Going out of my comfort zone!

This week is going to be crazy busy for me. Between a baby shower, conference and two birthdays, not to mention my usual quilt making it should go by super fast. I am so thankful that the pain in my back is better, you really don't realize how much you use your back until it hurts like He%*! My hip is still talking to me but I will take that over back pain any day. Church was so good yesterday. It seems like lately the talks all seem to hit home for me. Most of them were on how to create happiness in the family, telling your family you love them, and being slow to anger. Wow, my three worst characteristics, especially the saying the "I love You, " and you can't forget my sometimes easy to anger problem. Last Friday night I had the privilege to go with Rich to a single adult dinner party. I didn't know I was going until the leaders called us at 7:15 p.m. that night and asked where we were. Rich is over the adult singles in our stake as part of his high council assignments, so we threw clothes on and went. It ended up being so much fun. There were a few people I knew, no one from our ward showed up, but I was amazed at the spirit I felt there. After the delicious dinner of ham, potatoes, rolls, salad and a wonderful peanut butter dessert, we played chicken foot with dominoes. I had never played that game before but it sure was fun. I won the last game but had the highest score so I really lost bad. As we were visiting with some of the people at our table I would ask about their families and what they did for a job. Most of the women were single mothers raising kids by themselves. Two of the sisters who I asked how they were making it without a job said, "the Lord has been really good to me and I have been able to survive." I was so impressed with these wonderful mothers who probably through no fault of their own were alone raising their children. It made me feel very ungrateful as I listened to their testimonies. I shared with them our story of losing our precious grand daughter to an accidental drowning and how hard that was to endure. They seemed so sympathetic towards us. It just made me realize that we are all going through something very hard, LIFE. We didn't leave until almost 11:00 p.m., which is late for us after a long busy week. After we said our prayers and tried to go to sleep I kept going over the evening and thinking about all those people who I had never met but who I now felt were my friends. I admired them for going out of their comfort zones and spending a Friday night with others who maybe they wouldn't associate with otherwise. It made me a better person by doing something that was hard for me to do. Going into a strange house with people I didn't know was uncomfortable, but I am so glad I went, it was a wonderful experience.