The 169th Ward

This post has been a long time in the making, I planned on writing it when we left Provo, but I think now will do. It has probably been obvious in my blog that Jason and I are very ready to leave Provo and get on with our lives (it should also be obvious that is not happening... I digress). But despite our current attitude we have had some conversations about the past 5 years that have inspired me to post this now.

Despite our negative attitude about Provo as a whole, our hearts will always be here for one, wonderful reason - the 169th ward. I don't even have words to describe the impact EVERY SINGLE PERSON in that ward had in our lives. We were all put together in, hopefully, some of the hardest times of our lives. We were all students, newly married, poor-poor-poor, many far away from family, and many with young children, or trying to decide to have children; and trying to decide what we wanted to do for the rest of our lives and we were pulled together by a faith and a love, stronger than any of us, to serve each other and love each other, and we did.

Even now, we have all been pulled to opposite ends of the country, some even around the world (Greaves), and still I have noticed that we are usually the first to comment on each other's blogs when something is wonderful, or something is terrible, or when something is... blah. When I had my "faith" posts, the people to mostly comment were my wonderful 169th ward friends, and I knew they would be. It is funny, we never knew each other before we were married, and for some, we only knew each other for a few months, and only with-in the walls of our Relief Society room, and we will never see each other again; but I believe we will always have a special bond that connects us, for we knew each other as the women/wives/mothers that we all wanted to be, who we truly were. We didn't know each others past mistakes or shortcomings, we didn't know the history behind our, sometimes, difficult courtships and engagements and what our family and friends may or may not have thought of our spouse or marriage. We were all just there for each other, expecting the best in each other, we expected everyone to serve and love and help, and we did. We saw each other in a different light then the rest of our families or friends did, because I think we saw each other's potential as a woman in Zion, and each of our desires to do the best we could.

There are people who have changed mine and Jason's lives forever, simply by their example, or friendship or comments. Many of them probably don't know that they have touched us for we never spoke much, some of us will always have a strong connection - even though we may not see each other again, and some of us will be lifelong friends. Despite the "different" categories - all are deeply important to us and have touched our hearts in different ways. I have heard some bad stories about married student wards (especially at BYU), and I didn't believe them because ours was so great - I figured all were like that, but now having gone to another BYU married student ward I know ours for some reason was really great and really special.

I have been pondering why ours was different. And I don't really have an answer, I know that most everyone honestly cared about their calling and really tried to magnify it and we served one another. I can remember so many Saturdays (mostly in April and August) going from apartment to apartment with 6-10 other women cleaning sister's apartments who were moving (Sarah Jones, Leah Allred, Abbie Lamb, Jerilyn Anderson, Karen Bourne just to name a FEW), I can remember sisters without kids trying to come early to sacrament or Relief Society so we could fight over who got to sit by the families with kids so we could help out - and begging them to let us babysit (for free, of course) so they could go to class, the temple, the grocery store, a date, etc (Heater Estep, Jessica Bond, Amy Layne, Holli JoKlein, Me hehe). There were several sisters who CONSTANTLY volunteered to do anything (clean, cook, babysit, give rides), who were in desperate needs themselves, for about 2 years I was the Compassionate Service Director and I remember being humbled every time I saw one of those sisters names on my list - they needed more help than anyone, and here they were trying to do more for other people.

I remember sisters taking the calls as "greeters" - close to their hearts and loving every minute of it (Julene Kaufusi), I remember two sisters excelling in the role as Literacy Specialist (Emily Call and Jessica Bond) and inspiring us all to do better. If I ever get called as a RS secretary I will know what to do because of Heather Braley. Our Relief Society Presidents were amazing -they gave all their hearts: Lindsey Clark, Candice Kvavle, and Sabrina Millar - all of which I had the opportunity to serve closely with - they have taught me more about selfless service and true genuine charity for sisters we serve, than they will ever know. We had great enrichments and strong traditions (ward campouts, Super Saturdays, mothering classes, aerobics, etc) and we had good to great attendance at most our activities. Our visiting teaching was strong, I can name off every single one of my visiting teachers (Emily Haws, Rosie Thornock, WhitneyAndrews, Heidi Summers, Danielle Jeppson, Jessica Christensen) - they always came to visit, and many did much more than that.

I think we were also successful because we had several STRONG women (and families), who truly loved the Lord and every member of the ward. You always knew they would be at church and all the activities, you knew they would always do their calling and follow through with assignments, and that they would not be cliquey and welcome all the new people. There were several of these throughout the years -but if any of you are still reading this (and I am sure only 169th ward people are) we are all thinking of ONE person... Melissa Lindsey (and Craig for that matter). I don't have the words to describe them and their influence, not just on me and Jason, but on the whole ward. I remember when I got called to Compassionate Service, Melissa was called as Primary President, she told me that she was worried about her new calling taking her away from the RS, because she wondered, "who would love the sisters?" This just describes the Lindsey's - they deserve all the blessings in this world and in heaven. I/we love them dearly.

