Meditations on a Life of Organized Chaos: Snowpocalypse 2014

I love snow! Well ... I love snow for a little bit. Give me one great big snowfall, and then I'm ready for spring. We don't get really great monster snows here in Waynesville. It always seems like when there is a winter storm it usually bypasses us for the most part ... at least that has been the case for the past several years. I probably remember things wrong from my youth, but it seems like we got so much bigger storms when I was growing up in north Missouri. I remember these gigantic snow mountains that would be around our town square because the city needed somewhere to deposit all the snow that was plowed off the roads. I haven't seen conditions like that around here for awhile. I miss that a little bit. I love the feeling of a good snow storm when you just hunker down inside with your family, grab some hot cocoa, turn on a great movie, and enjoy time inside with the family. One of my favorite episodes of Little House on the Prairie was when Pa had to put on his snow shoes and walk across the snow to get to the barn to get Christmas presents for the family. I loved that. Staying inside, enjoying family ... the best!

So when I woke up this morning I was excited to have a quiet morning inside, watching the snow blowing around outside and enjoying time at home with the family. Since Herman has been stake president it has been rare that he has been home with us on Sundays at all because of his travel around the stake, so I was kind of looking forward to him being here as well. Herman believes that church should only be cancelled in rare circumstances. He believes that people should make wise choices for themselves and their families, so if they feel it is unsafe to come, they need to exercise extreme caution and stay at home. But he thinks that if it is possible, someone should be at the building to provide the opportunity for those who desire to come to be able to come and partake of the sacrament and worship. That was the plan today. Members were urged to stay safe, but if anyone wanted to come, the church was open. We weren't sure what we would find when we woke up this morning. There was a bit of snow on the ground, but it was still coming down with more to come. Most people would not be able to come to church, especially with all the hills of our area. Still, Herman headed over to church at 9 am to be there for the 1st ward meeting. I stayed home with the kids, fully expecting to stay home as well. I had NO desire to drive in this stuff. And frankly, Herman gets goofy when there is snow. He likes to prove his manly bravery by driving in icy conditions that keep me inside. When he says things are fine, I take it with a grain of salt. But we are lucky to be on a flat area of the county. No hills to make things difficult. They never plow our road because we are outside city limits, but we only have to drive a quarter mile before we hit the main road, and it is always plowed. So the drive really wasn't all that bad.

The main road right outside our neighborhood.

After the 1st ward meeting ended Herman called me. He encouraged all of us to get ready and come to church for our ward meeting time at 11 am. There had only been 10 people for the 9 am meeting, but he said that it was such a special meeting. The feeling there was wonderful, and he thought that we should get the chance to experience that ourselves. He drove home to drive us since I was not so excited about heading out. In fact, I was a bit hesitant about it. I had already wrapped my head around staying home, so I had to rewrap my head around getting out in this and coming to church today. Luckily, my years as an early morning seminary teacher have made me an excellent quick change artist. I can get showered, dressed, with makeup on in about 20 minutes, fifteen if I really push it ... every extra second of sleep helps when you are trying to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. So when Herman called we were ready to kick things in gear and head out super fast.

The Blau kids loaded up and headed to church today. We clean up FAST.

When we got to church things were super relaxing. There ended up being 22 of us in the meeting. Not a lot. We had both sets of our younger missionaries there along with our senior couple missionaries. Then there were a few others from our ward who braved the weather to come out. The parking lot was not plowed, so we had to trudge through a lot of snow before we made it inside. They had scraped a path for everyone who came at 9 am, but that path was already snowed over by the time we got there. Crazily, Savannah and Katie came today wearing flats instead of boots. I didn't notice that before we headed out the door, or I would have made them change.

Poor Savannah and her cold little toes!

The meeting was such an interesting one. We didn't have any leadership there from our ward, so Herman asked Bishop Ashton from 1st ward to stay and conduct the meeting. Herman was there to preside as the stake president, but he sat out with our family since there were so few of us. I liked that. It's been a long while since I have been able to sit with him in church. President Bogle who is the president of the serviceman's branch on Fort Leonard Wood, got to bless the sacrament with Austin. That was neat to see. And Herman passed the sacrament with Spencer. That was also pretty cool to see. You don't often see that, but it was super nice for him to get the chance to serve alongside Spencer today.

