Stories will be forthcoming about our trip to Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, the end of summer, 5 years of marriage etc. Tonight I wanted to write about my recent change of callings in the church.
For the last 3 years and 8 months I have served as President of the Urbana Ward Elders' Quorum. The week I was set apart as president, was the same week my experiment began and I had to start getting up at 5:00 am every morning to go feed the cows on my experiment. That first year was a trial and I wouldn't have done so well without the help of my wonderful wife Brittney who checked on the cows on Sundays while I was at church meetings, or without my counselors, Nathan Kartchner and Justin Dyer, and later Kevin Hoffman when Nathan moved. I felt my counselors were there to teach me how to be president. (I even named some of the cows on my experiment after them...Dyer, Kartchner, and Turley (Kevin Turley was my secretary)).
The first couple of years the quorum was full of graduate students who were returned missionaries and already serving as great leaders in the church. There is a story about an old farmer who enters his donkey into the Kentucky Derby. His neighbor asks him why he would do such a thing when he knows his donkey will never win. The wise farmer responds, "He may not win, but the association will do him good." That is how I felt serving with these amazing brethren, future doctors, lawyers, scientists, architects, janitors, mechanics, leaders of the church. I wondered why a simple farm boy like me was their leader.
Then a great trial of my faith occured when they split my quorum in two. How are you supposed to feel when you've been pouring your heart and soul into creating unity among such a great group of brethren and then they tear half of them away and put them in another quorum? And to make matters worse, my first counselor and dear friend, Justin Dyer was called to be the new young mens' president, which meant he could no longer serve as my counselor. It took great faith to raise my hand and sustain that calling. But I couldn't complain, when I found out changes were coming, there were two brethren who I felt my work was not done with and I prayed that they would still be in my quorum after the changes, and they were, and the joy I have had watching them continue in their spiritual progression has been great.
The quorum went from being a large, strong quorum with a deep well of leadership, to a smaller quorum, though there were still faithful, talented leaders in the quorum, there were fewer people to fill all the assignments. Some of the tools I used to direct the affairs of the quorum changed. It was a blessing to have the opportunity to preside over the two different sizes of quorums. The last year I went through three second counselors due to moves and internships, James McCubbins, Scott Cromar and Todd Freestone. It was a pleasure and honor to serve with each of them.
My favorite part of being president was one on one teaching moments with the members of the quorum for stewardship interviews. Some of my sweetest moments of being president were in these interviews.
Some intereting (at least I think so) facts about my time as President:
Two ward boundary changes, St. Joseph being split off and sent to Rantoul, and west of Neil being split off and sent to Champaign. I served with 2 Bishops, 6 counselors in the Bishopric, 6 counselors in the quorum presidency, 3 secretaries, 4 ward mission leaders, 5 relief society presidents, 3 primary presidents, 3 young women presidents, 4 young men presidents, 2 ward clerks, 5 ward executive secretaries, 5 quorum executive secretaries. As best I can count, I helped between 70 and 75 families move (some more than once).
The quorum has changed a lot over the last 4 years. Many have come and gone. I hate to see people leave (though it gives me hope that some day I will too, many of them leave to a dream come true with a great job and a house), but I love to have new people come.
Now I am serving as an early morning seminary teacher. We have a religious class every weekday at 6:05 am at the church for high school students. The first week has been great, though I have a couple students who would much rather be sleeping and refused to participate the first couple days of class, one finally read a scripture for the first time in class last Friday, yeah! I have found they enjoy group activities and listen better to each other than they do to me. So far 17 students have come to class. I love them. I hope and pray I can be an instrument in God's hands to help them have the strength they need to get through the high school years that are so trying and only getting worse. I want seminary to be a refuge for them, where they can get away from the sleeze, and degrading influences they face at school. I can only do it with God's help.
