part III

Sunday morning at PEC meeting Jeff learned that what Marcy had was part of an epidemic, seemingly spread by the visiting teachers. Fully half the sisters in the ward were infected. The bishop was quite concerned when he heard that Sister Simmons had it, “What about her schedule? Do we need to rally the Relief Society sisters?”
“I think the best thing is to just let it run its course.” Jeff had been a medic in the army and spoke with authority if not so much expertise.
“I agree,” piped up Sam. “My wife has it, too, and, well, uh,” he hesitated and glanced at Jeff before continuing, “it’s really not half bad.”
The bishop couldn’t see any sense in that; the sisters were dropping like flies. He was considering banning visiting teaching for the rest of the month. He tried to get to the bottom of things, “What exactly are the symptoms?”
Jeff paused before answering, trying to think of exactly the right words. Sam piped up again, “My Ellie is calm.”
“Yeah, that’s it,” Jeff nodded, “calm… and happy!”
“Those are the symptoms?”
“Among others, but like I say, it’s really not BAD.”
Ed leaned over to the bishop and asked, “Would it be inappropriate for me to schedule an appointment for the visiting teachers to come see my wife?”
The bishop answered, “I think I’ll do that, too.” He made an announcement in sacrament meeting that day stressing the importance of visiting teaching, encouraging the sisters to get out early this month.
The ward party was different than any they’d ever had before. It was quit apparent which sisters had been visit-taught already, they were the calm, happy ones. Several of them were on the food committee which decided to go with a standard, no-stress pot-luck. The decorations committee was split. The “calm and happy” ones wanted to go the simple route, the others were pushing for bigger and better than the ward had ever seen before. Things were beginning to get heated when Ellie threw her arms around Sue and said, “I love you SO much, I want you to be happy. We can do it your way if it is really important to you, I don’t mind one bit!” That took Sue aback. Stunned she quickly calmed, then responded, “No… I think we should try your way this year.” And so the plain white table cloths were adorned with a simple sprig of pine and one shiny red Christmas ball. Even some of the men appreciated the result (especially Sue’s husband who was head of the clean-up committee).