Singles Wards

Tonight we had the fun opportunity of taking the kids up the canyon for a bonfire and hot dog roast with our singles ward. For those of you not familiar with Mormon lingo, singles wards are basically a congregation of Church going adults typically between the ages of 18-31 that all go to church together. As in, there are usually no kids attending these wards, or married people, or families. its just a bunch of single people that all have similar standards and are trying to do whats right in their lives. The LDS (Mormon) Church has these sorts of wards (congregations) in almost every state in the U.S. And speaking from experience, they are AWESOME!

Although I'm sure that there are many examples of successful couples that are complete opposites, my undergrad work was in Sociology and it was there that I became very aware that the more similar a couple is, the less problems they usually have in their marriage. Especially when hot topics such as religion comes up and ones core beliefs. So in our Church one of the reasons singles wards were created is to help young people meet and marry other young people with similar belief systems and standards. It also is a great place for single people to socialize, and make friends with other people who are experiencing similar things in their lives (School, dating, Careers, etc.)

So you are probably now wondering why in the world we are in a singles ward instead of a ward that has families if we are married with children? Well in every ward in our Church there is always a bishop (sort of like a High Priest) who is called (not paid) to serve as a leader over that ward typically for a period of 3-5 years. Well the bishop is also able to call counselors to help him, and my husband Adam was called as one about 1.5 years ago. So therefore, in an effort to support Adam in his calling the 3 boys and I go to the singles ward every Sunday and also attend many of the singles activities. Tonight being one of them.

As we sat around the fire and sang songs and caught up in life It hit me once again how very inspired these wards are. Its just awesome to me that wherever you go in the world that you can look up our church and find that same family feeling whether you are 10 miles away or 100,000 miles away. I have always loved that about our church and truly consider it a great blessing in my life. Its like you have an instant family wherever you go, and I love being surrounded by people who even though they aren't perfect, they are trying to be more like their Savior and to follow in his ways.