2025(6) Faith Leap - Chapter 19: GENERAL CONFERENCE & HOLY WEEK! 💖(Part 1)
2025(6) Faith Leap - Chapter 19: GENERAL CONFERENCE & HOLY WEEK! 💖 (Part 1)
This is, hands down, my favorite time of the year! Joyful celebration of Jesus Christ's gifts of Redemption and Salvation, edification and revelation through His selected leadership, and the arrival of spring/new growth.
Highlights:
- Our "He is Risen!" branch party was a blast! We stayed in budget, had enough for everyone, and it was very well attended
- The Solemn Assembly was surprisingly sacred for me. And General Conference never disappoints! I love it so much! This year, the kids added in an extra element that made it physically enriching, in addition to spiritually
- The back of my head made it on international news!
- Wonderful Palm Sunday, Cleansing Monday, and Teaching Tuesday art and commemoration
- Bob cooked in the final showdown of his last Commonwealth class of the year
- Do not squish slugs
Prayer Requests:
- "D" is an investigating friend from Iran. She is so new to Christianity, but loves everything she learns so much that she cannot contain it. She wears a cross proudly around her neck. For obvious reasons, she does not want or feel she can return to her home country, but she is running into roadblocks at every turn with finding a home. With the language barrier, we do not understand a lot of what she has endured, and much of what we do understand is not our story to tell. But she needs prayers: Prayers for her son, for her health, for a home, for her budding faith, and for those of us in her path who need help figuring out how to help her.
Details:
"He is Risen!" Branch Party
We kicked off Holy Week by adapting our "He is Risen!" party to our Branch interests and options. (So we did hold our 2nd Annual after all - kind of 🥰).
A few of our missionaries have dreamed of taking advantage of our well-placed alcove windows for advertising, so we decided now was the perfect time to try it out. I have seen social media posts about creating stained-glass windows using tempura paint and dish soap, but was nervous that it wouldn't wash off as easily as they say, or that it would crack or peel prematurely. Just to get some experience under our belt (and to beautify our own home), Miss and I tried it on our bedroom floor window. Then the whole family contributed to a creating at the church. We LOVE the way they turned out! (For anyone interested in trying it: we learned that using sponges, rather than brushes, uses a lot less paint and a makes a more consistent texture. We also learned that the paint goes farther with more dish soap, but too much dish soap means that it doesn't ever "dry" - so it can be wiped off by touch, even days later. just a quick squeeze is about right).
With our newly-formed Branch Council, this was our first opportunity to plan an event and delegate responsibilities. As meals are so important to many branch members, the council decided that, if ever we are going to hold a big branch meal, Easter should be it. Our sweet friends, the Doss', took on the assignment of planning and preparing the meal. They touched base with us on what they wanted to serve - which seemed very reasonable. We had RSVPs from at least 40 people, but anticipated as many as 60. That is a wide range. Knowing our desires to ensure everyone feels welcome, while protecting the budget were good, we prayed about how many to plan for and felt 50 should be our target. I multiplied amounts on the recipes to determine how much we needed to by buying, and get an estimate for what it would cost. To our surprise, ChapGPT estimated it would use up 1/4 of our entire branch budget for the year! 🫨 Richard was pretty confident it shouldn't cost quite that much, but we came up with some ideas for how to adapt the recipes, and Richard set a budget max for John and Yulia that was far below ChatGPTs estimate, then we went shopping together (Most of our branch members are watching every penny - they don't have money to spend upfront to be reimbursed for later. But also, reimbursements are such a headache here, it is much easier to just use the branch card. This means we end up running all of the branch errands ourselves, or with branch members - which is time to get to know them better.)
Anyway, John and Yulia were awesome! They kept meticulous record of everything that went into the cart, and were happy to adapt to keep the cost down. Gratefully, ChatGPT grossly over-estimated, and they were even 27GEL under budget. We had exactly 50 people attend! And everyone was well-fed, with enough leftover to send a meal's worth home with each of the missionaries.
In addition to the meal, our Relief Society President led an egg-dying activity - using local plants for some of the colors, and for decor additions. They turned out beautifully. We also had Resurrection Boards: "I am grateful that, because of Jesus Christ, I will see these loved ones again" (people were invited to write names and their relationship to the people they look forward to seeing after Resurrection).
The Primary and Youth loved our Triumphal Entry races: 2 teams of 3 (one donkey, one rider, and one person moving the palm leaves) compete to get across the room the fastest, while the donkey's knees and hands only touch the palm leaves. Even several adults chose to participate with their children, and our oldest young women did it in dresses. It was a blast. (The ornery lady who lives downstairs called the landlord to complain about all the noise, but it was worth it.)
Our last big event was our Easter Trivia game. We were actually surprised by how much people enjoyed it - even picking up on our puns and trick questions, despite the multiple translations. The only downside to the games was that my children "cooked" in all of them, but I didn't want to give them all of the prizes (is this an example of me putting others' feelings ahead of my own/my family's again...? my justification was that they had an advantage of experience, having done them all last year), so I pulled them aside and promised to let them choose their own prizes at the market that evening. That actually worked out great, because they each selected treats that could serve for makers on their Conference Bingo cards.
