August... Busy... Crazy... Stressful

August has been a crazy month.  I'm noticing a trend that most of our months are crazy.  The stress level seems to be the thing that varies.  This month has been pretty stressful. Joel was let go at Western States since he's part of the union and WS never knew when he was going to be called up to go work for the Union.

The owner of the house we've been staying at returned and decided he was going to sell the house instead of keep it.  It was bound to happen eventually.  That means we started looking for a new place to live.  I think we were guided to a place near the San Miguel Garden.  We like the community and area and it's closer to the garden!  It will be more in the middle for me to go to work as well as when Joel as Union classes and work. The part I'm not a fan of is packing and cleaning.  All this to be accomplished by the end of the month and while working.  At least I'm not pregnant or have a new born like the last times we've moved.

With Joel not working, he has stayed home to watch the girls.  Usually for the 3 days that I work, the girls are at kid care, with to them is nothing more than a play date.  It's been interesting to see how they miss it.  Hailey will ask if she can play with Bella or Bailey.  We've arranged a few play dates and the reunions are apparently something to behold.  Pure childhood joy.  Humans really are social creatures.

   

 

August also meant Girls Camp.  Since the time I was called as a Young Women's leader in our current ward I've looked forward to girls camp.  I wasn't able to go up and stay all week because I work and because pumping/nursing would have been a small logistics problem.  Not impossible, just not easy.  I was able to go up on two nights and spend the evening.  The first night was Ward night.  Ryan came up with us.  That turned out to be quite funny.  Someone from the bishopric was supposed to be at Flag to represent the girls of each ward.  Well, the bishopric was running late so Ryan was asked to fill in.  What did that mean for him... well a dance off.  He had to go up and dance different genre's of music in front of all the girls.  The other men were up there at the same time. The last sone was swing and somehow one of the members pulled his wife up to dance with him, then the other members did the same... Well, Ryan didn't have a wife, but I guess sister was close enough, so I had to go up and dance as well.  The girls in the ward enjoyed it.

Friday night, Joel came up to camp with me while Mom watched the girls.  We showed up at the middle part of a girls dance.  He decided to go hiking instead of sitting around and watch.  He enjoyed the time in the mountains.  The girls had a testimony meeting after the fun and food.  It was nice to hear from each of the girls. The girls range from 12-18.  Some have solid foundations of what they believe and others are working on figuring it out.  It was refreshing to hear from the young women.  At camp, they didn't feel like they had to say what everyone else said because of peer pressure, but instead they said what was in their hearts, fears and all.

It was refreshing.  I had my moment to speak as well.  I think a lot of times, youth look up to leaders and expect us to know everything or be perfect or be what they need to become, but in reality, we look to the girls and try to become like them.  They are still more innocent then we are, especially the 12-13 year olds.

I will admit that my faith or spiritual life has lacked severely since coming home from my mission.  Life overwhelmed me and I crawled into a hole to hide.  There was part of me that was bitter and angry for a long time.  Being called into young women's what what softened me and allowed me to start progressing again.  The girls never knew that they were having this influence.  But I knew.  I looked forward to being around them.  I will miss them but always be grateful for them.

We never know what our influence is to another person.  We never know who the true leaders are for a person.  To each person, it may be someone different.  I hope that when we move, I can be as lucky as I was here to work with the youth.