My husband and I are having great fun laughing at the fact that the 2 most anti-social people in the ward are suddenly finding themselves in charge of every single ward activity. Now, I'm going to grumble for a moment.....because......it's a statement of fact viewed thru my prism.....not a criticism on the inner workings of the church. In the good 'ole days we used to have activities committees. Those have been tossed aside for the more favorable ward council approach. This approach is better -in theory- because the specific needs of the individual members of our ward are more closely examined and opportunities to meet those needs are explored with much prayer and consideration. More opportunities to get members involved and serving is the ideal. Usually, however everyone just kinda stares at each other hoping someone else will come up with an idea so they don't have to do any work. The new system has some flaws....that's all I'm saying.
My husband is in that ward council because of his calling. We (he and I) believe that if we are supposed to be out in the world inviting our friends to church and wholesome activities that we better have some for the members to bring their friends to. These activities have to be worth peoples time. The pioneers spent their evenings together after a hard and defeating day joining together in song and praise. That's how they unified themselves and gained strength to continue on their journey.
The world is in desperate need of unity and the church is not excluded from that need...in fact, it should be leading the charge.
This is how you end up with the least social people being in charge of social activities. It's pretty comical. I guess I'm forced into helping others socialize because when you're in charge of an event there isn't a whole lot of socializing going on - you're busy making sure everyone else is.
We have a very small building that we meet in. It has a gym, but it is very small. How do you make lemonade out of that situation? A redneck joke comes to mind...."when you're inside furniture becomes your outside furniture....." haha. We moved every single table and chair to the outside. We even wheeled the piano outside and prayed someone had a sound system lying around we could use. More people came than expected so we really did end up pulling every single non-broken table and chair outside.
We had our annual chili and dessert cook off and for entertainment - a talent show. It was tons of prep and tear down and I came home and went to bed at 8:30, but we had a great turn out. Lots of members brought friends and got to know each other better.
The mormon party culture is a strange one. I thought of it as I was consolidating and breaking down tables while the talent show was going on. The picking up peoples trash and ripping off table covers while they are still sitting there. How truly dedicated we are to leaving a party in record speed. The biggest blessing of putting together an activity like this is all the help you receive for the tear down. Lots of people pitched in and everything was put away in 1/10th the time it took us to put it together. Here's how I know I'm a sentimental sap. Seeing everyone band together in a common purpose....even if it's just putting away everything after a party - really instills in me a sense of unity. It's my favorite part. It's just an added bonus that the night is actually over as well ;) The feeling is similar to the feelings I have when I see people I know at the temple. It is an at onement.
Now it's on to the next 2 activities. No rest for the wicked! Thank goodness I had a partner in the madness. My husband usually comes home and tells me he's in charge of something which translates into me being in charge. Her husband is a member of that council as well so we banded together, accepted our fate and planned out the next 2 activities as well- which were taken back to the council to council over. All things must be done with proper authority and inspiration. It's the principle Nephi taught so well when after his bow was broken, he fixed it and then went and asked his father where he should go to obtain food. There should be wisdom and order in all things. Not just individual members going around doing what they think is best. We are all sheepherders, but we need to all be following the Master Shepard (in a ward that master Shepard is the bishop, who is following the Stake President who is following the Prophet who is following Jesus Christ- who's church this is) by leading the sheep in 1 direction instead of many.
I would call the night a success. It met the needs and goals we had for the members of our ward for this activity. We had an awesome talent show where we got to see sides of our fellow brothers and sisters we hadn't seen before. We got to see who we would want to bring us dinner if the need arises by testing out the cooking skills of everyone (somehow I didn't manage to taste anything but a super yummy looking brownie that I snagged and ate on the run because I was too busy). The kids had their own little adventure with the biggest star of the night.....all the little snails that they were running around catching and a poor preying mantis that may have gotten tortured.
I've heard it said before and I think Elder Maxwell has a version of this as well, but I intend to spend my days wearing myself out in the service of the Lord. Why? Because it's totally worth it!
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