Singles Ward...

In Laramie there are three student wards: University 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ward. I'm in the University 2nd ward. My church goes from 1:00-4:00. My bishop is really awesome. His name is Bishop Allen and his first counselor's name is Rocky. They're a lot of fun and really easy going.

The first couples weeks before school started all the students met together at the same time. It was really nice to see how many students there actually were that believe the same things you do. Everyone was really nice and made me feel a lot more comfortable, which is good because I was really nervous. I was the new girl, one of the youngest members, and I hardly knew anyone. It's gotten a lot easier and I actually really love it.

My first week when the University 2nd Ward met, I sat alone. When I went into Relief Society. A girl came up and asked if she could sit by me. She asked my name, and I told her my name was Bethany. She asked where I was from, and I said Lovell. She told me that she had family in Lovell, and when I asked who it was, she said it was Brent Reasch! Well, I was totally shocked. When I told her that was my dad, I think she felt the same way. I asked her what her name was and she said Laura Hatch. (During the summer before I came down to Laramie, Sheraldean told me that Laura was going to be down there and I should try to find her. I didn't know if that would be possible because of how many people attend UW and the Institute.) As we kept talking, she asked where I lived. To make things more interesting, we live on the same block. Both of us live in the Sunchase Condos. It was so crazy that we randomly sat by each other and found out we were related and lived in the same area. It's a small world!!

As I said in an earlier post, I've been called to be a FHE Group Leader. We decided as a council that we would meet together as an entire ward once a month. The first week meeting as a group we played Mafia with a twist. We tied it to the Gadiantan Robbers. Every time someone was killed, they had to read a scripture that explained how they died. The second week, we played General Conference Jeopardy. The third week, we went to the Baker Street Church and played dodgeball. Last week, my group came over to my house, and we watched Singles 2nd Ward. It was a lot of fun. This week, is the week we meet together as an entire ward. We're going to have a Halloween activity.

I'm really glad that I have the Institute because that's where I've met a lot of my friends. If it wasn't for that, I probably wouldn't have met Laura, and we've become pretty good friends. I'm so grateful to be able to have a place I can go and not have to worry about if people will think it's weird that I don't party. It builds my testimony that the church is true no matter where you go. Plus, I go because I want to go, not because my parents expect me to.