Mike's farewell

Yesterday at church, Mike was released from his calling as a counselor in the bishopric. Actually, both counselors were released and new ones were called. (Our bishop likes to shake things up and give different people a chance to serve.)

Here's the thing that cracked us up, though. Usually when you get released from a calling, it's fairly routine; everyone's interested in the new person called, and curious to see what you get asked to do next, but it's not that big of a deal. This was a little different. The bishop spoke to the congregation about how nice it's been to work with Mike and the other counselor, and how he'll miss working with them. The stake president talked about the good qualities of both men too. (Mike told me later, "It's not often you get to hear your own eulogy.") But it was after the meeting ended that it really got funny. People kept going up to Mike (and the other man, too, I assume) and saying, "We'll miss you," or approaching me to tell me how much they'll miss Mike. I kept wanting to say, "He's still going to be here!" Now, of course I know they meant they'll miss him serving in that role. But just from the way they put it, it sure sounded like he was leaving forever. It gave us the giggles when we talked about it later.