Spilling the beans

Okay this picture had nothing to do with the rest of the post -except it's of Brandon .

Brandon is the new Elder's Quorum President for our Branch!  Ahhhh, it feels so good to finally say that.  He was officially called almost 2 weeks ago, and I've been holding that secret in all that time.  It has been hard.

It seems like every conversation I've had with anyone in the Branch has contained some speculation as to who would be the new Elder's Quorum President.  And since I am terrible at lying - especially about a calling - I've had to be pretty evasive.  Usually I just changed the subject to speculating about who the new Primary President will be. (The former Elder's Quorum and Primary President were married.  They moved out of the Branch this week.) I knew it wouldn't be me so I felt pretty safe with that conversation.

Actually Brandon and I have suspected this calling was coming since our Branch President dropped a pretty big hint when he saw both of us at the World Wide Leadership training meeting.  He shook our hands and said to me, "I'm glad to see you here."  And then to Brandon he said, "I'm REALLY glad to see you here."  That might not seem like a big hint, but the whole meeting had seemed to focus on Elders Quorum stuff so in context it was huge.

Then the next day the Branch President was talking with Brandon in the hall and seemed to want to ask Brandon something.  Brandon asked, "Is there something you want to talk to me about?"  And the Branch President said, "Not yet."  Our Branch President isn't very subtle (which is probably why I get along with him so well) and based on how he said it Brandon knew something big was coming.

It was no surprise when Brandon got a call on Monday night asking him to meet with a member of the Stake Presidency on Tuesday.  And it was no surprise when we were told that they would like to extend the call to be Elder's Quorum President.  It was, however, hard to pick a babysitter, for the 20 or so minutes we had to be at the Stake Office.  I knew I had to ask someone who either wouldn't clue into what the meeting was about, or who wouldn't care.  I ended up asking the out-going President's wife.  I figured she could guess what the meeting was about, but wouldn't say anything.  As far as I know I was right.  

I think my favorite quote of the whole process came from our Branch President who called Brandon Tuesday night and left the following message, "Hi Brandon, it's President Jenson.  I know you met with the Stake leaders tonight and I think you are going to want to call me."  You can bet Brandon wanted to talk with him.  

They met a few days later to discuss the branch, possible counselors, and me.  As most of you know, I'm the Relief Society Second Counselor.  And I'm not going anywhere.  The Branch President told Brandon that in trying to fill the Primary Presidency they gave specific instructions that Primary could have anyone except Valerie.  And he later reassured the RS President that, "I'm not taking Valerie."  (Funny story - the RS President was suffering from reduced hearing loss at the time and heard, "I'm taking Valerie."  She promptly got very upset over that prospect.)

But, you may ask, don't you want an easier calling since Brandon will have such a big calling?  I thought about that, but I honestly think I'd feel left out if Brandon was getting all the Branch news and I wasn't.  Plus this isn't much of a change for us.  Brandon already had a reputation for being someone you could call to help move, change a flat tire, give a blessing, make chicken noodle soup, build the pinewood derby race track, etc.  I've seen him change clothes 3 or 4 times in one day as he moved through his different responsibilities. So we'll just go with this for now and see how it works.  But rest assured, I WILL be taking a well earned maternity leave break when the baby comes.  

So far I've found the whole Elder's Quorum thing intriguing.  Did you know they were called by the Stake President? And the counselors have to be approved by the High Council?

And how does Brandon feel about the whole thing?  He says he feels humbled and excited at the same time. There are a lot of things he wants to do for our wonderful little branch to help make it even better.