Monday, September 24, 2007

6 out of 7

What an emotional day Sunday was! Camellia City Ward's very last meeting, last meeting in existance. Plenty of work for hankies and tissue - and not just the women, either. The songs all fit the occasion. Songs like "Press Forward Saints," "All Is Well," "Each Life That Touches Ours," and, of course, "God Be With You Til We Meet Again." The Bishopric each spoke in Sacrament Meeting, bearing their testimonies and urging the members to faithful service wherever they ended up. Sunday School was pretty normal, but Relief Society was hard. President Keller gave her farewell address, friends clung to each other wondering if they would be together next week. We finished with ice cream floats with soda left over from Saturday's party.

At the beginning of the meetings, we were instructed to turn in our keys. It truly was an emotional wrench, but after church I did turn them in.

Finally, the BIG MEETING. What a turn out! More than Stake Conference. First, some inspiration, beginning with a video depicting this story from LDS history:

The account of Heber C. Kimball and Brigham Young leaving their homes for England certainly shows the sacrifice they were willing to make for the callings they had received. The account reads:

"September 14th, [1839], President Brigham Young left his home at Montrose to start on the mission to England. He was so sick that he was unable to go to the Mississippi [River], a distance of thirty rods, without assistance. After he had crossed the river he rode behind Israel Barlow on his horse to my house, where he continued sick until the 18th. He left his wife sick with a babe only three weeks old, and all his other children were sick and unable to wait upon each other. Not one soul of them was able to go to the well for a pail of water, and they were without a second suit to their backs, for the mob in Missouri had taken nearly all he had. On the 17th, Sister Mary Ann Young got a boy to carry her up in his wagon to my house, that she might nurse and comfort Brother Brigham" (quoted in Life of Heber C. Kimball, 265).

Heber C. Kimball's family were also ill. Charles Hubbard sent his boy with a team and wagon to help them on their way. Elder Kimball records: "It appeared to me as though my very inmost parts would melt within me at leaving my family in such a condition, as it were almost in the arms of death. I felt as though I could not endure it. I asked the teamster to stop, and said to Brother Brigham, 'This is pretty tough, isn't it; let's rise up and give them a cheer.' We arose, and swinging our hats three times over our heads, shouted: 'Hurrah, hurrah for Israel.' " Sister Young and Sister Kimball came to the door and waved a farewell which gave Brother Brigham and Brother Heber much comfort as they continued "without purse or scrip" towards England. (See Life of Heber C. Kimball, 265–66.)

From the video we were to learn that our sacrifice is small. And yielding to the Lord brings blessings and joy. We are a people who obey the callings of the Lord.

More words of encouragement from Stake leaders.

Finally, President Fisher. I don't remember much of the details. He showed us a map of the then current ward boundaries. (What strange looking boundaries, they were.) He read the opening sentence from a letter from President Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson which disbanded Camellia City Ward. President Fisher talked about how much Camellia City Ward meant to him - the ward of his nativity and many important life events. But there it was, Camellia City Ward was gone. We had "known" it was coming, but, still, hearing it physically hurt.

In a way, all the wards of Sacramento Cordova Stake were disbanded. From 7 wards we went to 6. Every ward has new boundaries, a new name, and some have new leaders, new times and a new building. Last night, each ward got a Bishop. This week and next will see some busy organizing! Sunday we will attend our new wards for Sacrament Meeting only. The week after that is General Conference. During the coming weeks, most of us will receive our callings. On the 3rd Sunday, Oct 14, we will be a fully functioning ward.

I now belong to Perkins Ward. An amazing number of people I most "missed" in advance of the reorganization are actually in Perkins Ward, too. Not, alas, our Scoutmaster. He is in Brighton Ward.

Of course, he is not officially the Scoutmaster, now. At some point in the meeting, we had a mass releasing. We released every person in every ward position in the stake. We sustained all the Bishops, some new, some former Bishops. My Bishop, Bishop Barrows was called to the Stake High Council.

(Of course, some I wouldn't have minded being in different wards are also in Perkins Ward, but so it goes.)

nothing to do th above comment! - The Roger Perry family, talented and popular are in Perkins Ward, as is Cousin Alice, Glen's cousin Carol's oldest daughter.

Our Bishop is Ron Young. I have no clue, but some of my older children know him via his daughter Susan.

For those who know the geography and are interested, here it goes for my new ward:

Perkins Ward is bounded on the west by Hwy 99; on the north by 14th Avenue out to Perkins Road; jog north on Perkins to Keifer Blvd where the boundary contiues east to Bradshaw Road our most eastern boundary; south to Jackson Road to South Watt which is our eastern boundary down to Fruitridge, the southern boundary to the railroad near Power Inn: then follow the railroad south again to Elder Creek Road, our most southern border; Elder Creek to Stockton which is the western boundary up to Fruitridge Road, then west to the free way.

The new ward boundaries are much more tidy and reasonable looking than the old ones were. Some debate in our family about what the ward is shaped like. Camellia City Ward looked somewhat like the side view of a small airplane. I think Perkins Ward is shaped roughly like maybe a small dinosaur. One of my charming and delightful daughters said it looks like a snub nosed gun opened at the butt for loading.

Much of what was once Sutter Ward is now River Park Ward. They got my beloved Dover building ALL TO THEMSELVES. And kept their Bishop.

Between Perkins Ward and River Park Ward lies Brighton Ward/

Perkins Ward will meet in the Stake Center. A nice building, but, oh! I love my old building. So strange, when we drove up for Seminary, this morning it already felt different. My home for 30+ years was no longer home.

