From Bishop to Birmingham!

Another throwback!  Lois sent this to me. So cute!

Snow out at BYU. Haley and her roommate made "snow cones" with her flavored syrup. 

Just a record of what my schedule looks like at the temple!

Well....we have some big news. Saturday January 31, our stake president texted me and Lee asking if he could meet with us on Sunday Feb 1. He said something like: "Lee and Ruth, I'd like to meet with you tomorrow...Keep this confidential." We had to leave church a little early to get to the appointment. Elden was confused why we were rushing out right away. 

The day before Lee and I were speculating on why Presidet Papin wanted to meet with us. Lee said it might be for me, but I said that he wrote out "Lee" first. Not that that means anything, but you never know. We figured it was Bishop but we figured Bishop Peterson would be released in April-ish. Lee really was hoping it wasn't the Spanish Branch President. 

President Papin did a quick interview with Lee asking him if he was temple worthy and then called me in. Elden decided to sit outside and wait. 

Then President said: "I want to call you Lee as a Bishop....let's leave it at that." We were kind of confused haha. Then he went on to tell us that the boundaries are going to be changed for the 1st and 2nd wards--affecting the Harrisonburg 1st Ward, Harrisonburg 2nd Ward, Staunton Ward, Waynesboro Ward. Though only a couple families from Waynesboro would be moved. He showed us the new wards, Bluestone Ward (which took in a lot of 2nd Ward, Broadway, west Harrisonburg and north Harrisonburg) and our new ward Skyline Ward (which pulled in Grottoes, Weyer's Cave and north of Staunton and a lot of Harrisonburg 1st Ward). He told us he would send an email in a week to the 4 wards...maybe the stake?..not sure...stating that there would be a special meeting at 2:45 on Feb. 15th at the Harrisonburg building. Everyone from 1st ward that moved into Bluestone ward would be automatically released. And if the president of an organization moved into the new ward, the whole organization would be released as well. We were going to loose Primary, Young Women and Sunday School presidents.  He said that Bishop Peterson would be released in that meeting, and Lee would be sustained. Lee needed to think of counselors. Also that Bishop Walton would stay the same. President Papin said people are going to speculate all week. So true!  It was so hard not telling anyone!

President Papin told us not to tell anyone. And that we could tell our kids about Lee being Bishop on the 15th after church, but before the meeting. He said we could tell our kids there was a special meeting, but that's it. Though he said Lee could tell his parents to see if they could come out for the setting apart. 

Wow!  Kind of life changing! We had a special family meeting later that day and told the kids that there would be a special meeting, and that's it. We said we wanted to fly them home for the 15th...and hoped they would really want to be here, but we couldn't tell them why. Some of them guessed that Lee was being called as Bishop, but they also thought why would we fly them home for that?  Haha. True, but we wanted to be together as a family. I was really happy that everyone wanted to come. So I bought plane tickets! Found pretty great prices too--a blessing from the Lord! Elden said it's like area 51 around our place, haha. He didn't know either. 

It was funny because Clark called Grandma Robertson and was chatting with her. Lee didn't explicitly tell his parents to not tell anyone, that even our kids didn't know. Anyway, she said something like it's so neat that Carl is a stake president and your dad is going to be the Bishop. Haha. Clark was really good and didn't tell anyone, not even Chloe! He did tell them at Roger's dring the party that Grandma told him what was going to happen. Little did Clark know that that wasn't the only thing. 

When Brittany bought us brunch I knew about Lee being Bishop, but I was SO glad that the email hadn't gone out yet!  When the email went out the evening of Feb 8, my friend Alicia Gold texted me right away and asked if I knew anything about the special meeting. Ugh, haha. I didn't know what to say. So I played dumb at first. Then she said something like can you tell me anything, if you can tell me? And I said no, which was true. Later after she saw that Lee was sustained as the new Bishop she said she knew something about the new meeting had to do with us, haha.

