I love Sundays! :D

So today was/is a very exciting day for me! Why? Because it's the first Sunday that I don't have to work!!!

Now before you go setting your facebook status to "the apocalypse is here: brittany kyle doesn't like her disney job anymore!" let me explain why I am excited about this.

I love Sundays. That's the day I don't do homework on purpose, I go to church, and I can have just a day free of all worldly things. No movies, no tv, no radio. Just spiritual re-energizing.

I knew that when I signed up for the Disney College Program, it was very possible and probable that I would have to work most Sundays. Fortunately, our Young Singles Adult ward (the Buena Vista Ward) meets twice on Sunday so that if you work through one of the sacrament meetings, most likely you can make to the other one. I know a lot of CP's who usually have to leave for work right after sacrament, but I have been very fortunate to be able to go to all 3 hours before having to catch the bus to Westclock. :)

The Buena Vista Ward is definitely one of the most unique wards I've ever attended. Because people's schedules change from week to week, and since we are all busy all the time, socializing and making new friends is pretty much near impossible. To be honest, I don't really make an effort to make close friends, since my program is so short, and it would only make leaving in August that much harder. I suppose that's how everyone else feels too, because socializing stays pretty much within apartments; roommates stick together. The local single adult Floridians have their own group and socialize and mingle together, but besides them, it's a fairly quiet ward.

I've grown to really appreciate a lot from this odd ward, though. Not only do I really treasure the time I have on Sundays to just sit in church and feel uplifted, but looking around, I really have become so proud of my own generation. The Buena Vista Ward used to meet in a ballroom at a local hotel because there was no meetinghouse. When I arrived in April, though, they had just finished building their first meetinghouse, conveniently less than a mile away from Westclock. I was even there when they dedicated the building! The building itself is the standard stake center look and floorplan, with a large chapel. And yet every Sunday we always have to open the overflow to fit everyone inside. That amazes me. A large majority of the ward keeps to themselves and their roommates, not going outside of their group of friends to make new ones. We don't go to church to socialize, because that definitely doesn't happen. But the number of inactive members in our ward have got to be close to nothing. People don't go to church because of friends- they go because they want to take the sacrament and they know that's where they are supposed to be. It would be so easy to say, "I work at 12, so I'd have to leave after sacrament anyway." But they still come, even with no social encouragement. Most everyone in that ward is there just because they want to be spiritually filled, and I think that's so encouraging. More amazing still is the fact that we have two sets of missionaries assigned to our ward, and I don't think there's ever been a Sunday where I have not seen at least one investigator with them. It's amazing.

I definitely am excited to go back to Provo though, where I don't have to work on Sundays. Goodness, having a whole Sunday almost seems to good to be true! Along with everything else I have gotten out of the Disney College Program, one of the very most important things I've learned is how to never take Sundays themselves, the sacrament, sunday school, and even Relief Society, for granted.