This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the October 1982 Conference.
Some years later I was called to serve in another bishopric. Again this love developed as we had opportunity to meet so often to direct the affairs of the ward. A little over a year later, a change was to be made in our stake presidency. The bishop and I were called in to be interviewed by the General Authority who was making the change. The first question the General Authority asked was, “How do you get along with your bishop? Is he a good leader?” Then I started to express in glowing terms my love and appreciation for this man and all he had done for the ward. Suddenly I realized the purpose of the interview. They could call him into the stake presidency, and we would lose our association. I immediately stopped my compliments on his great service, and after a pause, I said with a little smile on my face, “The only difficulty he has is that when he is under pressure, he goes home and beats his wife.” The General Authority leaned back in his chair and said, “Isn’t that peculiar? He was in here just a minute ago and said you have leadership capabilities but you too have a fault. You like to go out behind the barn on occasion and smoke a cigar.” The strategy failed: I was called into the new stake presidency.This story made me think about how much love I have gained for the people I have served or worked with in a calling. I know that's something people always talk about, and it seems obvious, but when I think about how different my life would be without those callings and those people, it is overwhelming. It is hard to make and find time for friends, as an adult. It's hard to find motivation to even get to know new people. But there is something so strong and lasting about the bond that forms through church service! And it lasts forever!
I'm so grateful for the friends I've made through church service. The young women I grew to love, who are now getting married and having babies of their own. The true friends I met through Cubs or Relief Society or visiting teaching—even though they usually started out being "assigned." Even in small ways—like the people who come to choir (I'm the ward choir director right now). It's not like I'm mad at the people who DON'T come to choir! Of course I understand! Everyone is busy, and I've been in the situation many times where I think, "There is no way I could manage one more thing like singing in the ward choir!" But that just makes me all the more grateful for the people who DO make time to come. And I know they aren't all coming only for ME, necessarily—but I still feel supported and loved because they are sacrificing for the thing I'm sacrificing for too.
I have heard someone recount that story before! :) And yes, that serving with people business! When I start going back and counting, there are SO many people who have become significant in my life, who might never have been, had I not been called to serve with them in some capacity! It almost makes me tremble to consider possibly NOT having served with them and still only existing on "slight acquaintance" terms with them!
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