I can recall very little about Bishop Allen except that he
was small in stature, very quiet, and owned a family camera store. We lived in
that ward for a very short time and found it challenging to make the transition
from a singles ward to a married ward. I don’t think either of us was aware of
these challenges.
Marriage is a vital part of the BYU experience and one of
the main purposes of the singles ward is to help along the way. So, singles
wards, by their very nature, are dynamic. Their goal is to make you feel wanted
and important even those, like me, who bravely resisted.
Then you get married and no one really is prepared for the dramatic
change in the ward and social dynamic. The married wards have almost no sustained
social life. The wards close to campus usually host couples newly married. So
they are simply trying to figure things out.
Newlyweds are reluctant to reach out and make friendships
outside the couple because they don’t know how to do that. They are in that
awkward stage of still having mostly single friends and trying to understand how
to make friends the other couples. The single friends feel distant and the
fellow newlyweds equally lost.
So, this first ward we attended of mostly newlyweds did not
have much of an impact on us. I do remember Joel who led the music and did so
with such passion that is was worth going to church just to watch him conduct. That
is about my only memory of Bishop Allen’s ward.
No comments:
Post a Comment