While visiting with my friend, she asked me some questions regarding where I would attend church after moving to a nearby town.

Kathy: “So I hear you’re moving.”

Me: “Yep.”

Kathy: “That’s too bad.”

Me: “Yeah, I know. I really loved living here.”

Kathy: “Mrs. P (our daughters’ kindergarden teacher, who happens to be LDS) said that when you move you’ll be attending church at her building instead of the Mormon church down the street.”

Me: “That’s right. There is another LDS meetinghouse closer to our new house so we’ll be going to church there from now on.”

Kathy: “But I heard your Dad is the bishop of the ward that meets at the building nearest us. Won’t that be hard to attend church in a new place without your family?”

Me: “Sure, I’ve grown up my entire life in this same ward. I love these people, my entire congregation, like they are family members.”

Kathy: “So why would you do that? Why can’t you just go to whatever church you want to?”

Me: “Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, in our church, the same doctrine is taught all over the world. So changing ward houses does not change what is taught in Sacrament meeting, Sunday School or Relief Society. My children will have the exact same lessons as well. Second, my Dad will not be the bishop forever. In our area, bishops only serve for 5 years or so and then another worthy man will be called to serve in his place.”

Kathy: “But if you love all the people in your congregation, why not just keep attending the ward with the people you grew up with regardless of where you live?”

Me: “Well, if everybody did that, there would be huge numbers of people attending the same congregation because it’s ‘fun’ or ‘comfortable’ there. By following the guide to attend our assigned ward we get to ‘lift where we stand‘ and learn to serve the people who live around us. I’m sure we’ll grow to love these new people as much as the old congregation. And if everyone follows this guide, then the entire church will be blessed for their faithfulness with the opportunity for service.”

I’ve lived in the same ward all of my life, so I had a tough transition moving out of my “home” ward. For six months I attended my old ward while living outside of the ward boundaries, but my husband and I never felt good about it. We finally decided to make the move spiritually as well as physically. Last week was our first week in our new ward. And guess what? We loved it.

After making that good decision, my husband read this Ensign article about a woman who was only going to live in a ward for three months and how she made the best of the three short months she was there. This article made him wish that we had made the decision to change wards even sooner. One thing we LDS people always say after attending church while traveling is “The church is true no matter where you go.” I guess that saying now rings true for me here, there and everywhere. Even when everywhere is just down the road.

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Something happened yesterday that reminded me that God watches out for me. I was reading books with my son at the library (I don’t go to the library very often). After about 45 minutes we walked up to the desk to check out the books we had chosen. There was a woman standing at the desk asking about library cards, and she looked really familiar to me. I was pretty sure I knew her from my previous hometown, in another state. After I was finished checking out my books, we walked out of the library at the same time, and I asked her, “Who are you?” (Yes, kind of uncouth, but I needed to know who she was.) She said, “Emily.” I said, “I KNOW you! What are you doing here in this state?” She said, “My husband got an internship nearby and we will be here for the summer.”

Now let me back up a bit. We only lived in the previous location for a year, but it was a wonderful year. Everyone at church was so welcoming and kind. We loved the town. We grew up a little bit there because we had no family to rely on, but our ward became our family. We miss our friends. We miss our ward. We miss a lot about that town. When we moved to our current home, I had a really hard time at first because I missed so much about our wonderful year, our wonderful town.

Emily and her husband Pete were in our previous ward. Her husband was my son’s nursery teacher (and he was awesome). Emily was in the Primary presidency, and I was in the Young Women’s presidency, so we didn’t get many opportunities to get to know each other. When she found out she was moving for the summer, some people in the ward told her to call me, but she said, “Erin and I didn’t get to talk much. She wouldn’t even know who I was if I called her.”

Since they are only going to be here for three months, they found a place that has cheap rent on a month to month contract, and is furnished. But it is in kind of a questionable area. They only got here on Wednesday night, and they are already having concerns with where they live. Emily was just hoping she could find a stay-at-home mom that she could hang out with over the summer, because her husband will be gone a lot (and they have a five-month-old baby boy).

I love how God put us both at the library at the exact same time, less than 48 hours after Pete & Emily moved here. I love how God knew that Emily would need me this summer, because she has no family here and she would likely be lonely. I love how God knew that bringing Emily into my life right now would be like bringing a little piece of our little town back to me for a moment. And now I have the chance to build a new friendship with someone, which I always love. So thank you, God, for reminding me that you care about me and that you watch out for all of us.

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