Times flies when you're having...

...well, fun would be a stretch, but how about working your tail off? I think that more accurately describes my current life. I am juggling about 17 things right now, and every once in a while, a plate comes crashing down and hits me hard on the head. I am getting this permanent bruise going on up there, and someday, I'm going to learn to wear a hard hat. Difficult to fit headphones over, but I'll give it my best shot.

But anyhow, I put some blogs together because I was trying to apply for a job working as a blogger (how great would that be!) but the company has not responded yet, and this was sent into them on Monday. They usually respond within the day. So I think that it's a no go. But I can't let these perfectly good blogs go to waste! (Yes, I also save all of my leftovers from dinner, only to have to throw them out three months later when aliens from space come into my kitchen, looking to reclaim their own. What's your point?) I was putting together blogs about being a Primary President (the blog I was applying for was Families.com and they actually have an LDS section, with a subsection for Primary) and although I wasn't going to post any LDS content on this blog, I am much too lazy to see all of this work go to waste. For those of you who are not LDS/Mormon, the Primary is simply the organization for the children in the congregation. The Primary President is the person in charge of all of the little munchkins who do their best every Sunday to remind all of the adults that Thou Shalt Not Kill is one of the 10 Commandments. Having said that, here's the first of three...

When I first got called to be the Primary President, I thought for sure the Bishop had lost it. After all, I had to be one of the youngest Primary Presidents to ever be called--wasn’t there some sort of age limit that kept 22 years old from being Primary Presidents??

Although I was in shock, a small part of me had known this was coming. When my husband and I got married and moved from Logan, Utah to Blackfoot, Idaho, I was called to be the Primary Music Leader within a month of us buying our house. I filled that calling until the Primary Presidency was rearranged, at which point I was called to be second counselor in the Presidency. I was in shock when I got that calling, because I figured only incredibly talented and loving and perfect people could be in a Primary Presidency. Why were they calling me?

I found out much later (when I was being called to be Primary President, actually) that Sis. Yancey, who called me to be her second counselor, had actually had just as many doubts about me becoming her second counselor as I had had doubts about me becoming her second counselor. In fact, she argued with the Lord and told him that she didn’t want me to be her second counselor. And then the Lord told her that I was going to be the next Primary President, and it was Sis Yancey’s job to teach me how to do that.

Luckily for both of us, Sis Yancey kept all of this a secret. I imagine if I had been told that I was going to be the next Primary President when I was being called to be the second counselor, I probably would have gone running screaming in the other direction. I probably would have had my house sold by the end of the week and made the move to China by the end of the month. I just wasn’t ready for that kind of responsibility at that point.

In fact, I didn’t feel ready for that kind of responsibility when I actually did receive the call to be President. Luckily the Lord knows me and all of my shortcomings, and He knew that He couldn’t just throw something like this at me. In the months before Sis Yancey’s move to New Zealand, I would have random thoughts pop into my head: “I will handle that (situation) differently when I am in charge.” Or, “When Sis Yancey leaves, it will be up to me to keep things going.” Then I would draw back and think, “Where on Earth did that thought come from?? I’m not going to be in charge. Sis Yancey isn’t going to leave.”

But she did leave, she moved across the world, leaving a mighty huge gap in the Primary structure. The first counselor moved at almost exactly the same time to Las Vegas, leaving me the only one left in the Primary Presidency.

So when the Bishop asked me to talk to him “real quick” in his office, I had an inkling of what would happen. Deep down, I knew that I was going to be the next Primary President. I just ignored that knowledge and instead clung to the idea that they would magically find somebody else to do the job. Anybody else. I was too young, and too dumb, and too unorganized, and too…everything to do something like this. I had no children of my own--certainly that was some sort of requirement to become a Primary President

And yet, I have not only survived these last two years, I have thrived. Through the Lord, everything is possible, and I am living proof of that.