Single's Ward.

Here's why Singles Ward is sometimes the worst: 

Fast and Testimony meetings.  

I get why we have them.  I really do enjoy the opportunity we have to collectively fast one day out of each month and we can focus our thoughts and prayers and think about what we believe in and why we believe in those things.  Testimony meetings are great! I really do enjoy hearing about people's experiences and learning what they believe.  However, I've been in enough Single's Wards to know that the first Sunday of every month (for a lot of people) is a time when you can get up and try to impress the pants off of people. Why?  Because we're all supposed to be single with our eye on the prize! ha.  Yes, there are people who really just want to get up and share their testimony.  I love these people and learn from them each month.  But to the engaged couples who go up hand in hand to the stage because I'm assuming you can't be away from each other for more than 10 minutes.. You make me ill a little.  And to the guy who just gets up there without anything to say and takes almost 10 minutes.. you're annoying.  To the girl who shares the same spiritual moment every month without fail...hun, we get it.  And to the guy who says "I call B.S" or other inappropriate things like jokes about "Finding Nemo" and other things that detracts from the spirit while at the pulpit..you make me cringe.  

For the record, they aren't all like that but I'm just saying that if you want to feel uncomfortable, come with me to Singles Ward on the first Sunday of the month.  You'll get spiritually enlightened with equal parts of "ohhhhh I can't look directly at the speaker or I might just die" moments.  It's pretty great/horrible.

Sunday School.

The second hour of church has always been pretty hit and miss in the Single's Ward.  I'll be honest, most of the time I really do love it and learn a lot.  In this new ward though... The teachers.are.the.WORST.  Sure, I should go with the mentality of "I just want to learn" But I have a really hard time when the teacher never prepares a lesson but somehow manages to go over the allotted time by at least 10 minutes every week.  He's a nightmare.  I think it's also important to mention that he's one of the engaged couples who can't be without his S.O more than 10 minutes.  I kid you not, they are always cuddling and tangled up like a pretzel right there in front of everyone on the pew.  Today his pee colored tie perfectly matched his fiance's cardigan.  I can't make this stuff up.  To be honest, I'm not even sure how he stands up there for 40 minutes teaching a lesson without his fiance next to him.  I'm not bitter, I promise.  I'm totally all for Love.  But things like that make me want to hurl.  People, if you're in a relationship with someone and you go to church with them go ahead and hold hands, it's cool..we'll notice that you're in love and you'll still get the attention you're trying to get.  We're still all going to talk about you.  Sad truth.  Just leave the weird couple/PDA stuff outside of church.  Thanks.

Sticking with the theme of Sunday School, I just want to mention a comment that was made today (by a male) about modesty that went something like this "Girls, watch what you wear.  If your skirt is a little short and you get sexually assaulted.. it's your fault."  OK, yes, I paraphrased that, but everything that came out of that kids mouth was outrageous.  No one corrected him.  I should have but I just rolled my eyes.  I guess that's his opinion and we're all entitled to one but I kind of wish I would have said something or got up and walked out..or punched him in the face.  Alas, I didn't.  On the topic of modesty though, yes, I believe that girls should dress modestly for many different reasons.  There's no reason for girls to run around showing their goodies to everyone.  When they do, they are probably seeking attention in the wrong ways and that's sad.. But that doesn't mean they are asking to be assaulted.  Unless they are legit prostitutes.. but you get what I'm saying.  We all have agency and should be held accountable for our actions.  So no, dude in the back of Sunday school, guys don't just get to blame the girls for what they wear.  Like, "whoops I touched you because you were showing it off and you made me have these strange impure thoughts?" NO.  Get real!

 I couldn't believe the things this kid was saying.  

Oh and I won't even go off as much as I could about how I felt when some girl in Relief Society (during our lesson on Chastity and modesty) started talking about how "animals have a certain mating season when they have to be ready for their females and human females have their periods all different times so men have to be ready for them at any given time.  It's just their hormones and they way they work" I KID you not.  That happened and it was extremely awkward.  I'm sure my eyes were super huge and my jaw was touching the ground.  I couldn't look away from her because I couldn't believe what was coming out of her mouth. 

Yes, yes, at the end of the day I love church and I learned some really good things and felt the spirit strongly.  But sometimes...sometimes I just wish I went to a home ward.  I guess I'm only 4 or so years away from that.  Until then it makes for good stories!  And really, I just love going to church.  It's the highlight of my week.  It's a time where I can really reflect on my week and how I can do better the next week.  I used to think that Sundays were the end of the week and Monday morning was the start of the new but I've found as I've gotten older that Sunday really should be seen as the start of a new week.  We get to start fresh and try to do better than we did the last week.  I love Sundays.  I might not always love the Singles Ward I'm in but I really do understand why we have it.  It's  great to be around people your age.  Yes, there are many awkward moments and interesting people but church is church.  And I love it. 

 I suppose I really need to work on being more understanding and loving.. I mean, we all are Children of God.  Heck, I might be I'm the weird one!  We're all a little weird.  I just prefer to only get weird and slightly inappropriate in front of small groups of people I know, not the entire Ward.  Whatever.  To each their own.

Have a great week!