End of an Era

This weekend was kind of bitter sweet. It was the BYU-I 4th Stake Conference (Dave's Stake). Elder Gary Walker of the Seventies was the visiting authority. He has an amazing ability to speak for great lengths of time, not get to deep, and make you feel like you can go home and do better. He came not too long ago to the Iona Stake and we have enjoyed listening to him both times. He also asks the Stake Presidency to not "prepare a talk" but speak by the spirit. They all gave excellent talks also. Of course one was a religion teacher at BYU-I and you would never have been able to guess that he had no "prepared" talk. I guess if you talk about scriptures all day you can pretty much wing a gospel based talk with no problem! That was the "sweet" part.
The "bitter" part was that Dave was released. We knew it was a 3 year calling but it is hard to believe that he has been serving up there that long. I haven't been able to be up there a lot but when I have been it is such a neat experience. It is a married student Stake. It is so fun to watch these young couples, see how happy they are and watch them with their little ones. At one point yesterday I glanced across to an open door and saw 6 men standing there trying to settle babies or toddlers. I just think dads today take a more active roll with the babies than my day- that is so cool. It seems you can look at the couples and tell which ones are truly happy and which ones may be struggling, which ones really love each other and which ones are still developing that love. They are so eager to learn and do the things the Lord wants them too.
One young man spoke and told of how when they first came to BYU-I someone gave them a car with over 300,000 miles on it (they came from somewhere in Africa). They drove that car to Maryland and back and somewhere on the West coast and back on faith because they knew they had paid their tithing! Wow, I just don't know if I have that much faith. Another thing that stuck in my mind was that Elder Walker reminded us that the brethren are not "fearing" this time in our Nation. If we set our hearts on the things that matter and have faith we are never alone. This isn't anything new but was another good reminder to me as I watch the news and the stock market!
Anyway, Dave's days of serving in Rexburg are over. *shed big tears here* He is a bit apprehensive as to what is in store for him next. He served for just 10 months as Bishop of our "new" ward after the last division and has been gone from the ward for 3 years. So basically he doesn't know a lot of the people very well. I am excited to have him go to church with me and sit with me, it has been almost 15 years since he has sat with me (2 short exceptions during that time). So... we will just have to see what is next!