The day after

Last night went really well. Thank you all for your kind comments and words of encouragement!

My whole object for the evening was to provide a catalyst for the sisters to mingle and visit with each other, to get out of their comfort zones and get to know each other better. As soon as they came in I greeted them and gave each of them a card with a quote from President Hinckley:

Woman is God’s supreme creation. Only after the earth had been formed, after the day had been separated from the night, after the waters had been divided from the land, after vegetation and animal life had been created, and after man had been placed on the earth, was woman created; and only then was the work pronounced complete and good.
Gordon B. Hinckley “Our Responsibility to Our Young Women,” Ensign, Sept. 1988, 11

The cards were on colored paper that matched the color of the table cloths on the tables. I told each of them that the color of their card indicated what table we would like them to sit at for dinner. For the most part everyone was cooperative. A couple of ladies seemed a little put out that we would ask them to sit at a different table than the person they came with. The point was to mix them up, and I think for the most part it was successful.

We had taco salad for dinner, which was yummy. The sisters brought dessert to share, way yummy. I had asked different sisters to decorate each table so the table decorations were all different. It was fun to see the different ideas that the sisters came up with. I had also asked a few sisters to think of games that we could play during the evening. This was the fun part. We only had 28 sisters show so we ended up combining a lot of the tables to make three big groups. Then we spent about 15 or 20 minutes playing a game. The sisters leading the games would then rotate to the next group and so on. I had several sisters tell me afterwards that this was the funnest enrichment night they had ever been too, and the loudest. It was fun to see a different side of some of the sisters that I'd never seen before.

Not knowing exactly how everything would work out time wise I had asked the bishop to share a few thoughts with us at the end about women and mothers. Looking back I should have had him do this while we were eating and before we started doing the games. As it turns out we really didn't have time for him to speak to us, but I had asked him to and he had rearranged his evening to be there so I had to interrupt the games and bring everyone to order. His message was very good and I appreciated what he shared with us.

He talked about the heavy load that women carry and how through out his years in school, and in through out his career (he is an Air Force pilot) he had never seen anyone who worked harder or carried a heavier load then women. He shared a couple of scriptures about encouraging us to not run faster than we have strength and to not be so hard on ourselves. He then brought up the story of Mary and Martha from the New Testament (Luke 10:38-42) when Martha is bugged that Mary isn't helping out. He put a new spin on it that I hadn't thought of before. He said that we could take this as a lesson in not judging. Not judging ourselves and not judging others. Martha was doing what she felt was important at the moment and so was Mary. Each of them was doing something important and it wasn't Martha's place, nor Mary's, to judge who was right or who was wrong. That really struck a cord with me. Oftentimes I judge or compare myself to other women around me. Sometimes I'm worried that I am not doing enough and I should be more like so and so. Other times I might feel that I really wish that so and so would help out a little more or do this and that, when really I need to worry less about what they are doing or what I'm not doing and make sure that I am doing what I need to at the time. I don't know if that makes any sense, but it really rang true with me last night.

Anyway, the evening was a success. I learned a lot about what works and what doesn't so I think the next one will be a little easier in some ways. I am glad that the sisters had fun and that my goal of bringing them together seemed to be accomplished.