we've made...we just see so many blessings for your family. It's amazing to see." I wholeheartedly agreed with the amazing-ness of it, and then we had to part ways.

I wish I could have asked him to explain that a little bit more. Because I'll be honest - I see blessings leading us to this point. I see how this will bless our family in the long-run. But in the present, I've seen a lot more of the glory of sacrifice and doing hard things than blessings. Well, the conversation made me think, and I'm going to count my blessings a bit now.

Blessings which He gives me now:

• Bi-lingual children
• Experiencing a different culture without actually having to move! :)
• Lots of wonderful new friends. I am so, so, so thankful for the chance to get to know these wonderful people. Especially my wonderful peeps in Primary.
• We can talk even BETTER now with our mouths full than we could before! Ok, it's sorta funny, but reaching a more competent level at ASL has been a blessing to us in our home, not just at church. The other day, one of my darling middle-schoolers had some issue. Marriner and I quickly had a silent pow-wow and handled the situation with unity and love. That was a blessing, indeed.
• All of us get to do things and have responsibilities we wouldn't have otherwise had. I'm doing Activity Days AND Primary singing time. Marriner gets to be Branch President AND Young Men's president (ha!) Lige leads the music in Sacrament meeting. In ASL. I mean, how cool is that? Ellis plays the piano for Primary. Lillian said the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting. Seeing my kids learn and grow in leadership and confidence is great. They've always been developing their talents, and now they are getting chances to use them!
• Here's a funny one: I'm finally getting to practice the organ! I took organ lessons from my mom while she was in college (it was a graduation requirement for her) but never got really comfortable playing the pedals. I haven't actually played the organ a lot for church in my life. When I have, I've usually done the pianist-cheat-method. In the branch, I play organ prelude, but not the hymns for singing. This means I don't have to practice hymns, and can just play organ music, and by gum, I'm getting better at it! It makes me happy every Sunday!
• One-on-one time. For example - Ellis is almost 12, and will be entering the Young Women program. She's gotten a lot of individualized attention for this transition! At New Beginnings, she came home feeling like a queen. All of my children have been able to have a lot more one-on-one and small group mentoring. They have a lot of wonderful adult role-models that they get to know well. Everyone from Lige, who is sometimes the only young man on Sunday, to Martha, who is sometimes the only nursery child. 
• Our family has been strengthened. 
• The first way is that we've done something hard together. We're closer together because of it.
• Because we're not yet fluent in ASL, we're not able to rely on the church to teach our family the gospel as much as before. Our gospel teaching in the home has improved, and we've all grown as we teach each other and overcome challenges with faith together.
• Increased reliance on the  Holy Ghost - when you can't do things yourself, you have to ask God to help, and that's a fabulous experience to have almost every day.
• We are doing something exciting! We wake up every day with something big and important to work on.
• There have been so many day-to-day blessings - some noticed, some not. 

Ok, that's a pretty long list. I'm going to have to agree - we're getting more blessings than I would have imagined for the year 2018. It's pretty fabulous. Life's a little crazy, but I don't think I'd trade it for anything.