On Sunday, I got a call before church to ask  if I would play the organ for a special meeting that would take place at 5 o’clock that evening. I was told that Ward Boundary changes were being made and that a new Bishopric would be sustained. For those that may not understand what a ‘ward’ is, to me the definition would mean ‘church family’. Each ward is broken up by geographical location, and within each ward there is a bishop, Relief Society (women’s) president, and enough leaders to help maintain each ward. We love our ward. Everyone is an integral part of our ‘family’. To think about changing, or being split up- in any way, meant splitting up our family.
All day, my thoughts revolved around the changes that would be made. We live very near the end of our ward boundaries, and from what I knew of the ward next to us, they needed more people. It seemed inevitable that we would be split off from our ward, and put in the 2nd ward that needed more people.
Now I have to say something about Visiting Teaching. I have a testimony of Visiting Teaching– because– that is the way that I have made the most friends in my ward. It has given me a reason to go into other sister’s home, and to get to know them. Because of Visiting Teaching, the thought of switching wards didn’t scare me. My children have all struggled socially in many ways. Because we are on the end of our ward boundaries, we haven’t been able to get to know many of the people that live even very near to us. I rejoiced in the fact that maybe my kids would get to know more of the children that live very near us. Maybe they would make more friends. I was confident that I would be able to make new friends. I also know that my friendships within the ward would not stop. Because of Visiting Teaching, I know that most of my friendships with people would still continue. I am still good friends with people I have visit taught, even when we have moved away. I would never want to lose touch with them. It is true, I wouldn’t see them every week, and that would be hard, but I believe that God has a plan for us and I trusted that the changes he was going to make would be okay.
What ended up happening took me by surprise. They decided to make the geographic ward boundary line- right behind our backyard fence. They split our neighborhood in half. We are still in the same ward, but our neighbors behind us were the only ones taken to go into that 2nd ward. In addition, our ward was given tons of homes a lot further south of us.
Our neighborhood had many of the children in our ward. The new areas will add more children to our ward, though they live a lot further away. I look forward to getting to know those new sisters and welcoming their families into our ward. I already know a couple of them, and I hope they will be happy to be part of our ward family.
I am also worried for many of my friends that live right behind us in our neighborhood. Some of these are really good friends that I have had the the opportunity to visit and love. Others, I wish had gotten to know better. I hope I will still be able to. I hope they will all embrace the new ward. I hope they will keep their testimonies strong. I hope the new ward will love them as much as our ward has or even more.
There are also some amazing families that we will be losing. This is perhaps the saddest thing for me. In addition, we are also losing both of our home teachers! Brother Watco, in particular, has been our home teacher for the whole entire 8 or 9 years that we have lived here. We will NEVER have another home teacher like him. He always came to visit us. He was there EVERY single month. There was only one month that he was unable to visit us, and he felt so bad, that he brought over a plate of cookies just to apologize. He always prepared a good message, and we knew that he wasn’t just coming because he was assigned to, but because he loved us and our family. We trusted and called on him often when our basement flooded, and when we needed help with our cars and garage. We will truly miss him, and his family.
So, I guess what I’m trying to say is, while it feels like our  ’family’ is breaking up… In actuality, maybe it’s just Heavenly Father’s way of helping us to get to know some of our other brothers and sisters even better.
It’s been kind of interesting, I get to visit teach the Primary President in our ward, and the current Relief Society President visits me. This week our visits have obviously centered around the topic of Ward Boundary Changes. There is a LOT of work to be done. I trust that these good sisters will have the inspiration that they need to help the sisters and families in the ward feel loved. My heart goes out to them. Sunday will definitely be interesting. It’s fast and testimony meeting. It will be good to get to know our ‘family’ members through the bearing of our testimonies. I can’t wait!