I Survived Sunday

By the time this posts, it will be Monday! Yeah! Somehow today was an extra stressful Sunday for me. I felt so rushed today.

Pre-Church Rush:
We had a 10 AM ward activity meeting. Then I rushed home from that to take my bath and get ready for our 1PM services. In between, I rushed to make a dessert for the single adult fireside we had this evening. And while I was preparing the dessert, I was trying to call 3 people: my mom to find out how many Tablespoons are in 1/3 CUP. (yeah, Mom and Dad should have taught me this. Even my engineer dad didn't know: he suggested I Google it to find the answer. No time to Google so I just made do :) )
Then I was trying to call back my visiting teaching partner who had called me. I was also trying to call my friend to give her directions to the fireside. Her line was busy so I had to keep retrying to get through. OK, so because the dessert took longer to make than I had intended, I was a few minutes late to Church. Shame on me, I think, for being late due to cooking. It reminds me of the time on my mission when a sister said she would go on splits with us, so long as she could leave in 30 minutes to return to her home to punch down her bread! In that instance, we found someone else to accompany us. ( A split is an old term for what is now referred to as a missonary exchange. It is when the fulltime missionaries "split" and go with regular members to go meet people and teach them about the gospel). Anyway, today I got there just in time for the sacrament.

During Church Rush:
All was well but I did leave during the intermediete hymn to go set up my classroom. I ended up missing the first couple minutes of the next speaker's talk. Since the other ward meets in the morning, they have a class going on when we arrive. So even if I hadn't been late due to my cooking, I wouldn't have been able to set up earlier. And even if we were the first to meet, I am sure I wouldn't have set up earlier, as I am one who is more often behind things than ahead of everything.
It really stresses me to leave sacrament to set up. I did this last week as well. I need to figure out a solution so I don't have to leave, I don't like doing this as I feel it is irreverant.

I know our primary reason for going to Church is to take the sacrament and renew the special promises- the covenants- we have made with Heavenly Father to always remember His Son, Jesus Christ. The other main reason we go to Church is to learn more about the gospel. We had really good talks in sacrament today, the talks were about Knowing Jesus Christ, based on John 17:3: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (Our ward does a monthly theme and all talks are generally based on that scripture theme).
Our closing hymn was I Believe In Christ, a beautiful hymn that really testifies of how awesome and wonderful Jesus Christ is.

Our primary starts 10 minutes after sacrament ends. However, it causes me stress because I feel this rushed schedule doesn't allow much time to talk to others or tend to other matters. I know I have 165 hours each week when I am not at Church and when I could take care of these things. However, it doesn't always work out this way. When I got in my room today, the kids were already there, as they go there directly from sacrament meeting. A couple of them were playing tic-tac-toe on the board. (I did think it was sweet in the closing prayer, the girl who said the prayer expressed gratitude for the boy that played the tic-tac-toe with her). I want to have time to setup but also talk to others. After the lesson I feel rushed too, as I don't finish in time and then the next class is outside waiting to get in to the room. I want to be a good example and be on time to Primary. However, it is a struggle right now. Basically, I need to improve in a lot of areas. But at this point, I'm not sure what my choice is. I guess the answer is to pray harder and try harder and work harder and to be more patient with myself.

After Church Rush:
By now it was 4:15PM. We visit taught one of our sisters 15 minutes after Church. She is a sweet sister and I appreciate her flexibility with us. Then I went home and rushed to make the second thing I was bringing. Then cleaned up the mess, I think my kitchen was the messiest it has ever been. Then I went to the wonderful fireside. Afterwards, I enjoyed talking to people. We have a group with whom I feel comfortable. Sometimes I go to activities where I feel really uncomfortable, so I am glad today I wasn't as anxious.

Our Bishop attended the fireside, I apologized to him for leaving during sacrament. He has a certain look that he does and I was worried if I made him upset when I left during sacrament meeting, ie my role in adding to the sacrament meeting noise. He provided the reassurance that I needed and so I felt better. Still, I think I need to adapt a better stategy for my time management so I don't feel the need to leave.

In retrospect, if I had done better preparations, things would have gone smoother. I tried my best. Anyway, yeah for me, I SURVIVED!!!