A Good Old-fashioned Stake Shake-Up

So remember two weeks ago,
when I lamented that our Stake had the
"Special Conference"
that turned out to be a little bit of nothing?

Yeah.
I've gotta hand it to our leaders;
they got the last laugh for sure.

Yesterday,
we went to Church thinking it was just
another regular Sunday
but it wasn't.

It was the Ordinary Sunday that wasn't,
if you get me.

Our sweet Stake President came
and announced most of the changes
we were expecting--
with zero hoopla.
None.
It was actually very nice
and un-fussy.

So,
here's the deal:
Our ward had a little chunk taken out of it,
as did a couple other wards
while one ward was completely dissolved
and all of the members in those areas
were brought together to make a brand new ward!
Some more rearranging was done
and two more wards were created as well.
And the new meetinghouse was at least
acknowledged and spoken of,
as much-needed for the great growth
we're experiencing in our stake.

The only big gasp came
when our new meeting time was announced--
8 am.
That. was. funny.
It's only an hour earlier,
but the groans mixed with laughter
woulda made one think we'd been asked
to make bricks without straw.

Once the new boundaries' map was passed out,
we were asked to stand up with the rest of our
"new ward"--
more than 3/4's of our ward stood together
and looking around,
we could see clearly our members that would be part of the
other "new ward".
It was at this moment
that I got a little choked up:
I saw way in the back,
Joseph's scoutmaster, Brother Alcorn.
He wasn't standing up with us.
I quickly glanced over at my boy
and saw his head in his hands,
his little chest trembling under his Sunday coat,
his bottom lip trembling.
He had seen Brother Alcorn's family sitting too.

My son,
who at 12 years old,
wears a size 13 in men's shoes,
is nearly 6 feet tall,
was sucking up his sudden feelings of loss
for a quiet, gentle leader.

Tears filled my eyes for him.
I looked to Mr W, who'd also taken notice of
our boys' reaction to the changes
and his eyes too were welled up.

When you see that kind of emotion in your child's eyes
for another adult,
it does something to you.
It's hard to watch.
The words don't come--
what can we say, really?
Dad put his arm on Joseph's shoulder
and patted him softly.
Joseph didn't look up,
just kept wiping his eyes
to hide the evidence of his overflowing heart.

Brother Alcorn isn't a big loud personality.
He's an experienced father of boys,
Eagle Scouts,
and yet is a strong presence when he's needed to be.
Mr. W has alot in common with him;
they've been to alot of scout camp-out with
a dozen 11-12 year old rascally boys
and survived to live another day!

In fact,
just this week the scouts are taking off for a 3-day Front Range Trek
along the base of the Air Force Academy rampart range.
Joseph being the "Quartermaster" of the troop
has spent most of the weekend
helping prepare his troop for the trek.

Brother Alcorn uses his work vacation days
to serve the scouts.
Does that say enough about him?
His wife and kids let him do that.
How cool, hunh?

Now, I know that whomever gets called to take his place
will be a good man...
we have those in abundance in our ward--
but he will have a big pair of hiking boots to fill.

I love and appreciate that my children have been blessed
by the calibur of adults they've had as teachers and leaders
in the church their whole lives.
As hard as it is to go thru the changes that growth demands,
it is always a blessing to get to know and support
the new people who come in and do their part too.

So that was the Stake Shake-up of 2012.
We go thru this about every two years,
no kidding.
***

Oh,
and a big P.S.!
Nana is doing alot better!
Thanks for all of your love and prayers!