See, there is a God!
I've made a goal this year that the only reason I'm not at church is because I'm on the road to/from somewhere and had little choice in the matter. This is mostly because I skipped church a lot towards the end of last year just because I didn't want to deal with people or just wanted an extra few minutes of sleep.
This morning, my alarm went off and realized that today was Fast & Testimony meeting...then groaned. First it was because I haven't had much sleep in the past few days and knew I wasn't going to get a chance to take a nap before my double shift at work. Second, because I really didn't want to hear people "whining" about their latest trial. A testimony is bearing witness of something. You know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, you know that Jesus Christ is your savior and redeemer, you know that tithing is a principle with a promise (or strongly believe, depending on your situation). It's not a travel log, or a "thank you"-mony where you go up a list everything you're grateful for. Don't get me wrong, it's good to be grateful, but that's not a testimony. That's not why you joined the church (if you were a convert) or while you still go.
Anyways, I did want to go to Sunday School, but Bro. T's lessons are so much fun and really make you think. And Relief Society is enjoyable majority of the time. Since it was the first Sunday of the month, the RS presidency gave their own special message and as long as it didn't focus on motherhood, I was good.
I decide to go anyways, I could endure 40 minutes. I get to church and another family sits next to us that has a lot of young kids. This family also lives in my neighborhood and I go over from time to time to babysit. So, I'm thinking "sweet! I'll just play with the kids during the testimonies and not really pay attention!" They were more interested in their coloring after the sacrament was passed, so that plan didn't pan out. *sigh*
A couple young girls got up and bore actual testimonies, then this one lady stood up and began to go on about her latest trials with cancer. In the middle of her speech, the fire alarm goes off. Actually, I had no clue what it was at first, so I'm looking around for a flashing light that would help me figure out what was going on. Bro. Mahoney, who happens to be a firefighter. Is the first person up and out of the chapel, followed closely by Bro. Runyon, who is the building supervisor, to go figure out what tripped the alarm and where. Keep in mind, the majority of us haven't moved yet.
At this point, members of the bishopric have left the stand and are starting to marshall us outside. I was actually amazed at how calm the children were. Several of us helped the older members of the congregation and we had that chapel cleared in less than 5 minutes.
We stood outside for about 20. Now, either we're not tied in directly to the fire department or Bro. Mahoney called and said "don't worry", because no trucks showed up and the station is right at the bottom of the hill.
What happened was, one of the fans in the duct system doesn't work and wasn't distributing the heat. We had the same problem a couple weeks ago, but it just triggered the automatic shut off to the furnace, so it was just really cold all day. Today it overheated the furnace, which tripped the alarm. They got it reset and I'm assuming getting that fan checked out tomorrow.
There was about 15 minutes left the sacrament meeting when all was said and done...unfortunately, the same woman got back up to finish her story...
This morning, my alarm went off and realized that today was Fast & Testimony meeting...then groaned. First it was because I haven't had much sleep in the past few days and knew I wasn't going to get a chance to take a nap before my double shift at work. Second, because I really didn't want to hear people "whining" about their latest trial. A testimony is bearing witness of something. You know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, you know that Jesus Christ is your savior and redeemer, you know that tithing is a principle with a promise (or strongly believe, depending on your situation). It's not a travel log, or a "thank you"-mony where you go up a list everything you're grateful for. Don't get me wrong, it's good to be grateful, but that's not a testimony. That's not why you joined the church (if you were a convert) or while you still go.
Anyways, I did want to go to Sunday School, but Bro. T's lessons are so much fun and really make you think. And Relief Society is enjoyable majority of the time. Since it was the first Sunday of the month, the RS presidency gave their own special message and as long as it didn't focus on motherhood, I was good.
I decide to go anyways, I could endure 40 minutes. I get to church and another family sits next to us that has a lot of young kids. This family also lives in my neighborhood and I go over from time to time to babysit. So, I'm thinking "sweet! I'll just play with the kids during the testimonies and not really pay attention!" They were more interested in their coloring after the sacrament was passed, so that plan didn't pan out. *sigh*
A couple young girls got up and bore actual testimonies, then this one lady stood up and began to go on about her latest trials with cancer. In the middle of her speech, the fire alarm goes off. Actually, I had no clue what it was at first, so I'm looking around for a flashing light that would help me figure out what was going on. Bro. Mahoney, who happens to be a firefighter. Is the first person up and out of the chapel, followed closely by Bro. Runyon, who is the building supervisor, to go figure out what tripped the alarm and where. Keep in mind, the majority of us haven't moved yet.
At this point, members of the bishopric have left the stand and are starting to marshall us outside. I was actually amazed at how calm the children were. Several of us helped the older members of the congregation and we had that chapel cleared in less than 5 minutes.
We stood outside for about 20. Now, either we're not tied in directly to the fire department or Bro. Mahoney called and said "don't worry", because no trucks showed up and the station is right at the bottom of the hill.
What happened was, one of the fans in the duct system doesn't work and wasn't distributing the heat. We had the same problem a couple weeks ago, but it just triggered the automatic shut off to the furnace, so it was just really cold all day. Today it overheated the furnace, which tripped the alarm. They got it reset and I'm assuming getting that fan checked out tomorrow.
There was about 15 minutes left the sacrament meeting when all was said and done...unfortunately, the same woman got back up to finish her story...