Mother's Day Report

[Brian Johnston]

7 of the adult men in the congregation were wearing a non-white shirt. One had a tasteful, colorful Hawaiian-style shirt with no tie, which looked just right with his goatee

Youth speaker fumbled on a quote that was funny. He said "we're told that we should be ... uhhh .... of the world but not ... from the world. I think that's right?" Which is funny because he got it backwards. We NOT supposed to be of the world, but in the world. I laughed, and a few people chuckled (it was nice).

The service was very musical. The primary sang. Later, the YM/YW did a number and they had a violin accompanying them.

The first speaker was an elderly woman who is deaf. She spoke on the history of Mother's Day. It was actually very interesting (to me). They arranged for a sister in the ward to sit in the front row with a microphone and speak/interpret her sign language. I thought it was an awesome accommodation setup and diversity to hear this woman.

Main point she made that was picked up by the main speaker following was to call it "Mothering Day" instead of just "Mother's Day." That idea included the wide range of diversity we find today, honoring the role of "mothering" in our families and society regardless of a woman's situation. The main speaker was a very nice sister in the ward. She explicitly acknowledged our MOTHER IN HEAVEN in her talk, which I thought was way cool (talking about the divine feminine). She spent time talking about the diverse roles of mothering, including when women are single moms and fill mother and father roles, and how women can be a great influence "mothering" regardless of their having biological children. It was not hokey, and she was sincere.

Bishop filled in the remaining 10 minutes with his own thoughts. He made a funny by making a big deal about opening up his scriptures and turning to D&C 122 where it talks about the savior comforting Joseph in prison. He then began to read it, but started inserting modern things about being handed over into the hands of angry teenagers, and being cast out into hamper of dirty laundry. It was funny, almost a bit sacrilegious and edgy which I liked, and made a great point about the trials of women juggling so much in their lives.

[Heber13]

Thanks for shaing, Brian. Sounds like a pretty good meeting.

[Curt Sunshine]

We had a youth speaker who started by saying she immediately thought of all the sewing and cooking and crafty things that people talk about in preparing to be a mother - but that, since she isn't good at those things and can't stand doing all of that stuff, she wasn't going to talk about it.

The Primary kids sang "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" - with a counter melody sung by one of the oldest girls. It was gorgeous.

The final speaker shared the life story of Lucy Mack Smith as an example of what she taught Joseph - and emphasized how similar Joseph's journey was to his mother's. I never would have expected that topic, and it could have been really awkward, but it actually was a wonderful talk.

The best part of the meeting for me was the Sacrament prayer, which also could have been seriously awkward. One of the priests was saying the prayer for the first time, and he obviously was very nervous. He also has some difficulty reading, so it was a struggle for him. He made a couple of glaring mistakes in the wording and didn't catch it in time to correct it in the moment - mistakes that were important enough to require starting over - so he had to start over. After that happened twice, our Bishop stepped over to the table, knelt next to him, put his arm around him and coached him through the prayer phrase-by-phrase - in such a way that nobody was aware of it until the prayer had ended and we saw him stand up and walk back to his seat.

Two things stood out to me:

1) I found myself saying a silent prayer for the young man to be OK and "helped" to say the prayer correctly. I didn't expect that help to come in the form it did, but it reinforced the idea that we can be the answers to prayer if we are willing to help others in any way we can.

2) I love our Bishop.

One more thing:

I was having a PPI with our HPGL today, and he said something that really hit me hard. To the best of my memory, he said:

I get really frustrated sometimes with people who won't do much to help. My life isn't easy [NOTE: He and his wife have three adult, mentally handicapped children who all live with them.], and I've been in a presidency of some kind for about 35 of the 37 years I've been in the Church. Sometimes, I get tired of everything I have to do - but then I realize that the Lord has never gotten tired of me, thrown his hands in the air and given up on me. I know I must frustrate him constantly, and that helps me deal with the times when I get frustrated with others.

I also love our HPGL.

[cwald]

Our youth speaker was my son, who of course forgot that he was suppose to speak. He got and gave a two minute impromptu on the 2000 strippling warriors - actaully it was pretty good, and a brief testimony that including a lot of "I believe..." statements.

The lady who spoke, talked a lot about how it's a sin to throw your baby up in the air because it "dislodges" their brains and makes them "retarded." No I am not joking. I enjoyed it all personally - very entertaining. .

