Transitions

Life is full of transitions. I can hear my dad now "Karie, what's one thing you can always count on?" and then he would say "change". This has proved to be true. The cool thing about getting older, in my opinion is that as we go through changes we can get so much more out of it personally than when we were younger.

For the past two years I served as the President of the Young Women's organization at church (for those of my family/friends who don't know what that is, it's our youth program for girls who are 12-18) This has always been one of my favorite places to serve, one of the hardest places to serve, one of the most rewarding and always one of the hardest callings for me to leave. It's so cool to be involved with such awesome groups of girls. I suppose getting to do all sorts of fun things with youth makes me feel young, and top that off with the spiritual experiences. Many of my friends have served in the same capacity so I know you know what I mean. I still have such great relationships with some of the girls who I served with when I was in Temple, TX, now that they are on their own, graduated from college, starting families of their own. It's nice to know that all that worrying paid up.

So, I admit I've been such a baby about the whole thing. It's kind of a bitter sweet. The bitter is I will definitely miss being with the girls so much, and I definitely will miss hanging out with Ramona, Kris, and Monica (that was the rest of the Presidency). The sweet, well - it's like this. I sat down to put my January calendar together, something I just couldn't' live without in that calling. It took me all but 2 minutes to make some pretty graphics at the top because there was absolutely nothing to put on it!!! WOW! it felt so weird. No Wednesday night activities, no service projects, no volley ball games to attend, no Stake dances, no firesides, nadda, zippo, none!

Why am I writing about this? as I know most of you have been there done that. Well, I write about this because I am just totally amazed at how cool the Gospel is. I totally love how the Lord takes us through so many different opportunities, to help us grow, humble us, teach us, help us to learn to love others, build friendships on the way, and even experience some sadness so we can experience the joy. I really am so grateful that we get to do this and I remember when things were hard my counselors and I would chuckle about how we know the church is true, because who in their right mind would volunteer to do something like this if it weren't!!! I'm sure most people think we are crazy for doing all that we do in the Church for free, but I love it!! It makes me so thankful to be a part of the big picture. I suppose the Lord asks us to do this so we can always be serving and helping others. So I looked back and realized I've liked every calling I've ever had. I think I had challenges with each of them but learned something valuable each time. I've always been so blessed to serve with people who our paths didn't normally cross because of conflicting schedules, but when you get to serve with each other you gain such awesome friends and associates.

Then there are the funny memories, more than I could list here. For those of you reading this who I've served with I"m sure you can think of some funny things that happened!

Now I am teaching the boys and girls who are 10 turning 11 this year. Mostly boys and 1 super sweet girl. I think they are cool and it's nice to be able to focus on 7 individual kids. I'm not sure they think I'll do as a teacher yet or not, but I think they are cool. Kids just crack me up. They really think you have no clue but I've got them figured out already.

For now I'm going to enjoy my lighter schedule, and I'll enjoy being in Primary. I'm sure glad I had the opportunity to serve in Young Women's the past few years. Later on when I'm released from Primary I'll get to sit back and look at all the cool experiences that happened there to!!!!