November 18

The Service Center changed the devotional from Tuesday at 10 to Monday at 2 o'clock.  We are so thankful for the Wellses who keep us informed, because the Service Center never does.

It was changed to farewell the Salomones.  Principal Salomone has been transfered to Kiribus; he will function there as the vice principal.  He is also our stake patriarch and his wife has just been released as a counselor in either the stake primary or the stake relief society.

At the first of Sister Salomone's testimony I had a coughing fit, so I left the room.  I have been trained not to interrupt meetings by walking out and walking in.  I remember sitting in Sacrament Meeting as a child needing to go to the bathroom and knowing that I could not, because it would disrupt the meeting.  It is the way I have trained our children.

After I got a drink and the coughing had ended, I was waiting outside the door to the room where the devotional was being held, when Maggie, one of the ERCs secretaries, walked up.  She asked me what I was doing and I explained that I was waiting for Sister Salomone to finish her testimony.  She looked at me really funny and then said, "Don't you want to hear her testimony?"  I replied, "I do not want to disrupt everyone else."  She again looked at me and then quietly opened the door and went in.

I was so stunned by this experience.  She is right I thought and yet I did not/could not go into that room and disturb everyone else.

As I stood there waiting, it came to me that I was being a Martha--very carefully taking care of worldly things.  I was doing the 'right thing', but missing the important thing.  At that moment I so wanted to be a Mary.  How does one become a Mary when one has lived an entire lifetime being a Martha?

Scott told me later that Sister Salomone's testimony had been so spiritual!  More salt in the wound.

Tonight we had FHE with the senior couples.  Elder and Sister Jackson were in charge.  They held it at the Institute.  Dinner was lovely.  We had a slide show after.  Each couple was to show one or two pictures that represented them.  The idea was to get to know each other better.

I never do this.  Never!  I entered eight--yes, that's right, 8--photos.  My only excuse is that they were all of the YSAs and the things they have done over the past 18 months.  I am so proud of them.  I just had to brag.