And there were contractors there! The tears have hardly dried from the change over and already Sutter/River Park has contractors there! What are they doing to my building?!

Seminary continues unchanged for now. Until things get organized, at least. I don't know if the geography of high school attendance will affect Seminary location assignments.

Our Scout troop will meet this week at least. A good bye and also the ones going to Scout Expo need to do some planning.

I think that Sunday is Fast Sunday. Testimony Meeting will be a good time to start to get to know our new ward family. I am looking forward to it.

12 comments:

  1. That sounds pretty exciting! And it really doesn't sound too bad... at least the buiding is still in the stake - if ever you are involved with productions, reserve that building to have them in. :) I know it's not the same but the building really isn't what matters.

    How many wards meet at the stake center now? What time will you meet? I think the timing is really well planned! Testimony meeting, then conference!

    I didn't follow the boundaries too much, will Kellers be in your new ward? I didn't know where Alice was - is she active? That's neat that she'll be in her mom's ward. :)

    The year before we moved here, they took 3 wards and made 2, our ward is one of the two and I know it was an adjustment for many of the members. But when we got here, which wasn't a full year later, it seemed that it was a whole, happy, healthy ward - I would NEVER had known it was a "new" ward if I wasn't told. I hope your transition is just as smooth. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, all the changes were withing Stake boundaries.

    Kellers are in Brighton. Rachel Greene, my VT, and one of Hannah's counselors and best friends is relieved to be in Brighton by living on the correct side of the street! She was dreading being separated.

    Donna, one of our special needs, and her best friend, Alma, who helped her are separated. Donna is in Brighton.

    Both Brighton and Perkins meet at the Stake Center - Brighton at 9am and Perkins at 1pm.

    Alice was in Rosemont. Active enough to be at the big meeting and tell me that they call Bishop Young their "emotional" Bishop because he always gets emotional when he give the youth their awards. I think she is fully active. I also think I like her more than I used to.

    I think most of the members, while having some personal sorrow here and there, are accepting these changes as from the Lord and ultimately for the best.

    I forgot to mention. OUR Asians, who belonged to Camellia City Ward, their records came to Perkins Ward. It wasn't mentioned in the Big Meeting, but several of us inquired afterwards, including of course, Bishop Barrows.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's great about your Asians. :) I think it's nice that Brighton and Perkins will meet in the same building - you'll run into each other a little easier that way. :)

    It IS a lot of change! Wow!

    Well for the rest of this year and for next year too, our wards will be on the same schedule. :) The year after that, we go to 11am (we have 3 wards in our building). That's cool though. :)

    What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger. ;)

    It sounds like this arrangement will likely help those that need extra assistance even more now. It is hard when one ward has so many needs. This way it seems a little more balanced.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I wonder how the shift to the SC will affect the Asian attendance. CC was selected as their home because it had strong active families and was fairly central to the city. Many of the Asians from near Rio Linda may find the SC considerably further than the Dover building.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The new ward is rather long and skinny. There is a great divide in the form of industrial land between the east end of the ward and the west end.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Now all the places T&RH have lived are in their current ward!

    ReplyDelete
  7. David - cool obsrvation about T&R. I had missed that.

    I had pretty much antipated the long east-west boundaries. It was basically the only way to try to even out the socio-economic disparities. The three western wards are all long and skinny. The eastern wards are a little less exagerated that way, but Goethe and Mather are still somewhat. The Rossmoor Ward least so. Rossmoor is in the north east of the Stake. River on the north, Hazel to White Rock on the East, White Rock on the south, Zinfandel,Coloma and Chase on the west. Mather encompasses the largest land area, I think much of it non-residential

    I am hoping that the Asians who have to come so far will not fret too much about passing another exit on the freeway. Sadly, the distance to the Dover building did already restrict some of their activity. At least one family recently switched to their geographic ward. Which is a good thing for them if they feel ready for it. Of course, that means we lost another of the relatively strong ones.

    Some of our anchor Asian families have left and others are on the "wrong side" of 14th. I hope they come to Perkins and help with the less adapted members.

    I also hope that someone is getting the word out to them! I was not pleased that they were "overlooked" at the big meeting.

    ReplyDelete
  8. David's maps- lol!

    Tom left a message for Bishop Barrows on Sunday suggesting that the Laos missionaries tell everyone this week. They should be able to do it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I don't know if any of the Asian's come by bus. To the SC by RT you pretty much have to walk from LT (5-6 blocks), but Dover is just a block away from the busy routes on J and 3 blocks away from routes on Folsom.

    What are the Brighton and River Park boundaries?

    I thought there would be Goethe and Mather wards. While there is a lot of non-residential land in Mather, there also was a lot of development there not very long ago - much of it on land that was made available after the base closed. I wonder if there is any of that still going on.

    The nice thing about these boundary changes is that there should be much more intermingling within the stake.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I don't know if any of the Asians bus either. For some reason, I don't think so.

    You know Brighton's south boundary, that's Perkins' north.
    Where Perkins' western boundary is the freeway, Brighton turns north to Broadway, then west to tehr river. Their northen boundary is P street to Business 80, jogs north to Capitol Avenue, but somehow makes its way back to Folsom Blvd for most of its northern border out to Mayhew. River Park lies between Brighton and the American River.

    Yes, I understand that Mather has been seeing a lot of development.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I know one of the people who lives in the new mather developement. She said there are at least 20 ACTIVE families in it!

    ReplyDelete
  12. So Brighton is even more of a long-skinny ward than Perkins. Does River Park ward extend east to Watt (or further)? That would put both the Dover Building and the SC within the River Park boundaries.

    ReplyDelete