For the sake of record keeping I have listed everyone from the last 5 years who have impacted our lives. I never want to forget them - I am sure I will forget names, but hopefully I will remember faces, but I know I will always remember their influence. I wanted to write next to each name something about why I love them - but many just came out as, "so wonderful and inspiring" or something to that effect and I didn't want it to start to seem insincere- so, it is just a list of names. It is in order from what year they moved in/were put into the ward directory, that is what I used as my source.
I tried REALLY hard not to forget anyone - I pray I didn't - if you think I did, please let me know.

Thank you all for being such wonderful friends - I hope some of you feel the same way I do.

(2004) BISHOP: Lee and Sharon Fransis, Matt and Shannon Allen, Jon and Leah Allred, Bryan and Jerilyn Anderson, John and Dana Anderson, Shane and Amy Andrews, Wade and Whitney Andrews, Brock and Kim Blake, Kevin and Karen Bourne, Kordel and Heather Braley, Brandon and Emily Call, Ben and Emily Castleton, Nathan and Lindsey Clark, Sam and Jess Curren, Fernando and Heather Estep, Dan and Shelly Graham, James and Megan Greaves, Spencer and Brittany Haws, Adam and Emily Hendrickson, Bernell Hofheins (high council), Steve and Ashley Kapfer, Teni and Julene Kaufusi, Alan and Aimee Kennington, Reed and Stacie Kennington, Peter and Abbie Lamb, Tyler and Tasha Langston, David and Cassie Larsen, Craig and Melissa Lindey, Benjamin and Jen Lowry, David and Melissa Mallett, Matt and Celest Millett, Jeremy and Jamie Morriss, William and Nerissa Murdock, Brandt and Amber Palmer, Matt and April Thorpe, Grant and Elizabeth Vincent, Shelton and Angela Weech

(2005) BISHOP: David and Sara-lee Gibb, Jason and Alexis Bergman, Ryan and Jessica Bond, Mason and Amanda Bradshaw, Cole and Michelle Chamberlain, Sean and Jo Edmunds, Dave and Heather Gooch, Ben and Emily Haws, Erik and Carolyn Heppler, Sam and Vanessa Huntington, Wesley and Sarah Jones, Jonathan and Elisabeth Kendell, Marcus and Rebecca Khong, Josh and Candice Kvavle, Brian and Candice Lee, John and Marielle Melling, Sean and Angela Morton, John and Mallory Parry, John and Tiffany Ransom, Brian and Rosie Thornock, Jerr and Dionne Ward, Mike and Kari Waters

(2006) Erica and Russ Allred, Ty and Amber Andrews, Aaron and Lauren Barnes, Louie Maxwell and Paige Clark, Hiram and Laura Conley, Dan and Jamie Cook, Mithch and Shannon Cornelius, David and Heather Dayton, John and Elicia Dusbabek, James and PJ Eager, David and Kate Ensign-Lewis, Kenneth and Celeste Estes, Matt and Nicole Evans, Dana and Ruth Jensen, Brad and Danielle Jeppson, Eddie and Breanne King, BJ and Becky Kirk, Brett and Sabrina Millar, Devin and Laura Nielson, Jason and Rachel Palmer, Lars and Jessica Richings, Chris and Cheri Sharp, Doug and Jena Sivula, Justin and Ashleigh Smith, Mike and Ashley Smith, Tom and Tristan Stanley, Mike and Natalie Stephens, Nate and Heidi Summers, Justin and Marin Sweeney, Steven and Alicia Taylor, Jared and Jessica Walker

I lost my ward directory for 2007 - but I still had a RS one - so only sisters, but we did love your husband's - sorry
(2007) Janene Anderson, Laurel Armstrong, Angela Baarz, Anna Bardsley, Alta Bills, Sara Brewster, Meghan Caldwell, Bridget Carn, Rebecca Carter, Jessica Christansen, Haley Ellis, Nicole Evans, Kristen Foster, Dawn Freeland, Mary Gavilanes, Brandi Hales, Gaby Hansen, Gloria Harris, Laura Hawkins, Emily Hilton, Lacey Holman, HolliJo Klein, Amy Layne, Nicole Lloyd, Amanda Mason, Meredith Maxfield, Ashley McGinn, Keshia Meikle, Corinne Myers, Amanda Nordquist, Amber Powell, Nicole Rasmussen, Janice Richardson, Brianna Rollins, Whitney Royal, Carly Smith, Suzanne Tuttle