Lee hosted his bookgroup at our house the next day after the email went out. I was upstairs in my bedroom listening to their conversations. Gregg or Tim asked Lee if he knew what was going on and Lee deflected: "I thought you could tell me what was going on". Somthing like that. 

We found out that in the fall President Papin was thinking about a new Bishop, knowing these changes were coming. He, Bishop Walton and Bishop Peterson had been working on the boundary changes for a long time. The Spirit witnessed to him that Lee needed to be the new Bishop. President Papin submitted the name to the First Presidency, and showed us their letter of approval for Lee. 

About the same time Lee felt promtpings about him being the new Bishop. He never told me and I asked why. He said he didn't want it to happen haha. And then you don't know if it is going to happen and you don't want to just assume that a particular calling is coming your way. But he kept thinking about it and then decided he might as well think of counselors. He felt impressed about Lee Lorimer and Gregg Karren. But then Lee found out Gregg Karren would be in the other ward. 

I thought maybe once or twice about Lee being Bishop. But not seriously. There are so many other great guys in our ward. I did think that if he was Bishop we can't go on our 6 month mission in 2027. 

President Papin suggested that Lee call someone from the other wards to be one of his counselors, to make it feel like we were truly combined and not pulling people just from 1st ward. He suggested we pray about Scott Mathusek. Lee liked the idea, but didn't feel settled when he thought of Lee, Scott and himself. He kept thinking about Steve Walker. Once he thought of the Bishopric with him, Lee and Steve, it felt right--a confirmation from the Spirit. Lee told President Papin his counselor choices and President commented that he hadn't picked Scott or someone from another ward.  Lee told him his experience and that this is how the Spirit was guiding him. Then President Papin texted back: You are going to be a good Bishop. I heartily agree!

With the kids coming home I bought a bunch of snacks and put them in the loft. I didn't tell anyone about them or where they were. I wanted to see how long it took them to find them. I also filled the mini fridge with sodas and sparkling water. Clark was the first to find them.  

A temple morning!  Oh, it was also hard sitting in Sacrament meeting knowing that we wouldn't be with a lot of these people anymore each week...The Hunts, Briggs, Calhouns, Linda Adams, the Herricks, Frances, Wanda and Eve, the Youngs, Adam Liskey's family, Karrens, Jerry, etc., etc. I did a few little things like made Linda Adam some homemade carmels and gave Rachel Briggs a birthday present. 

I hung Kodai's fabric print!

Awesome progress on the work bence! Hopefully it's mostly done before the kids come. We got a lot of stuff cleaned up for the bookgroup night which was awesome. 

I took my parents to the DC temple. 10 hours of driving, haha. It was a special day.

A service missionary was with my dad the whole time.

This weekend FINALLY CAME!!!!  Lee's counselors knew that he would be the Bishop and the counselor's wives knew too. Shar Lorimer asked Lee Lorimer if he thought it would be okay to text me. So it was really great texting Shar about the whole Bishop thing!  Lee Lorimer was a Bishop awhile ago and also served as a stake presidency counselor. 

OUR KIDS ARE HERE!  YAY!  We picked up all of them but Cal Friday night at the airport. Cal flew into Charlottesville Saturday about 3:30pm. Saturday bike ride!

The last Sunday. Bishop Peterson as Moses! People were wondering why our kids were in town. We just said for a little break, since we couldn't say anything. Bishop asked Clark why they were there. Clark said you probably know why. Bishop said, I didn't know, but now I do. Too funny. Two people guessed and I just smiled or said something vague...Brittany and Tara. 

Amelia hung out with us that day which was really fun. Shanna surprised her at her work on Saturday...after she was done with her shift. Shanna was waiting by or in her car.

AHH!!!  We finally told them. 

Amelia snapped a photo for us. 

EEEEKKK!  Time for the meeting!  I really really really was glad people would finally know and I could freely speak of it!

President Papin explaining the changes.  I texted some of my family the link to the meeting. I said some of it might be boring but some of it might interest you. Nathan helped Lee's parents get on.

