Welcome to Midian!

Well, here I am!  Getting me settled in the physical sense was quite an adventure, but not really worth dwelling on.  I'll just say that I am very grateful for brothers. =)

So let's fast forward to week six in Midian, when I discovered that I had been attending the wrong ward.  Let me 'splain.

Shortly before I moved, I received an email from my outgoing ward clerk, saying that my records had been sent to the Midian Tenth Ward, which met at 123 Midian Street at 9:00 AM.  I finished moving late on a Saturday night, and church the next morning didn't so much happen.

So, by the time I went to church, it had been a couple of weeks since I received the email, but I had already located the meetinghouse so I didn't worry about looking it up again.  I showed up at 123 Midian Street at 9:00 AM, got handed a program that said "Midian Fourth Ward," and didn't think a thing of it.  But, yeah... if you were paying attention, you might have caught that I was in the Tenth, not the Fourth.  Unbeknownst to me, I meet in one of those crazy meetinghouses that has two full sets of everything, including chapels.  I was in the east chapel, and my actual ward met in the west chapel.

The next three weeks were a regional conference, a temple dedication and general conference.  So on week six, I finally went back to what I believed to be my ward.  Even bore my testimony in Sacrament Meeting.  Then, during Sunday School, the ward clerk realized the mistake, and the two respective Bishops did a trade-off.  So I attended Relief Society in my actual ward... where, ironically, my records had been read in that very day, while I was busy bearing my testimony to the wrong set of Midianites!

Now things get really funny:  on my way out of RS, a very nice lady introduced herself and asked if I would be willing to do a musical number in Sacrament Meeting. In two weeks.  I was a bit caught off guard, but naturally I agreed.

The following Sunday evening, my real Bishop called and asked if I would be willing to speak in Sacrament Meeting. The next week.  I told him that I would already be singing, thinking that he would surely change his mind, buuuut...nope, not so much.  He said essentially, "I know it's a lot to ask, but if you're willing, I'd really like you to speak."

So, there you have it.  On my THIRD week in the Midian Tenth Ward, the entire ward really got to know the new girl! =)

I sang one of my favorite hymns, "I Know That My Redeemer Lives."  I divided the third verse into four sections, which I sang in Italian, German, French, and HEBREW.  Yes, literal Hebrew -- that's not another Ten Commandments metaphor, although now that I think about it, it was quite appropriate. =P  I have an Israeli colleague who taught me how to say it phonetically, and it totally gave me goosebumps to sing "He lives" in Hebrew.  Still gives me goosebumps to think of it, in fact. =)

My talk was on promptings of the Spirit.  I generally give my talks from pretty minimal notes, but on Mom's request I wrote this one out.  I'm going to copy & paste it here in the following post.  Stay tuned ...