The Church in Troy

Today was our 3rd Sunday in our little branch in Troy (last week we were in Pensacola).  I thought I would share a little about what the church is like here.  First off, I love that wherever you go, the same lessons are being taught, the same format is used, the same Gospel is being shared.  (More or less, I sometimes wondered in Pittsburgh...hehe).  We are in a branch here that is part of the Dothan Alabama stake.  Dothan is about an hour away.  Montgomery has its own stake, so I think our stake covers everything south of there on the east half of the state, part of Florida, and a little of Georgia. That's a lot of area!

From what we've seen so far, there are usually around 60 people that attend Sacrament Meeting.  Our Branch President is amazing.  I think the church would be much less strong here without him.  I'm not sure how many children he has, but I know it's a lot.  They have 3 boys in high school and a younger girl and 2 boys on missions and I think there are some more that are older too.  He is a very intense high achieving guy and you can tell he's helped shape the branch a lot.  It was neat today, he acknowledged all those who had completed the year of seminary.  His 3 boys were up there - all having read the entire Old Testament and had 100% attendance for the year (one for all four!) - and there was another boy too.  He then thanked his wife for being the seminary teacher for the last TWELVE YEARS.  Oh my.  That woman is a saint.

Also today, Jeremy got called and set apart as the Elder's Quorum President.  Yep, we're only here 11 more weeks and he's the Elder's Quorum President.  That was one I really didn't expect since he's a High Priest, but I trust that he is the man for the job.  The previous president just had neck surgery and is kind of out of commission for awhile, so they may call him back after we leave.  I left Jeremy at church afterward today and I don't expect to see him for awhile...and so it begins...again. :)  As for me, I was called to my #1 most feared calling.  I'll tell you next week what it is.  See if you can guess.  It will probably surprise you what I'm afraid of!  (It's not a music calling).

We have a wide variety of people here.  There are 5 missionaries assigned to our branch - 2 Elders and 3 Sisters and you can tell they are working very hard.  The Stake President said they baptize about 10-15 Chinese immigrants a year in the branch!  How cool.  They come here to attend Troy University.  Jeremy said how neat it is that the Chinese people are being taught all over - not in China, but other places.  He taught several in Cyprus on his mission too.  Anyway, so we have some students, several Alabama natives and a lot of transplants like us.  So there are a lot fewer Southern accents than I expected.

We meet in a church building, but it's small and doesn't have a real chapel.  They're actually building a new one next door that they expect to move into sometime this summer.  It's small, but the people are friendly and most of the members are strong.  There are 2 girls named Addie around Eli's age.  One just turned 4 and the other turns 4 this summer, then there is a 2 yr-old boy Eli really likes (Max) and an almost 2 yr-old girl who comes about half the time.  So Eli has been going to primary with the "two Addies".  The first 2 weeks he would go to sharing time the first hour (Max goes too since his Mommy is in primary) and then they would go to nursery together.  Today, however, Max wasn't there so Eli went to the Sunbeam class and loved it!  The teacher said he was really good.  After church he said "Now I need to go to nursery".  I think he wanted to stay all day.  I have a feeling it's going to be a rough transition back to Pittsburgh when he has to just go to nursery again.

Anyway, so that's church life here.  It's been a bit of an adjustment, but we're getting there.  The hardest part for me has been finding friends and being a lonely.  Coming from our ward in Pittsburgh with so many young moms, mostly students' wives, all in the same boat, and lots of friends to get together with, it's been a bit challenging.  There are only 4 other women around my age (and I'm using that loosely: between 20ish and 40ish), so there aren't a ton, but they're all really nice and we're getting to know them better.  I'm just out of practice getting to know people outside of church, so this will be good for me. :)  That's what I keep telling myself anyway!  We went to the park the other day hoping to find friends, and there was not a person to be found.  It was the coolest nicest day in weeks so I was shocked (and this is not a park, this is the park, the only one in the whole town).  We'll have to get more creative with meeting people, but we'll figure it out.

Anyway, sorry no pictures!  Give yourself a pat on the back if you made it through this whole thing.  Maybe I should have just stuck this in my journal...next time... :)