My Joy Is Fuller

After my temple experience I was working hard to just go with the flow. To trust ourselves to God's care. These thoughts were very full with me when I went to Church on Sunday. Full thoughts + Fast Sunday = mouth overflowing. I bore my testimony and blubbered a bit and said some stuff about being a missionary (always; I can't seem to help it). Anyway, I was really feeling so happy and it was the easiest fast I've had in months.

I taught a couple of classes Sunday and while I was gathering up my things one of the young women came to find me. She was baptized while I was her leader. I have sometimes worried about her sticking power because her sweet family tends to run a little bit hot and cold with attendance. As with many 14 year-olds that get baptized, there was a cute boy involved and lots of initial fellowship. In the years since, the cute boy and his family have distanced themselves from the Church, and the fellowshipping has given way accepting  her as one of themselves.

As she approached me I found it odd that she would seek me out, and for a moment wondered if she was going to unburden deep concerns. Instead she shyly thanked me for my testimony, telling me it was an answer to prayers she has had lately about going on a mission. She said, "I just realized today how important it will be for me to have those kinds of experiences to look back on." Wow. Just wow. We cried and hugged. I remembered that years ago our YW secretary, though rather elderly and not in the best health, decided to go on a mission with her husband. Because, she told me, that she had listened to my experiences and was convinced that she wasn't too old to make new memories. Later that day a friend called to tell me that her son (in my Sunday School class) loves hearing my mission stories. 

I feel so humbled and blessed by these admissions; I feel so grateful for the gift God has given me to open my mouth. The gift to remember and tell. The gift to help others feel the influence of the Holy Ghost. My patriarchal blessing tells me to prepare for teaching and service. I am feeling the blessing of this preparation more and more with each passing year. 

After Sunday's high, I prayed for peace and sang hymns to calm my nerves and my stomach. I waited for the phone to ring. . and Tuesday night it did.

I have been offered the ideal job. My prayers have been answered. I will be working at the local high school, whose schedule runs more or less the same as the one my children are on. Students are on an A/B day schedule. I will be teaching all of A day, but only one class on B day. I have the majority of every other day off. My husband can put my kids on the bus each morning, and they will only have to do after school club every other day, and only for an hour on those days. I only have one prep.

For months Plantboy and I have prayed that I would find a job that brought me joy, supplemented our income and allowed me to still be the kind of mother I wanted to be. I don't know why we have been so smiled upon when lots of others are still enduring trials. I am not unaware of the awesome intersection of providence and preparation whenever I have needed a job. Notice that I did not say luck. My regular readers know how I feel about luck, but please don't mistake that to mean that I believe this is all on me either. I see God's hand in our lives so powerfully this week that I feel to rejoice. We will take our season of joy now and store up against future trials.