New Calling

I feel like I just got called to be Gospel Doctrine teacher.  Oh wait, I did (just a few months ago).  I think Bishop ranks Sunday School teacher right above, maybe, Greeter, in importance in callings.  He seems to think it's not a hard calling at all, and it always gets easily pushed aside when he thinks someone should be in a more important (on his scale) calling.

So yesterday I got called to be the Relief Society 1st Counselor, which apparently in our ward is the counselor over Enrichment, which...I don't even know what that means.  It used to be Homemaking and now it's Enrichment, but I don't think regular Enrichment activities happen anymore, right?  Being in Primary for 2 years and YW for 4 years means I no longer have any idea how Relief Society works.

(I told Bishop that over 10 years ago I was the Homemaking counselor in my university ward to which he said, "Pssh, you're not that old."  Thanks, Bishop.  Actually, I got called to be Homemaking counselor 16 years ago, so the moral of the story is, I'm old.)

I'm meeting with the RS President tomorrow night to discuss what it is I'm supposed to do.  Against my unofficial Calling Difficulty Gauge, with YW President as a 10 and 27th member of the Welcoming Committee as a 1 (my last calling in my giant YSA ward), I expect this to fall around a 4 or so.  I rank being the sole Gospel Doctrine teacher as a 6, possibly a 7 during this year of Doctrine and Covenants.

So I said yes.  Later I asked Husband if I was being a hypocrite given my issues with the Church and he said he didn't think so.  My ex-Mo friend who is very supportive of wherever I happen to be at the moment, articulated it better when she texted me that as far as issues go, RS Counselor is pretty good because it's mostly helping and planning, right?

True.  Teaching Gospel Doctrine has been tricky, particularly this year.  If we had been studying the New Testament, no problem!  But I got thrown into D&C, and having to wrestle with Joseph Smith and now Brigham Young and all of the issues there, without being a complete hypocrite to my class and lying through my teeth every week has been a challenge.  As much as I dreaded this calling, it's actually wound up being a really good period of learning for me as I try to figure out how I feel about things.  I actually gained a little respect for Brigham Young this week.  As much of a misogynistic tyrant as he was, the man had organization skillz!

But helping and planning?  That I can do!  The whole helping and service aspect of the Church is one of the major things that keeps me there.  Yeah, I get annoyed when I feel taken advantage of, but I love genuinely being able to help someone with something they need.  For instance, one of the YW is coming over this week to get SAT help from me and Husband.  Something like that, where you feel like it matters and isn't just bureaucratic busywork, that's good stuff!

Bishop said to me yesterday to think about what I wanted to do about my Gospel Doctrine calling.  I know he wants me to keep teaching through the end of the year, because in our ward a new calling doesn't necessarily mean you get released from your old calling.   Also, for some reason, Bishop doesn't think being the sole Sunday School teacher is a hard calling.  I mean, it's not hard, but it is time-consuming.  I spend several hours every week preparing my lesson, and I teach EVERY week, and if I'm not going to be there, which I'm usually not at least one Sunday a month, I have to try to track down a sub, which can be quite a feat.  Whenever I tell anyone rational that I'm the only teacher, they think that's insane.  Don't know why Bishop doesn't see that.

So for the moment, I have 3 callings (I'm also Sacrament Meeting chorister.  That might be a 0 on the Difficulty Gauge...)  I think I'm going to tell Bishop I'll teach through the end of the year, but only part-time, meaning, get me a co-teacher, stat!  He may just decide if he's going to call a co-teacher, he might as well just call a new teacher and be done with it, so we'll see.