Count Your Many Blessings!

"When upon life's billows you are tempest-tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost..."

We sure count our blessings! I thought this an appropriate topic considering the season.

For those who pay tithing, you will understand what I mean when I say money comes out of nowhere whenever we need it most. When we pay an honest tithe (10% of any increase paid to the Church), we find ourselves coming up with solutions to pay the bills we owe when we didn't think we were making enough to do so.

It's not just money that we've been blessed with. I (Carissa) was having a hard time finding a job. I even tried to go back to the Subway I had worked at last year, but had no luck. A girl at church works in the public school system and told me about some openings for Aides in the school district. I applied for a few, was turned down by two, and, finally, accepted by one! I started working as a recess monitor at Madison Middle School and had a good time with it... while it lasted.

Unfortunately, the money we made between our jobs wasn't covering the bills we needed to pay (Drew at a market research call center, and me doing recess duty), so we started looking for more work. I applied to some part-time teacher's aide positions at the middle school, and interviewed with the principal and two assistant principals. I didn't get the job, but when another position became available, a full-time resource aide position, I was referred by the assistant principals (I guess I had made a good impression before!), and was hired immediately! The whole process- finding out about the job, applying, interviewing, and getting hired- only took 2 days! Since I started working, I have been learning more and more about these special needs and low-comprehensive children. I work one-on-one with 2 children; one in the morning, one in the afternoon. These kids do not have the same level of comprehension as the rest of their classmates. It's a struggle sometimes, but most days I come home thinking about how I can help them more and finding it very rewarding. I just took and passed my certification test for this job, only missing 3 questions out of 90!! I plan on sticking with this job as long as we're here in Rexburg!

Okay, so money and jobs aren't all! Drew and I have been blessed to have been called to serve in our ward (church congregation)! We have just had a new bishopric (leadership over the congregation... similar to a Priest, Minister, or Pastor) called in the ward, and the Bishop wanted Drew as an Assistant Ward Clerk, handling all the finances of the ward. I was given a calling as the Relief Society Fellowshipping Leader, befriending and getting to know all of the women in the ward. Just this past Sunday, I was called into the Primary Presidency in the ward. (For those who aren't familiar with Primary, it's a program where we teach the children of the congregation under age 12 about God and Jesus and sing songs.) Being in a young ward, we only have 5 children in our Primary, the oldest being 3. So we have Nursery! It's so sweet that the children are learning young about how God loves them!

We live in an amazing community with so many members of the church that we love. I can't imagine that we could be blessed any more than we are now. Then again, I know the Lord loves us and will continue to bless us!

We will continue to "Count [our] many blessings; name them one by one..."