[Curt Sunshine]

cwald, that comment has to be marked in the archives somehow - just so we can pull it out occasionally and laugh at the weirdness that is Mormonism. I don't want to laugh . . . but I can't help myself. I think I'll still be chuckling tonight as I'm drifting off to sleep.

Oh, and that talk made me remember this hilarious picture - which, if you look closely at the building, obviously was taken at an LDS meetinghouse:

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/2010/12/ ... bambini-3/

[mom3]

We had a weird Sunday and didn't attend today. I just got off the phone with my mom and she told me about their Sacrament meeting. I thought it was such a beautiful event I'd share that one today. My mom said they have about 7 youth serving missions. Privately the Bishop contacted each one and asked them to write a letter to their Mom to be read for Sacrament meeting. They weren't to tell their moms. They were just to send them to him. Once the letters arrived he called a family member or the dad to read the letter over the pulpit. I guess it was teary and tender as can be. Last of all the Bishop stood up. He set a box on the stand. It was a handmade, wooden shaped heart box. He explained that years ago the young men had made these boxes. He then held up the box and showed all the flaws. The rough edges, the misplaced pieces, so on. He then explained that it was easy to look at the flaws if you wanted to or like everyone did in the beginning, when the Bishop held up the box, could see the effort, the beauty, the success of the box. He said motherhood often feels like this box. It's easy to sometimes see all the unfinished, flawed parts when in fact every Mom is beautiful, complete, and successful. Then someone in the ward had made enough boxes to pass out to each sister, and a chocolate was inside.

To me that was the most beautiful Mother's Day I'd heard of. Now I hear all of yours and I'm even more joyful. Thanks everyone for making my Mother's Day.

[SilentDawning]

Apparently I had a very restful nap during mother's day. According to my daughter, I assumed at least 3 hilarious dozing positions in the pew which my daughter noticed from the stand where she was singing. My young son was extremely well-behaved throught the meeting. However, this was due to his being stretched out on the pew in front of me in a quiet slumber broken by the occasional light snore only heard by myself. I don't know what it is about the stimulii of sacrament meeting -- in spite of having a full night of rest, being in decent health, the SECOND I sit in a pew in Sacrament meeting I'm overcome with drowsiness. Then, as soon as the meeting is over, I'm a live wire.

The mother's day gifts were little boxes which contained 3 bite-sized chocolate bars, which I think were probably not much of a hit with the women in the crowd.

On the bright side, in priesthood meeting, our former Bishop observed that as an LDS Church, we are one of the few congregations that still have the old-fashioned kind of service. Most other services have a band and multi-media and a professional speaker. He thinks this is the reason we have such trouble hanging on to new converts. I piped up on that one, and cited boring meetings as a cause of so many people being less active when I visited them as a priesthood leader. I indicated "I wasn't sure if we were on the right track with the traditional format anymore", and received a number of starts and stares. Someone then commented that in other Churches, some have a traditional service, which tends to be attended by the older generation, and a newer, upbeat service for everyone else.

And finally, I've formed my own informal Sunday School class during Gospel Doctrine. Myself and a gentleman with some divergent ideas get together and discuss the gospel from our own perspectives in a room that is available. It's more of a private conversation, but I find it's more interesting than the gospel doctrine class, which is taught by someone with a monotone voice and rather weak teaching skills.

The highlight of my experience today was a quotation from this gentleman who said:

"Sleeping is such a commonplace activity at Church that if you laid all the High Priests who sleep during meetings end to end, they would be a lot more comfortable".

I will try to be more serious next week.

[Kalola]

The lady who spoke, talked a lot about how it's a sin to throw your baby up in the air because it "dislodges" their brains and makes them "retarded." No I am not joking. I enjoyed it all personally - very entertaining. .

As the mother of a son who has autism and moderate mental retardation, I find this extremely sad.

[Katzpur]

I didn't go to church today. This was my present to myself. I cannot deal with talks about how mothers are the greatest influence in a person's life.

[HiJolly]

After singing a perfectly sappy, sickly sweet song about the way every mother is the source of all good in the world and Practically Perfect in Every Way(tm), I went to my home ward and listened to one the the most awesome sisters in the ward talk about how moms are human and just try to get the job done as best they can, and how that is all anyone should expect.

She said it way better than I. My wife & I loved it. Her husband spoke & said something like "if men had babies, I'd want an epidural right after conception!" He's a former bishop. I really love my ward.


HiJolly