Mesa Easter Pageant, A Birthday Escape Room, and a Boundary Changed Ward

It's been a good week. After General Conference a week ago, Sarah made the goal to workout every day. So, we've either gone for a run, walk, went swimming, went to the park below the 202 to walk and play, etc. We've already found out so many things. First of all, it's been getting hot, as it gets in Arizona, yet, the pool was still really cold. However, despite that, we dipped ourselves in the water after some convincing and swam. We swam on our backs hand in hand all around the pool. Our pool looks like a fidget spinner, so it was quite the maneuvering. I had to keep myself from looking at Sarah and losing my balance in the pool and going under the water. The other thing that we learned is that there is a Chandler Recreation Center and a Chandler Tennis court area. We were walking around the Tumbleweed park and discovered them. The inside of the Rec Center has a 0.1 mile indoor track. We were allowed to walk around it and look at the weights and raquetball and basketball courts. The tennis courts are close as well, but you have to pay to use them. We went on a swing in the park and I pushed Sarah and she pushed me. We also walked to church and back.

The interesting thing about Church is that our Stake boundaries changed right before conference. The stake went from 4000 members 20 or so years ago to 3000 members today. Because of it, there was a reduction. Boundaries were made bigger, and some wards were abolished. With that, our ward changed from Amberwood to Summit Point. We had a ward pot luck the Friday after the boundary changes and it seemed like a really sizeable and good change. We lost members like the Shermans and Forsgrens, but we gained members as well, a lot of members. I went with Sarah to her young men/young women combined activity, which was quite fun. Then last Wednesday, Brother Darren Brown and I had our first Activity Days for the boys. Our list grew from 5 to 13, and we had 6 boys on Wednesday, but 2 were sick and another was accidentally not invited. Brother Brown did a good job with coming up with the activity, which were some get to know you games; he even had prizes for winners. We played a get to know you bingo and a get to know you with M&Ms. We will have our hands full, but it will be a good hands full. Sarah will probably be getting a new calling, sadly.

Yesterday, for date night, I surprised Sarah by taking her to the Mesa Easter Pageant on the Mesa Temple grounds. It was really fun and just what we needed. The music was so great and the stage was so elaborate and the 400+ cast members made the play so great. We even knew a person in the play, LauraMae Klingler, and she played a woman named Ruth, a small but important role. We then took a walk on the temple grounds and went to the Deseret Book BYU Creamery, which was open late for the pageant. We bumped into Christy Porter, a woman from my Piano Pedagogy class last semester and we had some good conversation. Earlier, before the pageant, I took Sarah to the Liahona 5th Ward potluck. We saw and helped Bishop Pendergrass and his wife. It was a good evening. Not only that but we got really good seats. We prayed that we would get some, and an usher helped us to the them. It was a miracle.

For Sarah's birthday, we went to an Escape Room with the Eric and Holli Sally. We decided the day before that we wanted to do a creep doll house escape room at this place. It was quite fun. Entertaining, challenging and at small intervals, creepy. There was a doll that fell from the ceiling, a person on a bed without any arms, and a zombie-like person crawling from underneath the bed. We almost cracked all the codes and escaped. But we didn't get there in time because of one exact puzzle. We would have gotten it though. We then went to Zur Kates, a German restaurant in North Mesa with them and enjoyed lively conversation, talking about all things including the place that they now live.

We also went to watch Chandler Symphony Orchestra on Sunday with Peter Faux. We had arranged to go with him at a lunch at La Casa de Juanas. We enjoyed our time with him.

The day before I went to the Father's and Son's Campout with the Amberwood Ward. It was a really cool activity. Kyle drove me and I bought the Tonto Pass for us to cover my part. The ward fed us. There was a lot of meat and we made hobo dinners. We used lots of butter. They had us do skits. I did one with Brother Danielson, my piano student. I wanted to do a rugby Haka Haka, but instead he came up with the idea to do the First Vision. We were the only skit that wasn't funny, haha. They had a potato cannon and tested it on eggs covered up in stuff. The potatoes barreled through a wooden board. They also had rocket shooter. I helped with setting these two stations up.

We went to do an endowment at the Mesa Temple for the first time and we saw Sharon Eubank. It was really a surreal moment. Sarah told her about Sabina, and she said Hi to her. The temple was a very nice time.

I also did Feed My Starving Children (a food charity organization) combined with the girls for our activity days. It went really well, and then we went to Bruster's ice cream for dessert.

I performed Brother Will, Brother John and Dune Prison in studio, both times forgetting a line. Oops. But they were good times. Heidi got accepted to NAU, so I will need a new accompanist next semester because they are moving.

My mom came to visit Aunt Ann to help her out. She's been in need of help. When she did come, we went to La Casa de Juanas with her and Ann and they got us dinner and we talked. It was a good and lovely conversation.