Palm Sunday:
A Sacred Solemn Assembly
Georgia's Easter is a week later than the United States. So, while everyone back home was enjoying their second day of General Conference on Easter, we were enjoying our first day of Conference on Palm Sunday. Without a temple here, and with it raining all day, we were a little disappointed that we couldn't participate in our traditional Triumphal Entry walk. But we took a moment to appreciate that our drive to church was lined with palm trees/leaves along the boulevard to the church. And then, the Solemn Assembly! Wow. Just Wow. We gathered to watch the first session of Conference as a branch (as church on Sunday). I had hoped, and prayed, that I would feel the significance of the moment, but I was not prepared for the overwhelming joy I felt as we sustained President Dallin H. Oaks as our Prophet. The moment the 1st Presidency raised their arm to the square, tears filled my eyes as the Spirit testified to me that he is the Lord's Prophet. And I hadn't expected to love sustaining in quorums so much! It was beautiful, anxiously anticipating my turn to stand and witness what I'd felt, as I watched the Quorum of the 12 do so, then watched my husband do so. Tears were now running down my face as I took my turn, and then watched my son - courageously and confidently standing by himself as the only Aaronic Priesthood holder in the building (that day). It was not lost on me that this was likely not the only time he will boldly stand alone as a witness of Christ in his life. And, last but not least, how precious a thing for our entire membership to stand and sustain the prophet together, as a dozen investigating friends watched (and hopefully felt) our strength, testimony, and witness. As, at home, it is not a thing to watch Conference at the church building, our family was not thrilled about having to wait to watch the first session, and then to drive to the church to sit in less comfortable chairs, but I would not trade the sacred experience of having gathered for the Solemn Assembly for anything.
More Conference Feasting
When we returned home (which was much later than we'd planned because of a long detour lending a listening ear to "D" - the kids were so gracious about it. 💗), we watched the Saturday afternoon session, and then joined Utah live for the Sunday morning session from 8-10 pm. To help them stay engaged and awake, the kids started selecting a word for each talk that, if said, required the boys to do a push-up, and Miss to do a cartwheel. By the end, they were choosing words like "Jesus" - so their workouts got up over a hundred!
My experience coming into Conference this year was unique. Usually, as I prepare in the days leading up to Conference, I compile a long and comprehensive list of questions. This time, I drew a blank each time. It was so odd. I came back to it time and time again, and still - nothing. It didn't feel like a roadblock or disconnection from Heaven...just stillness. And then, as I listened to Conference, and impressions came, I realized that I didn't need to be asking new questions, because I was receiving reinforcement of the things I'd already felt I needed to be working on, confirmation of answers I've recently received, and new insights into difficulties I have already been wrestling with Him over. My cup runneth over. I love General Conference!
Did you see the back of my head in the World Report that played between sessions? Pretty much I am famous now. 🤣 (And how kind of our dining room light to place a halo over my head in the screenshot 😉😇)
Additional Palm Sunday Festivities
Without our usual Easter decor, we have improvised with grocery-bag luminaries and Patti Rokus-inspired daily rock art. (My favorite part of the Black Sea beach is that these are the perfect rocks for rock art! Yes, somehow I will figure out a way to bring them home with me without going over my weight limit...). Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Triumphal Entry:
Cleansing Monday
On Cleansing Monday, we cleaned the entire house from top to bottom. (I'm pretty sure it is cleaner now than it was when we moved in 🧼). I actually really loved our discussion about Christ cleansing the Temple. Perhaps His indignation/call to repentance was not just to the moneychangers, who had turned into a marketplace the only part of the Temple that the main populace could enter for worship, and who were maybe even intentionally overcharging; perhaps it is also a call to repentance, to all of us who worship, to prepare ahead of time. When I attend the Temple, listen to General Conference, partake of the sacrament, etc, am I preparing ahead of time to ensure that time is sacred worship? Or am I simply going through the motions?
Miracles and Teaching Tuesday
One of our favorite Holy Week traditions is making our own parables. Everyone selects a random object, and then we each take turns selecting one of the objects and making up a parable related to it. I am always so impressed with what they come up with! For example, CJ related the charging block to God giving us just the right amount of light and knowledge to us that we need, without overloading us with too much "power" at once. Kroc took the spool of wire and told a story about a broken gate that was repaired by the caretaker, using the wire - relating to the broken gate to us when we've sinned, the caretaker to the Savior, and the wire to repentance and forgiveness. 💗 Can you tell what our rock art is for Tuesday? (Sermon on the Mount and Christ's loaves and fishes miracle).
Not really related to Holy Week, other than it being quality family time, we went to check out the Trampoline park we found. It is a great price, clean, with friendly staff. Sadly, though, Bob and Kroc injured themselves within the first 15 minutes of our 1 hour of jump-time, so we'll need to go again - possibly with our youth group.
Additional happenings on Tuesday: Bob virtually attended his last Commonwealth class of the year (he is sad to have it end so soon). For class, they held what is called their Smack Down - where they are divided into teams and compete to answer questions related to everything they've learned throughout the semester. Bob had me quiz him everyday leading up to the Smack Down and he knew the answer to every single question they asked. His team, because of him, blew the other team out of the water. Even more exciting than that, though, was witnessing how gracious he was about it. The last time he had a similar competition, he walked away feeling like he could have shown better sportsmanship by consciously encouraging and celebrating everyone's victories, so that was his focus this time - which made my Momma heart so happy.
Also, in this week's installment of "Bathroom Visitors", I found a slug about the size of my pinky finger. I learned the hard way that it is a terrible idea to attempt to dispose of slugs by squishing them. They squirt out a thick, sticky, hard to clean-up goo, and it doesn't kill them...
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