Throwback Thursday: Holding church as a single person

I do have one big lesson I want to share with everyone about holding church at home, but there's a story that goes with it...

----wavy flashback----


In the summer of 2013, we were setting Joy and the kids up in Utah. We had just moved from Provo to Pleasant Grove. I had just a few weeks left before returning to Nigeria alone. One of the bishop's councilors asked me to speak in church. I happily agreed and worked on my talk for many hours until I felt some very strong stirrings from the Spirit that helped me know what I was supposed to say.


When we got to church, however, I discovered my name wasn't on the program. About 30 minutes into the meeting, I got a text from our ward in Provo, asking me where I was. OOPS! Our old ward had invited me to speak, not our new ward. We had only been there for 4-6 weeks and I didn't know either bishopric that well. We were more than a 30 minute drive away and had to cancel. Sorry!

Later that day, the new ward's bishopric asked me to speak on a different topic the next week. I happily agreed and worked on my talk for many hours until I felt some very strong stirrings from the Spirit that helped me know what I was supposed to say.

When we got to church, I was pleased to see my name on the program. I was in the right ward this time! But then the speaker before me spoke for the entire meeting. I had enough time to bear a 30 second testimony and sit down.

I got home deeply confused. Why had I felt the Spirit so strongly - TWICE - about talks that no one would ever hear? I remember weeping as I prepared both of them because of the love of God I felt while writing them. What was I supposed to learn from this? Then came the lesson:

I learned I needed to prepare my talks in Nigeria with the same faith and fervor and effort that I had used when preparing for these talks. If it took hours, that's what it took. It didn't matter that no one would hear them but me and God. That was what I needed.

--------------------
My first Sunday alone in Nigeria, I thought it was weird standing at our little podium and speaking to an empty couch. I grabbed some of the stuffed animals my kids had left behind to serve as an audience. ... That was a bad idea. It was much weirder giving a talk to them! Once the toys were back where they belonged, church went forward. I sang an opening hymn by myself, blessed and passed the sacrament to myself, and faced an empty couch to give the talk I had worked on while on the plane. I have to say, the Spirit was there in power. It was a great reassurance and testimony to me that I wasn't truly alone.

Over the weeks that followed, there were some days that I decided I could wing it. It was just for me, after all. Not long into my talks, however, I noticed that there was no power, that the influence of the Holy Ghost was decidedly missing. So I announced that church would be postponed until the evening. I would spent the rest of the day writing out the talk I should have prepared during the week. When I re-started church, it felt right again. That only happened a couple times before I learned it would just take me 3-6 hours a week to draw deeply enough from the scriptures and the words of latter-day prophets to get the help and renewal I needed from my Sabbath observance.

Though I will say, one of the nice things about church by myself is that the meeting lasts just as long as I want to. If my talk is 10-15 minutes long, church is done pretty quick. But if the good professor (windbag that he is) decides to rhapsodize a bit and enjoy a 45 minute lecture on the Atonement, well, that's all fine too!

What you get out of church depends on what you put into it. God will visit and strengthen us as we gather in our much smaller congregations, and even in a church of one! We are never truly alone.

Throwback Thursday: Holding church as a family

As the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that church would not be convening because of COVID-19, we pulled out our family chant, "Welcome to Nigeria! Have a nice day!"

Normally we only recite it when the electricity shuts off, but nothing reminds us of our Nigeria experience quite like holding church in the comfort of our own home. For 3 years we did that. At first there was a second family, but then they left and it was just us and then just me for the last year. The kids couldn't remember those days very well, but we just had to pull our old system out of mothballs.

I assigned Superstar to prepare a 5 minute talk about something from Jacob 1-4 that we had all read last week. Joy and I each prepared 10 minute talks and we had the young ones bear a brief testimony. I picked four hymns - opening, sacrament, intermediate, and closing - and accompanied the family on our piano. I blessed the sacrament and our new deacon passed it to me and the rest of the family.

This was our setup in Nigeria.
We put an end table on top of a coffee table to create our podium while the rest of the coffee table held the sacrament. This seven year old pic sure does bring back memories and nostalgia for those tiny kids!

In TX we had a two-drawer dresser to hold the sacrament but I haven't invented our podium yet. Maybe I'll pull out our long card table and stick my music holder on top of that to hold people's notes....

