Change bring growth... Or so we're told!

What a difference a few months can make! 5 months ago Eric was serving as the 1st counselor to Bishop Ric Moon, and he was loving it! He was learning so much from him, and had that “missionary” feeling that he hadn’t had since he was a full-time missionary in the mid 90’s. I had just quit my part time job, and we were aggressively looking for a piece of land to build our dream home on… outside of our ward boundaries. However, we both felt the winds of change blowing, and were a little scared of what that meant.

The last time we had felt that feeling was last July while we were on a family vacation in WA/ID. As we sat at the Demars family cabin overlooking beautiful Hayden Lake, we both talked about how we knew changes were coming. At the time I was serving as the YW pres, and had been for 3 years. We were sure that these feelings meant that I was going to be released from that assignment. Neither of us were prepared for the call that came the very evening that we arrived home from our trip.  We were asked to meet with a member of the Stake presidency, where the call was issued to Eric to serve as the 1st counselor to Bishop Moon. He was overwhelmed, but up to the challenge. The next few months that followed brought lots of growth and learning for him.

Now… fast forward to April 10th of this year… We were once again asked to meet with the Stake presidency. Remember, we had felt those same winds of change blowing, so we were pretty nervous. This meeting was a beautiful experience in which Eric was extended the call to serve as the Bishop of our ward. He had seen Bishop Moon first hand, and knew some of the challenges that face a Bishop, and their family. The idea that those were now his challenges was pretty terrifying.

Over the last 5 months we have seen the Lord's hand in our lives, and in the lives of the members of our ward. It has brought many challenges for us to face, but Eric has done an amazing job, and we're learning to be patient with the process of refinement. We're hoping that the Lord will refine us and make us instruments in His hands.

Here's a picture of his new bishopric...

His counselors Tyson Davis (Left, 1st counselor), and Ethan Garret (Right, 2nd counselor) are AMAZING!!! They are so good at just doing what needs to be done, so that Eric doesn't even need to worry whether things are taken care of. They are all such hard working, inspired men. I'm so proud of them all. They have jumped right in and done so many great things for the people of the ward already; In their 5 short months. They all amaze me!