New Calling

The Sunday before Halloween I was called into the Bishop's office and he released me as a ward missionary, and called me to be the new primary president!!! I told him I would be out of town for the next few Sunday's (we were in Omaha), but he said it would be fine and it would give me some time to find councilors.  It was a lot to process in my head.  Primary is a HUGE calling.  And I am just now figuring out what it entails.  We have so many kids!  And lots of classes with lots of teachers to find to fill those callings.  And helping plan the baptisms, Achievement Days, Faith in God, Scouts, "8 is Great", Priesthood Preview, the Primary Program, teacher training, Nursery, and probably 20 more things I am forgetting.  But I have great councilors!  We have only been sustains for the last week, and we have gotten so much covered and restructured!  I am looking forward to this Sunday to see how everything works out that we have put in place.  They aren't huge things.  This week we have been mainly working with teachers and leaders, helping them and making things easier for them. I am hoping it works the way we planned it too!

It was a little frustrating when everyone would come up to me and offer their condolences.  I think everyone thinks it is a horrible calling to have.  But this past week, as I realize how important these little children are, I have realized a greater importance in what I am doing.  My focus right now is on the teachers.  Everyone remembers their teachers as a kid, never who their presidency was.  So I want the teachers to be happy so the kids have a great experience in primary and remember the spirit that they felt.  It is a lot of work, but we will get there, and one day I will be able to catch up on my shows!!  :)

Omaha & UNO Native Film Fest!

With my Aunt Carmella!

 Charley and Gabby made "flower necklaces" with Nana.  They were getting creative with entertaining themselves while we were at the film festival all day.

 Dani giving Grandpa some lovin'

 Me with Chaske Spencer.  He presented 2 new films at the film festival, and he also did an actors workshop.  He is a really nice guy.  It was fun meeting him.  He is known for his role in the "Twilight Series" as Sam Uley.

 At the film festival they also showed a documentary on these brothers, Jeremy and Jerome Thompson.  They are Native Lacrosse players who's goal all growing up was to play Lacrosse at Syracuse University.  But they had a lot of things come up where they were always having to fight to finally get there....they had to deal with learning dissablities, which lead to not getting a high enough SAT score to play at a D1 school, and having to go to community college first, but finally getting to play at Syracuse.  It was really inspiring.  And they too are really nice!  A bunch of kids from the rez came to watch the movie and meet them, and they brought Lacrosse gloves and sticks and balls to sign and give to them!

The day after Halloween we left for Omaha. Omaha Public Schools Title VII asked me to come out and do another hoop clinic.  I was able to time it right so I could catch the last two days of the UNO Native American Film Festival.  My dad is the Director of Native Studies at UNO, and he teamed up with Vision Maker Media to put on this film festival for Native American Heritage month.  I thought it turned out great!  And I love how they brought in the actors to present the movies.  

I put on my clinic on Monday and Tuesday and then I had the rest of the week to go to the zoo, and visit family.  I even got to go to dinner with my aunt Carmella!  I had to take the girls out of school for a week, but the teachers gave us their school work before we left, and we were able to get it all done so they didn't fall behind. 

We had so much fun, the girls were crying when we left!  But it is good to be home, we missed Ben!