Ahh, finally done and the secret it out!  After lots of visiting, we went into the YW's room. The Bishopric, Ward Clerk and Executive Secretary were all set apart. They gave us some counsel too...God first, then family, then work, then Bishop. I did not expect our ward boundaries to be changed...couldn't imagine what other people were thinking hearing about it all for the first time at the meeting! 

There was a stake priesthood meeting that night. The guys went in to the loft to watch it. It was a big day and they decided not to go to Waynesboro. Oh, and we heard the airports were being shut down because of winter weather. The kids' flight home was cancelled! We had to figure out how to get them back to college and fly out of a different airport.  Again, big day! We decided to go to Charleston, West Virginia. We asked the Petersons if we could pick up their van after the meeting and drive the kids to the airport all together. They said yes---thank you so much!  We decided we would leave about 11pm and I would drive first, taking a nap beforehand.

Since all the kids were home we had a little surprise party for Elden after the meeting ended. He doesn't want to have a birthday party, even with Darrell's family, so glad we could do this early one. 

Shanna made an oreo cake. 

Surprise!

Vando fits in the garage!  The winter weather started!

The drive was pretty good till we got about an hour away from West Virginia. Then it was really bad. We had to drive 35-50 miles per hour. The roads were really crummy. This was the airport. Wow. But the kids' flight left on time!!! They flew into Texas. That flight kept getting delayed. But eventually they made it to Salt Lake, and only two hours later than originally planned. Cal also was able to catch the shuttle back to Rexburg. 

Awww, loved having them all home. Thanks for the sweet notes!

A map of the boundaries. That Monday night we went to the Petersons to talk about everything. A debriefing. Ha. 

Lee coming home after his first Bishopric meeting!!!

Another throwback!!! Haley and Shanna first in young womens!

It's looking great in the garage!!!

Elden did the rivets and welding on this in his avaition maintenance class. So cool!

When President Papin mentioned the new wards, I thought of my brother Daniel and his ward. We happen to visit them on a Sunday where the week before they had a reorganization with a new ward. The very first Sunday they had just one hour of church--sacrament meeting--and then a munch & mingle after. I felt very grateful to have been there because I knew I wanted to do this in our ward...and I am the activity committe person haha. I have wondered about that calling, but looking back feel that it was inspired. 

For our contribution I am bringing cereal and milk and green jello with shredded carrots, haha. 

But first....our trip to SECO and Birmingham!  Lee does yearly continuing education classes. It's easy to go to SECO in Atlanta and get all of his in person credits done. Clark and Haley found tickets and flew out to join us. Lee and I picked up Elden from his aviation class at the MTC and we headed out. Stopped at Buc-ees for lunch and snacks!

The jello is waiting in the fridge...

We picked up Clark and Haley Friday morning. We went to the Atlanta Temple to do baptisms, went to lunch, went to the ferris wheel in Atlanta and hung out. 

K Pop Demon Hunters is a movie that came out recently. This Korean group sang some songs in the movie and were performing live in Atlanta. We saw people standing in line for the event. And dancing while they were waiting too. 

The Mexican restaurant we ate at last year was just a short walk from the hotel.  Fun going back again. 

It was Joe's birthday...we had to celebrate!

Out of order but baptisms that morning!  We did the baptisms for Wanda Olimski's parents!

The next morning we left for Birmingham. We met Sheldon and Ciera at Activate. It's this cool place with lots of rooms....each room has a challenge.  Jumping on the right colored squares, running through lazers, pressing the right buttons, etc. Such a fun place! It keeps track of how well you do too and give you points. At the end you can redeem the points for little prizes. 

Next up Hattie B's. Then it was goodbye!  So fun seeing them!  We did go to their hose for a little bit after activate, then went to Hattie B's. 

Time to drop off Haley and Clark!  So fun seeing them twice within a month!  

The traffic was pretty bad trying to pick up Lee. Then we were stopped at some railroad tracks because of a train. Haha, Lee or someone had AI put a cruise ship in our way. We picked up Lee and were on our way back! Time for the first Sunday in the new Skyline Ward!