> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: September 21, 2002 7:33 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: RE: [ZION] Announcement
>
> Congratulations, President Matkin. Things will never be
> the same again.
>
Thanks for your warning. On the afternoon I received my call I went
home to tell my family. I went into my 9 year old son's room where he
was busy reading a book. I solemnly told him that I had just been
called by Elder Hafen to serve as the new stake president. He glanced
up in mild annoyance at having been distracted from his book and gave me
an affectionate smile that was at once approval and dismissal.
I said. "Do you know what a stake president is?"
"No." he said, and went back to his book, and I left him to it.
I'm finding that for a lot of people (children in particular, but many
adults as well) the stake president is just a remote concept. And, I
guess, it's a happier world that they live in for it.
Still, if it's not relevant to many, there are a few of us who have been
mightily affected by this change in assignments. I went from assistant
ward choir leader, seminary teacher, and temple worker to stake
president in an instant, and the man I replaced is now the scout leader
in his ward. It had not escaped my notice that the ward choir leader,
some years ago, had been Relief Society President when I (now her
assistant) was the Bishop. Somehow that change in our respective
assignments was heart warming to me. Here we were both faithfully doing
what we could in whatever call we were given.
A lot of people have expressed condolences to me about the expected
length of time for service (9 or 10 years) and the amount of time
required. My response to this, (mostly in my own mind because I usually
just smile and shake their hands when they make these comments) is that
I hope to live for much longer than 9 or 10 more years and I expect to
be doing church work all the rest of my life, so what's the difference
if I do this or something else? It's who you serve that really matters,
not what you do. On the matter of the day to day time commitment, I
think it's hard to spend more time than a combined seminary teacher and
temple worker. There are only so many hours in a day I was already
using them all, so I guess I'll continue to do that.
The job does have its perks. For example, lots of exposure to the
brethren. Perhaps a mixed blessing, you might say, but still a blessing.
My direct reporting line is through the North American Central Area
Presidency, and I'm getting to know the members of the presidency and
the Area Authority Seventies assigned to my particular region. Most of
the Area Authority Seventies I'm dealing with are guys I knew well back
in my university days. Old friends really - who made good.
Also, I love to teach. I really should have been a University Prof
instead of a small-time lawyer, but I had a work to do in this small
town, so the Lord found a way for me to do His will and scratch my
teaching itch at the same time. We launched a new elder's quorum
presidency last night and before setting them apart I spent about an
hour teaching them how to be shepherds of their flock and how to conduct
PPI's so as to effectively use the sacred priesthood keys they were
about to receive. I'm a little green at my job, of course, but I'll get
better and it has endless possibilities to teach. I've spoken in a
different sacrament meeting and priesthood meeting every Sunday since my
call. These are just opportunities to do what I enjoy doing. Teaching
the gospel. Seminary was good for that, but I enjoy teaching adults
too, so this is fine.
I have learned a lot on the Internet in the past several years, and this
list has had no small role to play in exposing me to different ideas and
people. Living in the bottom of a sack, as I do, in this small town
nestled against an expansive mountain wilderness where we don't even
enjoy Greyhound bus service I had longed, at times, for some greater
interactions. The Internet has been the answer to these yearnings, and
the Zion list has been an important, if sometime turbulent, focus for my
forays into the greater outside world. Well I expect that my new
calling will provide an adequate expression for most of my creative
energy and for the need to reach out to others. Also it is wholly
inappropriate for a stake president (or perhaps anyone else ;->) to be
engaged in some of the all out rough and tumble exchanges the have
sometime characterized my participation here. I expect to hang
around,(after all, we are great friends aren't we? And one doesn't just
quit his friends because he's busy in the church,) but I'll be holding a
very tight rein on the "send" button.
Tom
> Larry Jackson
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> _______________
>
> Marc Schindler:
>
> In today's Church News:
>
> New Stake Presidencies
>
> CARDSTON ALBERTA STAKE: (Aug. 18, 2002)
> President - Thomas M. Matkin, 53, lawyer; succeeding
> Myron A. Peterson; wife, Betty Jean Sweet Matkin.
> Counsellors - David H. Prete, 46, self-employed; wife,
> Deborah Lynn Jones Prete. B. Craig Smith, 55, partner
> of Smith & Associates; wife, Colleen Marie Torrie Smith.
>
>
>
>
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