I often miss blessing the sacrament. When I was a priest, I was also the ward organist, so I rarely got the opportunity to pray over the emblems of our Lord's Atonement. And that, too, after being mostly in charge of setting it up for the two years before since we lived so close. One of my favorite things about home church is the opportunity to say those sacred prayers and participate in a deeper way in the ordinance of the sacrament. I was thankful for someone's Facebook post where they shared that they used medicine measuring cups for the sacramental water. We had used some decorative glass owl cups that I was nervous about people dropping, and that's just distracting. (One of them did fall off the counter later, so now we only have 4 of them and we'd be mismatched again anyway.)

Joy also put together Primary. I reckon that's what newly-called Primary presidency counselors do. We sang some Primary songs for half an hour and had a short Come, Follow Me lesson that involved something for the younger kids (JT) and the older kids (Princess), with Superstar helping with some of the teaching. He's understandably none too thrilled about returning to Primary just after graduating from it, but he did a fine job participating.

I'm actually looking forward to more Sundays as a family. At least, I'm choosing to look forward to them - since we're going to be doing this for a while, might as well enjoy it!

Microwave vs. Nigeria

Our microwave broke down a couple weeks ago while my parents were visiting for Christmas. We hurried off to the store to order a new one, but it won't arrive until this Friday. So we've been reheating food in the oven, toaster, or stove top for - almost like our pioneer forefathers. ;)


We have this saying that we still use. When the lights go out, it reminds us of the 'privations' we had in Nigeria - specifically the routine power outages 3-5 times a day. We turn to each other and say, "Welcome to Nigeria!"

Joy has commented twice now that we can't even say that. In Nigeria, AUN supplied us with a microwave. And though the electricity would shut off regularly, and sometimes for a few hours at a time, we were never days on end without a microwave to complement our stove and oven. She says: "Isn't it funny to feel like there could come a day when we feel how spoiled we were in Nigeria" compared to the US?

We were always aware of how good we had it in Nigeria compared to other Nigerians, and regular contact with other friends living abroad helped us recognize how pampered we were by our institution compared to theirs. But it's one of the very few times that we have felt better off in Nigeria than here. "Ode to having a new microwave by Friday!" quothe the Joy.

Welcome to Nigeria. Have a nice day. 2

Last year the electricity went out on campus. There was no announcement of classes being canceled, and if I had taught evening classes powerless in Nigeria I could certainly manage here in Texas. So I had started my lecture when we all got text messages canceling all classes. Sad.

The power going out is the #1 thing that reminds me of Nigeria. Any time there is a short power outage or fluctuation, Joy and I turn to each other and say, "Welcome to Nigeria. Have a nice day."

Well, turns out that isn't the only thing that gives us flashbacks. Tuesday the house's central air died. I noticed it was getting a little warm, but thought it was just me. By dinner it felt much hotter, so I checked the thermostat. Why was the house at 80 (normally 75) when the AC was clearly running non-stop? I cleaned the air filter, gave the machine a rest, checked the outside to make sure the unit was weed-free... nope. Nothing helped. We slept in 82 degrees.

Yesterday the AC guy came over and found out our outdoor unit had fried completely. It'll have to be replaced, or maybe the entire system. That's gonna be a pretty penny! The house crept up to 85. We were on to feed the missionaries and I really didn't feel like cooking the spaghetti squash or the bacon-wrapped chicken in the oven. So we spent an air conditioned hour at a pizza place.

I have no place to complain, really, since Joy is working with the cub scouts all week (afternoons and evenings) outside in the 96 degrees and humid. As we lay in bed last night, we talked about Nigeria and how the AC only sometimes worked to get the house down to the 80s, sleeping with two fans on us (one overhead and another pointed at us).

With most of the windows open and fans on during the night, we got it back down to 81. I was really rather hoping to get it down to the 70s since the low was 71ish last night. It's climbing up relentlessly again. Hopefully the AC people will have some options they can put in place before by parents come to visit next week.

Meanwhile, Princess is loving it. She wears warm pajamas, a hat, socks, and at least 3 blankets every night and complains the house is just freezing cold. Last night she was happy and comfortable for the first time in forever. Glad someone is.