Singles Ward 3

...42 is my current ward but I am in the 3rd stake.

It is also the 3rd singles ward I've been in and I am on my sixth bishop. Singles ward bishops are called for three years but I seem to always get them on their last year. Really I've only had 4, my second bishop was called 3 weeks before I moved out of the ward and my current bishop was called my first day of my new ward but technically my records had been in the ward for a week and so I had the previous bishop for a week but I don't even know his name, just that he was a Ute fan. I have loved every single one of my bishops, I'm pretty sure one of the requirements to being a BYU bishop is that you are awesome. My current bishop is a retired U.S. Navy Chaplain and was a Mission President in the Denmark Copenhagen and he has a smile like Santa. He is really great.
Another thing that is great about BYU wards is the talent in them. There are multiple music majors in my ward and so our musical numbers have been phenomenal and the ward pianist makes it so we are not singing at the correct tempo, I LOVE it. Everybody sings the hymns with emotion and all parts (and some additional harmony) is sung.
I love the wards I've been in but they can be a little crazy. Some of the things in "The Singles Ward" do happen. The emphasis on dating is ridiculous, we do have picture ward directories which are printed into a book and are often referred to as menus. The purpose of activities is to get us mingling in hopes that there will be some marriages. I had one bishop state his marriage success rate over the pulpit; I think he had over 200 people in his 3 years and he had quite the collection of announcements. This weeks activity was a service auction, pretty much they were trying to get us to give each other service and get to know each other so we offered up services of our own and bid on other peoples services. I won 'tennis lessons in japanese by a handsome collegiate athlete' and 'a hair cut and/or color' (any ideas on what I should do would be welcome, I am still trying to grow my hair out so I can completely chop it :( )

I have met some awesome people in my wards, some of them are now study buddies for class, the people I watch football games with, the people I cheer for at football games and some of them are even on tv. In my last ward I was a fireside committee co-chair with an Australian singer who is in Vocal Point. They are the top A capella group on campus. This season they are competing in The Sing Off on NBC. Pretty much they rocked as you can see here. Follow them, you won't regret it. Ben did not perform in the first episode but he does have an incredible voice and is the lead vocals on one of my favorite songs by them.

One more reason I'm excited for Christmas, I love the music.

I am always sad when I leave a ward, and I was especially sad and nervous about leaving my last one because it was such a great ward, but my new ward has proved to be just as good and I'm looking forward to the new friends I will make.

*Another plus of a singles ward is that most of the people take from the outside of the sacrament trays.