Thanksgiving this year was a
“small” gathering at Isaac’s parents’ home (maybe 20 people?) and one of my
favorites because it was so relaxed. Since
it is so painful for me to be on my feet preparing food, I am so grateful for all
the family members who pitched in. Instead
I enlisted a couple of the grandchildren to help me interview all the family
members about Thanksgiving, which we used to play a homemade version of Loaded Questions. On the question “What are 3 things you are
grateful for in 2019?” Isaac and I had almost identical responses, which sum
up some major parts of our year:
*We are grateful for our Spouse:
Isaac has always been a good
husband and father, but has really blossomed this year! He has worked on developing new habits,
particularly since April Conference, acting in Faith in Jesus Christ, and is
even more patient and forgiving of his wife and her circumstances (if that were
possible)! He was also a good sport when
I signed him up for two classes this fall: Self Reliance through Personal
Finance and Mindfulness for Men, both of which were helpful. I can’t match any of that, but I do try to pack
him a simple breakfast and lunch every morning, even if those ten minutes
induce sciatic pain for the rest of the day.
It sure saves us a lot of money not eating out and he and my mom have
been great to assist with many dinner meals.
*We are grateful for our new jobs this year:
We both still work for the Church
but changed up our roles (as well as our work emails which now read
“ChurchofJesusChrist.org”, wahoo!). In
October, Isaac went from working for the Special Projects Department: Real
Estate Division, to what I call “the best department in the Church”: The Temple
Department (Planning Division). The difference here is that Special Projects plans
the sites, gets the land, and constructs buildings, and Isaac was analyzing
real estate and geographical data to help.
The Temple Department takes over after a temple is dedicated to the
Lord, so now his focus is on the statistics of ordinances, operations, and
worker data, such as how many people like me should get jobs!
I went from being an “on-call
clerk” in the temple to having a regular (job-sharing) position with the
daughter of Isaac’s neighbor growing up (Sister Harrison) who has worked there
for years. The two of us coordinate the
volunteers and act as a secretary for the paid Assistant Recorder in helping
him and the Temple President interview new workers or release current ones. I continue to schedule and meet with patrons who are coming for the first time to do an ordinance. I have also been exploring different ideas for utilizing volunteers better and preparing for the busy season when the Salt Lake Temple closes. I was able to interview some office managers in local temples as well as Cedar City and St. George (pictured). We had a marathon day there the weekend it closed going through each of the ordinances chronologically and seeing how their temple organized it all. It was fascinating and made up for being worn out physically!
Our jobs have their stresses and
ups and downs, but we feel privileged to be involved in the work. Now that we both work for the Temple Department, it’s been easy to get caught up in the
locations, “flow”, and effectiveness of procedures in how temples run at our
dinner table conversations . So now our goal is to follow President
Nelson’s counsel and instead focus on the true purpose of the temples: the
covenants we make to keep the commandments of God (see this short poem that I love). We’d be happy
to discuss this part of our jobs with you any time! 😊
*We are grateful for our baby!
There
are several other posts on our journey to starting a family and in the Spring I
talked about how our ICSI-IVF was a bust and our chances for having biological
children essentially shot for the future.
As shocking as that was, we still believed the Lord’s promises to us and
knew somehow things would work out when the time was right. Within a couple of months, I was expecting
and had several assurances to not waste mental energy fretting about
miscarriage/stillbirth, etc. Our baby is
extremely active, big enough and strong enough, and you can read up on
more of the details in the previous and following posts. Thank you for your prayers and understanding
in our behalf. It’s still a rough road
mentally and physically, but things are really looking up and of course we are
very thankful for this blessing!
Other Blessings we are Grateful For: electricity, heat, a
comfortable home, the Godhead and all our bounteous blessings from them and
through them, helpful family members and friends, housemates to share the mortgage,
flushing toilets, a variety of convenient, easy to prepare foods, scriptures,
music, counselors and listening friends, mental and physical health/education,
energy, sleep, a not-horrible pregnancy, warm showers, visits and discussions,
interesting reading/listening, time to prepare for parenthood, church callings
(which have changed quite a bit this year), ministering to others, being ministered
to ourselves, pain-free moments, deadline-free moments, sunsets, stationary
bikes, nature, and love.
