I learned in church today

[DrumNFeather]

What are the reasons?

The parking lot is too small...and one of the wards is really, really big. I think that when they built our building and drew the boundaries that they thought the wards would grow equally and they haven't. So the huge ward has been attending at 1:00 for the last two years so that it can have the building to itself. Problem is, that with it and the 11:00 ward there is no parking. The huge ward is also the SP's ward and he mentioned when announcing the change that he has seen on more than one occasion people driving around the parking lot a couple of times looking for a spot and eventually giving up and leaving. Between that and a lot of people leaning on him (my perception) he's made this move. I guess he didn't feel like splitting the wards would solve anything.

So part of what is going on is that they'll expand the parking lot, but in the meantime, they don't want to have any wards overlap...so the schedule is now 8-11, 11:30-2:30, and 3-6.

The SP also said that the church has purchased land nearby, but won't begin construction until our building is at or over capacity...which could mean 4 wards before we see a new building here.

My humble opinion - terrible idea, but that's why I teach 11 year-olds in primary and don't run the Stake.

[Omaha 680]

It was announced today that for various reasons the wards in our building will no longer overlap. So we are moving to 11:30...and then in January 3-6. Thank goodness we are moving before that happens.

Dumb. I don't think I could do 3-6 church. Would be a sacrament only year for me. Probably for my wife too which would be extraordinary.

[Moliere]

Dumb. I don't think I could do 3-6 church. Would be a sacrament only year for me. Probably for my wife too which would be extraordinary.

We have 3-6 church. It's dumb. Stake Youth firesides turn out to just be extensions of normal church. We can't hold courts of honor on Sunday or any other evening meetings for that matter. It's dark when we leave the building. The only benefit is that instead of a Sunday dinner I get to make a huge Sunday brunch.

[DrumNFeather]

We have 3-6 church. It's dumb. Stake Youth firesides turn out to just be extensions of normal church. We can't hold courts of honor on Sunday or any other evening meetings for that matter. It's dark when we leave the building. The only benefit is that instead of a Sunday dinner I get to make a huge Sunday brunch.

Do you have 3 wards or 4 in your building? Same justification as my SP?

[Omaha 680]

The parking lot is too small...and one of the wards is really, really big. I think that when they built our building and drew the boundaries that they thought the wards would grow equally and they haven't. So the huge ward has been attending at 1:00 for the last two years so that it can have the building to itself. Problem is, that with it and the 11:00 ward there is no parking. The huge ward is also the SP's ward and he mentioned when announcing the change that he has seen on more than one occasion people driving around the parking lot a couple of times looking for a spot and eventually giving up and leaving. Between that and a lot of people leaning on him (my perception) he's made this move. I guess he didn't feel like splitting the wards would solve anything.

So part of what is going on is that they'll expand the parking lot, but in the meantime, they don't want to have any wards overlap...so the schedule is now 8-11, 11:30-2:30, and 3-6.

The SP also said that the church has purchased land nearby, but won't begin construction until our building is at or over capacity...which could mean 4 wards before we see a new building here.

My humble opinion - terrible idea, but that's why I teach 11 year-olds in primary and don't run the Stake.

Sounds like he needs to step up and initiate a boundary revision to address the imbalance. It's annoying for the stake leadership but it's the best solution overall.

[Jeff Lebowski]

We had a great sacrament meeting today. Six special musical numbers mixed with three short talks about Christ.

[Eddie]

I learned that...

If your wife ignores that little voice that tells her to turn off her cell phone at the beginning of Sacrament Meeting, then when someone calls her during the most quiet part of the Sacrament - if you start to chuckle (even if it is just a little) she's probably going to punch you.

I also learned that if your phone goes off while in a purse, it will be heard in the entire chapel. Though the purse will muffle the sound quite a bit, so people can tell a phone is ringing but only those in the nearest pews will recognize the ringtone. However, if you pull your phone out of your purse in an attempt to stop it from ringing, well...then the ringtone will be heard clearly throughout the entire room.

Which bring me to...If you are going to ignore that little voice and not turn off your cell phone, then you probably want to keep a pretty common ringtone that could be ANYBODY'S instead of, oh, let's say something like the theme music from the Wonder Woman TV show from the 70's that you've shared with your friends because you love it so much. Just as an example, mind you.

FYI - the folks in the pew in front of you are allowed to shake in silent laughter as much as they want without getting punched.

[Paperback Writer]

We had a great sacrament meeting today. Six special musical numbers mixed with three short talks about Christ.

My ward had F&T meeting on Easter Sunday. Previous week was Stake Conference. Part of the primary lesson was a discussion about things we do to celebrate Easter like Easter baskets, etc. Interesting to see what families were observing the fast. F&T meeting on Easter Sunday is dumb. Wish I could have experienced something like your ward's Easter program.

[PaloAltoCougar]

We had a great sacrament meeting today. Six special musical numbers mixed with three short talks about Christ.

We had an excellent one as well; in fact, from start-to-finish it was one of the best days at Church I've attended in many months. I'm still thinking about a story the bishop's wife told about her conversion and how it affected her relationship with her nonmember family. A good day.

... If you are going to ignore that little voice and not turn off your cell phone, then you probably want to keep a pretty common ringtone that could be ANYBODY'S instead of, oh, let's say something like the theme music from the Wonder Woman TV show from the 70's that you've shared with your friends because you love it so much. Just as an example, mind you...

Through no fault of my own, I embarrassed my sister by calling her during what was apparently an important client meeting. Why am I to blame if the ringtone she selected for me was Spinal Tap's Big Bottom?

[myboynoah]

We had another very good meeting. Our branch is full of non-Americans, most of them 1st generation Mormons. Their spirituality is very raw, which is quite inspiring. Most weeks are very good.

[Jeff Lebowski]

My ward had F&T meeting on Easter Sunday. Previous week was Stake Conference. Part of the primary lesson was a discussion about things we do to celebrate Easter like Easter baskets, etc. Interesting to see what families were observing the fast. F&T meeting on Easter Sunday is dumb. Wish I could have experienced something like your ward's Easter program.

F&T on Easter? That's messed up.

[Eddie]

Our Stake President says that every month should only have one Fast Sunday, so we always have F/T meeting the week after conference instead of the week before, like some.

This week we had a missionary farewell for a senior couple leaving in a couple of weeks. They aren't what I would consider the "traditional" senior couple. Both are retired, but just barely. He looked through the missionary needs flyer the church sends out and hoped they would be picked as service missionaries to teach diesel mechanics in Samoa. Instead they are headed to Missouri to serve in the Independence visitors center.

About half of their kids are inactive, but they had all of their children and grandchildren get up and sing a couple of songs. I thought it was great that they got to have their inactive kids & grand-kids with them on Easter Sunday singing a pair of primary songs - not something you see every day.

They both did a good job. Ward Choir had a couple of hymns they sang between, and overall it was a great meeting.

I know my wife is hopeful that the meeting was a good enough one for that short Sacrament interruption to be forgotten. I like her chances...

[old_gregg]

Instead they are headed to Missouri to serve in the Independence visitors center.

[Moliere]

We had a great sacrament meeting today. Six special musical numbers mixed with three short talks about Christ.

Same as well in our Ward. We had two fabulous musical numbers and two incredible talks. One talk was centered on grace and the atonement and the other was centered on hope and the resurrection.

[Clark Addison]

Highlight of our sacrament meeting was probably primary singing, accompanied by handbells.

Or maybe reading CS and finding out I won the Knockout contest. That was pretty sweet too.