"Are you still getting married, Don?"
The question seemed to come out of nowhere last Sunday, when a young woman asked about my current betrothal.
"Of course I am. Why do you ask?" came my response with conviction.
"It's just that I've not seen Jessi in the ward since her last visit in July."
Hmm … interesting logic. I probed for supporting evidence on her claim.
She responded, "I thought that because you two are engaged, you'd want to spend as much time as possible with each other … and that would include going church together."
While the logic seemed sound, the conclusion was out in left field.
Of course we want to spend time together. In fact, we want to spend as much time together we possibly can. Unfortunately, there are a couple elements in play that prevent Jessi and I to just attend one ward together — our callings.
Jessi is in the Relief Society presidency; I'm in the Sunday School presidency. These callings don't lend themselves to much skipping out of church.
We've never complained about our callings. In fact, we both see the logic and respect our bishops' decisions of not releasing us until the end of September. It's an opportunity to serve and participate fully within our wards.
Would it be nice to attend a ward together during this engagement? Of course. But we realize that our capacity to serve will be short-lived anyway — four weeks.