A few days ago, Debbie from Our Old Homestead invited me to a game of "Sunday Activity Tag." The topic reminds me of the papers elementary school children write each September: "What I Did This Summer." Fortunately for me, I only have to remember back to last Sunday, and my Sundays have basically the same routine each week. Sundays for me mean church and family time, and this Sunday followed the same pattern.
For those of you unfamiliar with the terminology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, here's a little vocabulary lesson, so the rest of the post makes sense:
Congregations are divided geographically into wards (or branches, if the congregation is especially small in number.) Several wards and branches comprise a stake.
Bishops preside over the wards, branch presidents preside over branches, and stake presidents preside over stakes. All positions, or callings, including bishops, branch presidents, and stake presidents, are filled by lay members. This graphic helps explain:
When an individual is given a calling, the bishop or one of his counselors (or the stake president or one of his counselors) will meet with that individual to ask if he or she would be willing to serve in that capacity. I've had many different callings in the church through the years. Currently I'm a counselor in the stake Relief Society presidency.
Whew. I hope that made sense and wasn't too overwhelming. No quiz, I promise. If I need to clarify something, just ask.
Anyway, back to telling what I did last Sunday:
The early morning was spent getting ready for church. John had a ward council meeting at 7:30 a.m. The rest of us arrived at church in time for sacrament meeting, which started at 9. (Oops, I guess I forgot another term: sacrament meeting is our worship service, where we partake of the sacrament [similar to communion] and listen to talks given by members of the congregation.) After sacrament meeting, we went to Sunday school, where we discussed Jesus Christ and his atonement. Following Sunday school, I attended Relief Society. The lesson was titled, "Learning by Faith."
At noon, when church was over, I chatted briefly with a couple of people. It seemed like everyone wanted to say their good-byes to Reno, who was attending church for the last Sunday before returning to Guide Dogs for the Blind for his formal training.
When I got home, I sat down with the family for lunch, then I got on the computer briefly to print an updated roster of the ward Relief Society presidencies in the stake. At 1:30, I carpooled over with the stake Relief Society president and secretary to meet with the newly-called R.S. presidency of one of the branches. (The other stake R.S. counselor met us there.) We helped answer some of the president's questions and explained some of the responsibilities.
I use the term "we" loosely, as we were meeting with the R.S. presidency of a Spanish-speaking branch. Fortunately, our secretary is a native-Spanish speaker, and translated for us. The stake R.S. president speaks a bit of Spanish, and I amazed myself when I was able to finish one of her sentences with the word "semana." The last Spanish class I took was in 1985, I think. I think I need to start brushing up, but at least one word remained in my brain somehow!
A couple of hours had passed by the time I got back home. I spent a bit of time on the computer, composing Monday's blog post. I read the newspaper. We had dinner--the soup I wrote about--and just relaxed. That evening, we watched the latest episode of "Once Upon a Time." I'm not a huge TV viewer, but I do enjoy that show.
Reading scriptures as a family, followed by family prayer, signaled the end of the day, as it does every day.
Now, I'm going to be a bit of a rebel. I'm supposed to tag 7 blogs to write about their past Sunday, but I'm going to just invite anyone who wants to participate to write a blog post (or comment) about what they did on Sunday. However, I'm happy to share links to seven (of the many) blogs I enjoy reading.
High Heels and Daffodils
Julia T.B.A.
just the way things are
Quilts Cats and Automobiles
Ready for Adventures
Sew Many Ways
Stitchin by the Lake
Thanks for Sundays.
Sew Darn Crafty Party, Find a Friend Friday, Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop, Show Your Stuff, The Wildly Original Link Party, Wow Us Wednesdays, Down Home Blog Hop, Tuesday Archive Link Up, Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
For those of you unfamiliar with the terminology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, here's a little vocabulary lesson, so the rest of the post makes sense:
Congregations are divided geographically into wards (or branches, if the congregation is especially small in number.) Several wards and branches comprise a stake.
Bishops preside over the wards, branch presidents preside over branches, and stake presidents preside over stakes. All positions, or callings, including bishops, branch presidents, and stake presidents, are filled by lay members. This graphic helps explain:
When an individual is given a calling, the bishop or one of his counselors (or the stake president or one of his counselors) will meet with that individual to ask if he or she would be willing to serve in that capacity. I've had many different callings in the church through the years. Currently I'm a counselor in the stake Relief Society presidency.
Whew. I hope that made sense and wasn't too overwhelming. No quiz, I promise. If I need to clarify something, just ask.
Anyway, back to telling what I did last Sunday:
The early morning was spent getting ready for church. John had a ward council meeting at 7:30 a.m. The rest of us arrived at church in time for sacrament meeting, which started at 9. (Oops, I guess I forgot another term: sacrament meeting is our worship service, where we partake of the sacrament [similar to communion] and listen to talks given by members of the congregation.) After sacrament meeting, we went to Sunday school, where we discussed Jesus Christ and his atonement. Following Sunday school, I attended Relief Society. The lesson was titled, "Learning by Faith."
At noon, when church was over, I chatted briefly with a couple of people. It seemed like everyone wanted to say their good-byes to Reno, who was attending church for the last Sunday before returning to Guide Dogs for the Blind for his formal training.
When I got home, I sat down with the family for lunch, then I got on the computer briefly to print an updated roster of the ward Relief Society presidencies in the stake. At 1:30, I carpooled over with the stake Relief Society president and secretary to meet with the newly-called R.S. presidency of one of the branches. (The other stake R.S. counselor met us there.) We helped answer some of the president's questions and explained some of the responsibilities.
I use the term "we" loosely, as we were meeting with the R.S. presidency of a Spanish-speaking branch. Fortunately, our secretary is a native-Spanish speaker, and translated for us. The stake R.S. president speaks a bit of Spanish, and I amazed myself when I was able to finish one of her sentences with the word "semana." The last Spanish class I took was in 1985, I think. I think I need to start brushing up, but at least one word remained in my brain somehow!
A couple of hours had passed by the time I got back home. I spent a bit of time on the computer, composing Monday's blog post. I read the newspaper. We had dinner--the soup I wrote about--and just relaxed. That evening, we watched the latest episode of "Once Upon a Time." I'm not a huge TV viewer, but I do enjoy that show.
Reading scriptures as a family, followed by family prayer, signaled the end of the day, as it does every day.
Now, I'm going to be a bit of a rebel. I'm supposed to tag 7 blogs to write about their past Sunday, but I'm going to just invite anyone who wants to participate to write a blog post (or comment) about what they did on Sunday. However, I'm happy to share links to seven (of the many) blogs I enjoy reading.
High Heels and Daffodils
Julia T.B.A.
just the way things are
Quilts Cats and Automobiles
Ready for Adventures
Sew Many Ways
Stitchin by the Lake
Thanks for Sundays.
Sew Darn Crafty Party, Find a Friend Friday, Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop, Show Your Stuff, The Wildly Original Link Party, Wow Us Wednesdays, Down Home Blog Hop, Tuesday Archive Link Up, Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
I am so glad you played along Kristi and WOW, you had a VERY busy Sunday!!! I never watch t.v. either but we do watch Once Upon a Time! LOL
ReplyDeleteHave a great day!
An informative post - thanks for the graphic. Even though several of my friends are Mormons, I didn't realize that lay members were the leaders in your faith.
ReplyDeleteYou had a pretty busy Sunday!
ReplyDelete