Ode To The Milwaukee City Branch

***This is a two month old email I wrote to my family the end of February about the boundary changes that disbanded the Milwaukee City Branch, where we had been attending church since we moved to Milwaukee.  Because this blog is our family journal, I wanted to include it here, complete with pictures.***

February 22, 2015

This week has been good, we've all had a lot of fun, and I have genuinely been happy, but I also feel like I've been walking around with a hole in my heart all week.  I am so thankful Pres. Fritz has kept Richard and I in the loop for months about all of this, because I have had so much time to process and mourn this day.  If I had no advance warning I think I would have been a wreck all week.  Today I find myself surprisingly unemotional, but I'm sure emotions will continue to come as we attend our new ward in a different building next week. 

One of the sure highlights of my week has been visiting with branch members who have moved away or who no longer attend the branch on a regular basis. On Monday I made a list of all the people I wanted to call this week to tell them about the branch.  I have spent time every day this week visiting with people and it has been wonderful.  At the end of every conversation I found myself so grateful for each friendship that has been formed because of our time here.  Because of the smallness of the branch I have formed close friendships with people much older than me and very different from me; and I consider myself abundantly thankful for those friendships.  It has been wonderful to reminisce all week long with people who have had such a profound influence on our Milwaukee experience.

There is a Milwaukee City Branch Facebook group and all week long the sweetest sentiments have been shared on that page.  Past missionaries, people who have moved away, and current people have shared pictures and their thoughts with the closing of this branch.  It has been wonderful to read. 

This morning Richard and I met with a member of the stake presidency who released Richard and thanked both of us for our service.  We had a good, long visit with him and I am glad we had that time.  One thing that both Richard and Tim have done so well with in this calling is picking speaking topics and assigning them out.  President Fritz has given them complete control over topics and speakers.  Month after month Tim and Richard have picked unique topics, frequently asking the speakers to focus on a small set of select scriptures from all the books of scripture.  It has been so edifying to hear peoples deepest thoughts on the parables of Christ, revelations to Joseph Smith, and stories from the Book of Mormon.  I have loved it, and learned much, all while wrestling three kids.  :)

The entire stake presidency was in attendance today.  After the sacrament, President Heller briefly spoke, told of their decision to dissolve the branch, and then released us all from our callings by name.  That was a sobering moment. 

Afterward he invited the branch presidency to bear their testimonies and then opened it up to the congregation.  Richard, Tim, and Pres. Fritz each bore sweet testimonies and expressed their profound gratitude for the people of the branch.  Immediately following that a woman named Happy Holiday walked up to the pulpit.  She has come once before, months ago, and met with President Fritz and told him she was Jesus Christ incarnated as a woman.  When I saw her walk in this morning I knew things were going to get interesting.  :)  This week I have been thinking how wonderful and close to perfect the branch is; however, I have also been remembering all the crazy things I have heard over that pulpit, but this also endears me to the branch even more.  :)  So, it was fitting when Happy Holiday walked right up after President Fritz, spoke for a minute, and then proclaimed that she was Jesus Christ incarnated in female form.  President Fritz stopped her and asked her to sit down, and after a minute of trying to continue, she eventually sat down.  Very memorable!!!  The EQ president quickly came to the rescue and brought the meeting back around.  :)  We then spent the next hour hearing testimony after testimony and it was wonderful.  The branch has been such a special, and such a safe place for so many.  I am so thankful that my family and I have been able to experience such a wonderful place for so long.  I don't know that it can ever be duplicated. 

I have learned so much attending church here each week.  I have come to learn what the gospel of Jesus Christ is really about.  It is about serving and loving unconditionally.  It doesn't matter what people wear, it doesn't matter that they think differently than I do, it doesn't matter that they struggle with things.  What matters is that we come to church each week, we take the sacrament, we share our burdens with each other, we serve each other, we worship together, and we uplift each other.  That is the gospel. 

In my last year here as I have served as the Relief Society president my testimony has been strengthened of the love that Heavenly Father has for each one of us.  He is intimately aware of our needs, our concerns, and our heartaches.  As I was made aware of needs from visiting teachers, I was immediately met with solutions offered by those same visiting teachers.  This so often involved financial and material needs, that were willingly provided by those who did not have much themselves.  This fall I watched as our branch furnished a man's apartment in one week, by the EQ president and me announcing this one time in EQ and RS.  I was so humbled to watch items pouring in for sweet Omar from people who did not have an abundance themselves. As the branch has gotten smaller and smaller I have watched as all the "unnecessary" things have been stripped away so that we could continue to function.  But, the important things have remained:  the love, the service, and the support.

I have also loved watching this branch rally around the missionaries we have sent out.  We currently have three young men on missions and a senior couple.  This is huge, as before this there has only ever been one young man to go on a mission from the branch.  The members of this branch largely outfitted these missionaries for their missions, members make donations every month to the branch missionary fund, we send packages for all holidays, it is such a community effort, and I love it.  Their thank you letters are all hung in a hallway and I love to read them. 

The last several months as our Relief Society has been very small we have shared some deeply special times.  Women have opened up and shared their deeply personal and current struggles.  Women have been vocal about really hard things and they have been met with so much love, warm embraces, and words of understanding.  I have never experienced anything like it, and it has been wonderful. 

I will forever be thankful for our 7 1/2 years here.  I still remember things about our first Sunday here and I will not forget our last.  I am grateful that Marshall, especially, has spent so much time here.  I am thankful that he has been in the minority in primary.  I am thankful for the kids he has been able to spend his Sundays with.  I am thankful that he has seen so many baptisms.  He was so sad to leave today; he fiercely loves that building.  It is so special and unique; I am sure he will never forget it.  This branch has changed Richard and me.  We have more compassion and more understanding.  We have learned so much about love and service.  I will always be thankful for the Milwaukee City Branch.  I will never forget what I have learned and felt in this building filled with some of the best people I know.  We have been lucky to be a part of something so special.