There Must Needs Be Opposition In All Things

In teaching his son Jacob how to derive maximum benefit from the hard things that had happened to him in his early years because of the actions of others, the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi taught the following as found in the first few verses of the second chapter of Second Nephi. "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one...Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other." This scripture repeatedly came to mind this past weekend when so many things happened to provide me with plenty of "opposition".

First and foremost, on Friday Kim and I learned of a major situation in our family that brought some good news, but also a tsunami of sorrow and anguish.

I did considerable yard work on Saturday, trimming bushes in the backyard and mowing the front and back lawns. The downside of having an empty nest is that I get to do all the yard work myself. While mowing the back lawn, the handle of the lawn mower accidentally snagged the phone line running down the outside wall of our house going into Zach’s old room and ripped the phone wires. (groan!) After I had finished mowing the front yard, Kim complimented me on how nice it looked…except for a large spot of tall grass on the south side of the tree that was painfully obvious I had overlooked. How did THAT happen!? So, I got the mower back out of the shed and finished mowing the lawn in the dark. :)

I then washed both cars Saturday night and parked the unusually clean Volvo in the middle of the driveway behind the Focus (rather than up against the retaining wall) so that the Volvo wouldn’t get dirty again underneath the neighbor’s drippy and shedding palm tree and so that I could leave in the morning for church before Kim. (stay tuned for more on this issue)

First thing Sunday morning when I tried to shower, the drains in the whole house backed up and started filling the shower stall and tub with dirty water. There was no indication of a problem Saturday night. So I got to go outside and snake out our main sewer drain line, which is unfortunately not a uncommon occurrence. Anybody know a good, honest plumber?

While trying to get organized Sunday morning before going to Church, I discovered that our Stake has scheduled their all-day ‘Little Philmont’ adult Scout training on the same Saturday (November 14th) as the Orange County Council’s annual Scouting for Food (SFF) service project. This is the 4th year in a row that I’ve served as the Canyon District's Scouting for Food Chairman, each time w/ very little support from my own Stake or the troops therein. Each of the past 3 years, I’ve repeatedly asked that our Stake combined troop discontinue scheduling conflicting campouts on this weekend, but I never dreamed that a Scout training day would be scheduled on that day, so I did not think to check the preliminary Stake calendar circulated late last year. The conflicting training day will prevent any of the adult Scouters in the Stake from being available to help me at a time when I desperately need help. The bad economy has triggered an increased demand for Second Harvest Food Bank services, so Second Harvest has asked the Orange County Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to set a goal of collecting twice the 100,000 or so pounds of food collected last year. And naturally, despite vigorous efforts, to date I’ve only got half the number of sign-ups as last year. Twice the food with half the sign-ups; sure, NO problem! Reminds me of Pharaoh telling Moses to have his people make bricks without straw. I sent emails to our Stake Young Mens leaders expressing my incredulity, but apparently its too late to change the date of the training event. MAJOR bad news. :(

When I got into the unusually clean Volvo on Sunday to drive to Church, the engine would not start! (It worked fine the night before!) I had to push the heavy car out onto the street and park it on the curb so that the Focus was not blocked in. Then I had to catch a ride to Church with Kim. I could already tell it was going to be a very long Fast Sunday.

When I got to the Clerk’s office to print the sacrament meeting program, I got my updated copies mixed up with non-updated copies our Ward Clerk had thoughtfully printed out for me. This threw me for a loop, until I got it sorted out.

We then held Ward Choir practice with the few persons who attended. (only 2 Bases) I think the low turn out was partly due to the fact that we don't usually practice on Fast Sundays, but needed to this time due to upcoming performances. This was also the first week of our new practice time before Church. We use to practice after Church, but its too hectic now with Stake Choir practice starting.

During Church, I scrambled to do everything I could to help the bishop with the assignments and tasks needing attention. Most actions can't be shared here because of confidentiality. Then our Ward Finance Clerk and I tried to count and process financial donations in record time since our block of meetings ends at 4pm and the annual Stake Emergency Communication Drill was scheduled for 5pm and our clerk is one of only two ham radio operators on the west side of the freeway.

To simulate being unable to communicate via telephone or use cars following a simulated 8.3 major earthquake, I rode my bicycle to nearby homes I was responsible to check on...while still wearing my Sunday clothes since there wasn't time to change. After the drill, I went to Stake Creche Choir Practice, then made a visit to one of my home teaching families before returning home to check-in for the late night Orange Stake ham radio check-in at 9:30pm and FINALLY relax.

When I arrived at work Monday morning, I found out that ALL of my email and calendar items were gone due to a problem with corrupt files on our corporate email server. Fortunately, they were restored from a backup later that afternoon.

So...how was YOUR weekend?! :)