Amazing and surprising weekend!

After reading Megan's blog about Volleyball, I thought "peer pressure"! It never ends! This weekend was my big Weight Watchers Innovation. It is a convention with awards and education. This year my boss asked everyone to dress up in evening wear and the glitzier the better. I really just wanted to wear one of my cute suits, or wear pants with the sweater in the above pic. But I caved in spent hours on my skirt (because I made two of them as you know if you read my previous blog) and bought some new shoes that I will hardly ever wear. I got to innovations and about half were dressed like me and the others were just dressed nice. I think next year maybe I will wear slacks. I may have to wear these great very impractical but fun shoes!Judy decided to do a photo shoot, I included just these three! The first one has a shadow that I wish wasn't there, oh well!Anyway, I had a hard time making a choice to go to innovations because it is always on Sunday. I didn't go the first two years and this year I felt like I really wanted to go. I talked to Steve about it and he felt I should go. That caught me off guard because in years past he felt I shouldn't. After we talked about it at length, I felt really good about it. I felt I should go. Later, I was in Presidency meeting and this weekend came up, I was supposed to attend my own ward as a representative of the Presidency for our Primary Presentation. I told them I had a commitment and couldn't go. They all accepted that and then I for some reason felt the need to tell them what my commitment was. It got very quiet and two of the three just said I needed to do what I felt was right with a tone in their voice like I shouldn't go, and the third one was pretty vocal about it being work. All of the sudden I wondered if I truly had felt the spirit tell me it would be good to go or if it was just me being worldly. Steve reassured me it was important to go to innovations, that it was training and I couldn't get it anywhere else. I felt peaceful about it again, but every so often would wonder. I went up on Saturday, stayed at Eddie and Judy's so I could go to church. I went by myself to another stake because they were having Stake conf. I came back got ready to go and then left. When I got there it was fun and it was great to get the training and see Polly (one of my receptionists who's is also a leader) get all of her many and I mean many awards, but at one point I asked myself if it was really necessary for me to be there. Then it happened. They showed a video about people that had lost more than a hundred pounds, it overwhelmed me. It reminded me of how I felt when I had the majority of my weight off. I remembered how I felt when I first became a leader-my great desire for others to feel as great as I do, I remembered what it felt like to care! I realized that I had become complacent about my job. I had become lazy, and wasn't doing all I could to be a great leader and member. I thought about my Patriarchal Blessing that talks about not being half hearted in serving the Lord. I realized all over this is a great service I am giving to our community and I am treating it very lightly. I was overcome with the spirit, and realized why I felt I should be there. I couldn't control my emotions. I was sooooo grateful I had come. I am excited and humbled to be a leader and to be a member and get my act together. I am so grateful for those people that worked so hard to make it so nice for us. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that knows what we need and cares about all our little concerns, because they are big concerns to us. Weight Watchers is coming out with some changes in December and so I am excited to read all of them and become the kind of leader I know I can be.

The other thing I learned is something that has been on my mind all year, and that is to not judge other peoples decisions, even if they looked to you like they are wrong. I think I started thinking about this when Rebecca said the Lord told her to go back to school with the possibility that He wanted her to teach. Because it was Rebecca and I know how she has a testimony I never doubted the Lord told her. In fact even though the Lord didn't need to I felt an overwhelming feeling to be 110% supportive of her decision. It caused me to ponder judging at a new level. We don't know everything about peoples lives and why they do what thet do. I have spent this last year thinking about grace and giving people the grace that I want given to me. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that teaches us and blesses us. I love you all and am so grateful for all of you!!!