We're not too bothered by the idea of having church at home. We do it every time we get sick. But this was a bit of a different situation. There are a lot of people in the branch whose family are far away, aren't members of the church, or don't even know ASL. So we had a virtual worship service (aka Sacrament meeting without the sacrament) and then a virtual Come Follow Me discussion (aka Sunday School without the teacher.) The worship service included our scheduled stake speaker, Sister Peterson from the stake Primary. She called from her home, and Marriner signed to the webcam on Youtube live. Then Brother Wardle talked about the sacrament, and why you should keep that as a focus of your sabbath, plus how to do it at home. Lige did a demonstration of what the sacrament would look like in our house - Ikea cups, bottle of water, and a slice of bread on an Ikea plate. Then Brother Scott reviewed council from our prophet and local leaders on the situation. It was a very nice meeting. Lige voiced the talks for the stake speaker to hear and did a FABULOUS job. This kid is getting really good!
Before church, while Marriner and his counselors were downstairs troubleshooting technology, I tried getting the kids ready to change gears from silly to reverent. So we all sat on a bench in our living room and pretended to drive to church. I thought the kids would think this was fabulous, but it turns out that the kids were really bothered by us driving to church without their shoes on. I didn't want them to put on shoes so they didn't put them all over our chairs downstairs. But it turns out that shoes are a really important part of Sunday for some of my kids. And of course, they couldn't find their Sunday shoes. SERIOUSLY GUYS. We had church at home, and we were still late (well, not late, but not early...) because we couldn't find our church shoes. Right as the service was starting, one of my kids was being a dork still, and I threatened, "If you want to go to church today, you'd better sit your bottom down RIGHT NOW." Marriner waved at me - the broadcast had already started, and everyone got to hear that part. Ha.
I taught a Primary class about being unshakeable in our faith. We went outside and tried shaking various items in our yard - big trees, little trees, cars, the shed, etc. The same person who was being a booger before sacrament meeting was still being a booger, so we didn't get as much of an explanation of HOW you make your faith unshakeable, but hey, the kids will remember the lesson, anyway.
After "church", we decided to enjoy the fabulous weather and went for a walk to see blooming trees in the neighborhood. Do you know how many years it's been since we've been able to do that? Marriner is ALWAYS busy on Sunday afternoons. He still had a busy evening, but the flexibility was lovely.
So far, enjoying the family time and the break from the hectic schedule.
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