Life as a Mormon in Rural America

Well it's 5:30 and we just pulled in from being gone to church since 8:40 this morning. Sigh... A few facts/challenges about being a Mormon in rural America.

-Last night was the Branch party at 4:30. Left at 2:45 to make it to the parts store before going to the softball activity. Played softball with some members and alot of investigators til 7. Daniel wanted to stay and play 1 more game. Had to remind him we needed groceries before the 75 minute drive home and we had to run out and check the cows water before bed. So off we went. Getting home at 9. We are the furthest members from the church. Most live with a 30 minute radius except 3 families-- us being the furthest out of the 3. So we were home for less than 12 hrs before the trek started again.

-Church callings are well more that you would expect. We were told many times that the branch we would move into Daniel would be in the Branch Presidency and I would be relief society president. While it didn't go that way I'm not surely out of shell shock the way it did go. Daniel is the 12-18 yr old Sunday School teacher for now with most likely another calling coming soon. I am the new Primary President.... Not to much to say about that except the primary program is 6 weeks away.

-Missionary Work,  we usually feed our elder missionaries 1-2 times monthly. For their mileage allotment they come out to the house once, the second time we meet them in town. They don't get fed that much so we try and make sure they don't eat too many peanut butter sandwiches. There are ALWAYS investigators at church so you learn to be very welcoming and generous. Like today, we moved benches twice before sacraments started so they would have room for their investigators to sit together. The chapel isn't big so it was a little tricky to find a new seat. Probably 85% of the ward in converts-- so with that we have alot to teach, not that everything has to be done like it is Utah-- but it does need to be done with accordance to the church standards.

-Another part of missionary work is supporting new members. Today was a great day for the ward as a family of 5 got baptized. Which is amazing! It being small branch you have to stay to support that baptism. So today we drove 75 minutes to church, had our 3 hr church, 1 hr primary meeting, 45 minute picnic at the park, then back to the church for the baptism, and then afterwards the 75 min drive home. Tired yet??

-My new calling-  with my new calling I'll have branch council 1 hour before church 1st & 3rd Sunday, so Daniel and Cinch will get to hang out at the church an extra hour.  I have stake meetings September 18 which means I'll drive 3 hrs 40 min (1 way) to the stake house for those. Monthly Presidency Meeting and well think about visiting and home teaching driving as well.

So we are on the frontier for the church- and while it gets tiring, mainly the driving that is-- we are truly blessed every day. There hasn't been a day go by that we haven't been able to list at least 5 things that the lord has blessed us with and even the road is a little less bumpy on Sunday Mornings. So if you think it's hard to drive 5-10 mins for church and go right home for a nice roast dinner- think again and pray for those missionaries out here in Nebraska so our Branch can grow... and I can get out of my calling sooner than later ;)!