Doilies vs. Blackberries

There’s a chasm of difference between Elders Quorum and Relief Society lessons. The startling contrast was especially evident this weekend, as I helped Ree prepare to teach Relief Society. There’s a reason women are more spiritual (pronounced spiri-chul in Utah county) and the secret seems to be in labor, and perhaps tablecloths.

Since Chris was out of town, Ree was pinch hitting. After a lot of reading, pondering, and discussion with her mom, she was inclined to emulate the popular game show, “The Price is Right”. With her creative mind flowing, the jazzy and exciting show, “If the Lord Commands, DO IT!” was hatched. Sounded simple enough: get some posterboard, some markers, make some games, all great fun, right? Sure.

The picture below was taken at 11:50PM after 8 hours of intensive posterboard labor. Bravo to Kerri for still mustering a smile after being hunched over on the floor, sniffing markers for several hours (maybe the huffing helped the smile?).


The floor is littered with construction tools: staple gun, utility knife, box tape, crane, concrete pumper, dump truck. Ok, so it just felt like we were using heavy equipment after that much time. After scouring the Internet for Price is Right theme songs, printing pictures of the prizes for the contestants, (blessings from heaven, eternal rest, etc.) and making name tags, we were in bed around 1:30AM. We only left 1.5 more hours of work to do in the morning.


Now EQ prep: remember to bring the lesson manual with you to Sacrament Meeting. The preparation process is now 90% complete.

While “listening” to the speakers, crack the manual and read through it for the first time. Now think of a sports analogy or bizarre life experience that is minimally tangential to the lesson topic. You are now all set to teach. Close the manual and eat a few Cheerios you packed for the kids. You are the man! Preparation doesn’t really matter anyway- the “students” will be sleeping (not so subtle in a class of 3, by the way) or playing games on their Blackberries.

Ree’s lesson went well and I’m proud of all her hard work! Thank you for not being the kind of mom/wife/church member who does things half-heartedly! It was all worth it in the end, Ree! And if you need a nap after the late night, I hear EQ down the hall is a good place to doze…