The riddle revealed...

Okay, Christmas is over and I'm back in the blogging world. I have so much to catch up on that it will take several days of posting. There was Christmas, our weekend in Bear Lake with my family, and Brennen's birthday. So much excitement! Stay tuned for details....

I realize that I owe an answer to the riddle I published in THIS post. My new calling is The Assistant Laurel Leader in the 4th West Building in the Orem Suncrest Stake. Or something to that effect; I was supposedly called on Sunday, when I wasn't there, so I'm not sure what the exact title is. Clint's new calling is the Assistant Teacher Leader in the 4th West Building in the Orem Suncrest Stake. Didn't know such callings existed? I'm pretty sure they don't, ordinarily, but out Stake presidency created them just for us. :) As I mentioned in my previous post, Clint and I are each keeping our other callings of YM and YW presidents in our ward.

So, the question is, what are these new callings about, and how do they have the potential to relieve some of the burdens on Clint's and my shoulders? First, you have to understand a little about my ward, as well as the other two wards that meet in our building.

We live smack dab in the middle of Orem (aka Mormonville), Utah. Our ward boundaries include an area about one block wide and three blocks long, with one little bubble extension across the street. The size of our ward is average, yet we have very few youth. Clint has 3 young men (one in each class), and I will soon have 5 young women (3 Mia Maids, and 2 Beehives). The other two wards in our building are very similar to ours. This is because we live very close to a small community hospital. Senior housing tends to cluster around hospitals, and we have several senior citizen townhouses in our neighborhood. We have what you would call a newlywed/nearly-dead ward.

While having so few youth to 'lead' may seem to be easier on the surface than having 30-40 young women, it is actually not. The young women all meet together every Sunday for class, and every Wednesday for mutual, and the young men do the same. Class presidencies are a foreign concept, and advisors don't exist. The YW and YM presidencies take turns teaching every Sunday, and some how end up planning most of the activities as well (up until last month, we only had one active YW in our ward).

All of the leaders in both organizations feel the need to attend all the activites, sticking to the general rule of thumb that the more people, the better the party. It also takes all the energy and enthusiasm the leaders can possess to help make the activities fun and enjoyable for the youth. It is particularly exhausting for Clint and I because we have to take our two boys with us to all the activities.

Our stake presidency's solution to this problem has been in the works for several months now, and will be implemented at the start of 2009. On Sundays, we each meet with our own individual wards, and function with our own individual ward presidencies, etc. On Wednesdays, however, the ward boundaries dissolve, and we have all activities on a building level. We will start to have class activities (with all the Laurels from all 3 wards meeting together, etc) twice a week, a YW/YM combined activity once a week, and a YW combined and YM combined activity once a week. You know, the ways things are supposed to be in a 'normal' ward. The best part about it is that there will be enough youth in each class to have class presidencies, and these presidencies will be planning the activities.

As far as the adult leadership goes for Wednesdays, it's pretty simple. All the YW presidents will be over the Laurels, 1st counselors over the Mia Maids, etc. The young men switched theirs up just a tiny bit, so Clint is actually over the Teachers instead of the Priests. There will be one leader in each age group chosen as the 'Leader', as chosen by the 3 Bishops. Luckily for us, neither Clint nor I are the chosen 'Leaders'. We are just assistants. :)

So the best part about this: the burdens this takes off Clint's and my shoulders.
1) we are not planning the activities anymore... the youth are
2) there will be enough youth attending now that the 'fun-ness' of the activity does not rest so much on the leaders
3) as assistants, we are not 'in charge' anymore during the week
4) if there is a particular activity that is not extremely kid-friendly or kid-appropriate, either Clint or I can stay home with the boys, and it will be okay because there will be enough leaders and youth attending that one missing person won't make such a huge difference

I have served in this YW organization for almost exactly 3 years now, and as President for a year and a half. I must say that I have been feeling burned out lately, but these changes excite me and reenergize me. I'm sure there will be bumps that will need to be worked out. This is a sort of a pilot program after all. We have had multiple building meetings to discuss the details. But, overall, things make sense to me, and I can't wait for the changes to start! Hooray!