Sigh....

It has been a while again since I have posted to my blog. Hit and miss, just like with my journal. North Dakota has been very busy this summer. Vacations, soccer tournaments, church calling, home remodeling.... Last week we got through a very cool girls camp. 4 stakes, guest speakers Jeremy Harvey, Hank Smith and Sister Marriott! I got to go to Jamestown Friday night and listen to Sister Marriott, sat right behind her and her husband. Very good. Scout camp is coming up, another big event to celebrate 100 years of Scouting in the church. Multi-stake, have reserved the entire Boy Scout Camp Wilderness in Minnesota. A member of the young men's general presidency, Thurl Bailey and others. Should be very cool.

This week Bishop Lund is out of town on vacation. As 1st councilor in the Bishopric I am presiding over the ward. On Thursday I will be presiding over and conducting a funeral for one of our ward members. I have never met brother Walz, he passed away last Thursday at the age of 67. I had to represent the bishopric at girls camp, Bishop was unable to come due to trying to get everything done at work so that he could go on vacation. He is not going to be able to go to Scout Camp for the full time, hopefully he will be able to come for a couple of days. My experience in the bishopric has been an opportunity to learn and grow. There are so many things that a bishop does in and for the ward that most members do not see. As I try to help where I can I am learning a great deal about ward leadership and how the Lord's kingdom works. I also am learning that my problems and issues are small. It makes me grateful for all that I have been blessed with.

I just updated one of my Cow Chips stories. Fence Jumping. As I was pondering what to say to the youth, something that would help them in their lives, help them to understand how the commandments are a protection and not a restriction I thought of this story and how I can use it to illustrate this point. Like the scriptures, today I have learned something very different from a story that I wrote about a long time ago. I think I may have made the connection between fences and commandments in one of my other stories, but this story seems to be a really good illustration of this concept. There is always something to learn, even if you have read or heard it a 1000 times, you can always learn something new....