We had a super nice testimony meeting. Because there were so few of us it was such an intimate setting. It seemed so personal and cozy as we stood up and shared our feelings about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Normally when we have testimony meetings we are standing before more than a hundred people. That setting can be intimidating for some people, so that prevents them from coming forward. Other times it seems as if there are so many people who wish to speak that it seems better to just stay seated. In this atmosphere today it felt comfortable and right to stand up and share some of the deepest feelings of my heart. I admit that it is easier for me to stand in front of a crowd of a thousand people and speak than it is to stand up in front of a group of twenty, but I did. It felt wonderful to share my feelings. But I enjoyed hearing others even more. The Bogle family, Bro. Housekeeper, Bro. Bradbury, Bro. Graves, Bro. Knowles, Elder and Sister Smith, Bishop Ashton ... loved all their words!!! There were people who I don't generally hear who stood up and shared their thoughts today. I could feel the Spirit as they spoke, and I could feel of their love for the gospel. It is comforting to know that there are others out there who have such strong testimonies and desires to live righteously. Each of our six children still at home shared their testimonies as well. I loved hearing Savannah's testimony. You know, Savannah is probably a bit underestimated when it comes to church things. Laney has always been so demonstrative and outgoing about her testimony and her love of the gospel, but Savannah is a bit quieter about her feelings. She has a strong testimony, but she doesn't feel as much of a need to declare it in the same way that Laney does. So it is always a treat for me as a mom to hear Savannah stand up and share the things she believes. I think I would drive through a lot of snow any day if it meant that I could have the chance to hear Savannah say the things that she shared with our little group this morning. Spencer's testimony was great as well. He has always been such a squirrel about things. I never could have guessed that he would mature into the good young man that he has become. He makes me smile. With such a small group we even gave Minsy the chance to say something. She's not much of a speaker, but she sure was happy to stand in front of the group and say a few things. And JoJo. My sweet JoJo stood up and only said, "I know the church is true. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." That was all. But it was the first time that he has ever born his testimony, and I sure that he could only find the courage to do that because there were so few there today. That was definitely a treat to hear.

It was good that we chose to come and open the building for a meeting because right toward the end of the meeting a man walked in. It was his last Sunday here, and he had decided that he was coming to church no matter what. He hadn't gotten the message that he should stay home if it looked too hard to come out. He just assumed there would be church like usual. I am glad that he was able to come and take the sacrament and enjoy a bit of a meeting after he made all the effort to come out today. Situations like that are the reason that Herman feels like there needs to be someone at the building just in case if it is at all possible.

So I am glad that we braved the weather to come to church today. The feelings that I felt there were just beautiful, and I needed that today. All church services for all denominations on post were cancelled for today, but our senior missionary couple went by the chapel there and found nine soldiers there ready to have church. They were in basic training, and normally their drill sergeants take them to church, bur because of the church closings they didn't offer that service today. Still, the soldiers decided that they wanted to come anyway. So these nine soldiers walked 2.5 miles in blowing snow and extreme temperatures in order to come to church. Luckily, the missionaries had a key to the building and let them inside. It sounded like they had a super special meeting with these soldiers. Four were members, and five had come out to go to the protestant church service. Since that had been cancelled they just sat in with our service. So cool! I loved hearing that story today.

Even the music at at church today was different. Well, we sang normal hymns, but for the closing song Elder Smith wanted us to sing it the same way that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang it, so he gave us some direction before we started singing. He even leaned back and told Savannah to slow the song down a bit as she accompanied on the piano. Needless to say, we did not end up sounding much like the Tabernacle Choir. But it was a nice effort.

Bro. Bogle playing with the snow blower after church, making a little
dent in the parking lot snow accumulation.

Sure, this isn't probably that much of a snow event when you compare it to the things that those in more northern areas experience, but it was an adventure for us today. We are definitely staying in for awhile now. The temperatures are plummeting as we speak, and it is going to be brutally cold for the next two days. School has already been cancelled for tomorrow, and I'd bet that it'll be cancelled on Tuesday as well. I have no desire to head out again anytime soon. I'll just sit by the fire, grab a hot chocolate topped with a GENEROUS serving of marshmallows, and read for a bit. Have I mentioned before how much I love snow?