The branch...

A few months ago they told us that they had put in a request to the first presidency to split the branch. That a Valley branch would be forming, but we just didn't know when exactly. They initially told us it would be April or May of this year. Then April and May came and went and no word. Then the summer came and went, still no word, but we knew it would be happening. Then in September or October they finally told us that at the beginning of November would be the split, but they were still working on boundaries and locations etc... So we waited and waited. We knew that our branch would be in the East Stake, and that it would include all members of the East Stake, Valley Stake, C'da Stake and Hayden, ID Stake. We just didn't know where we would meet. It kind of sucked for us in the primary because we were waiting to give out the program assignments to find out who would still be in the branch. I was so excited about the idea of going to church in the Valley again, and being so close that I forgot that it meant that we would be leaving half of our branch behind. I have grown to love these people so so so much over the last year and a half. We are so sad that this Indiana branch chapter is closing and there will be no more driving downtown for all meetings and activities. No more primary for me and no more Young men's for Ben. On November 3rd, President Mott and his counselors, for the East Stake, and President McCombie and his counselors from the West Stake all came to our branch and made it official, and released all of us, and called all of us. It was funny, President McCombie, our Stake president in the West Stake is awesome. I don't know him as well as I know the presidency of our East stake, that is one benefit of living in the same stake you grew up in, I feel like I know everyone! But I have gotten to know him over the past year and a half and he is so great! He came to our branch a lot. As he was reading all the names of people who would be members of this new Spokane 4th Branch out in the valley, of course, my name is the name he had the hardest time with. Out of all the Hispanic names, mine is the name he stumbled on the most. Luckily, between the East stake presidency, Pres. Mott, Pres. Niccols, and our branch Presidency, Pres. Condon, and Bro. Gonzales, all of which were sitting behind him, they corrected him and he got it right. He then looked at me in the congregation and said, Sorry Sister Pyper! :) I guess he never knew my fist name! :)

Anyway, Anibal Lopez is our new branch president, Juan Vazquez is the first counselor, and a bother from Idaho is our new second Counselor, Juan Martinez. Here is a group photo that they took of all the people who were there that day. We had lots and lots of visitors! The bishopric from the Pines ward, the East stake presidency, the West stake presidency, lots of high counsel-men from both stakes.

I'm going to miss this:

This is Taylor and her favorite nursery leader, Sis. Waites. :) We all love Sister Waites! :) This is who, everytime Tayor would wear my high heels, and jewelry, she would say she was sister Waites! :) Her and her husband live in Cheney, and are going to Eastern. Her husband served a Spanish speaking mission and believe it or not, Yvette is half Hispanic!

I will definitely miss my Primary ladies! This is all of us! All the presidency, Music AND teachers. Somehow we did it all every Sunday! :) I will miss these ladies very much!!!

And Sister Lopez, she is the only one missing from the above picture. I love their family and I will miss working with her in Primary. I love her boys, they were some of Ben's young men. They are awesome and we miss them!!!

Oh, and don't even get me started on Claudia and Marta, and Graciella...I love these ladies SO very much!

And the Gonzalez family, and the Womack family, and the Condons, and Antonia and the Dixons and the McCoys. All families we will miss so very much and love so much!

But, here is our new branch:

Our first Sunday we had 76 members! It was so cool, so many families from North Idaho that weren't coming to our branch downtown, have decided to come to the Valley branch! So, we meet in the Evergreen building, which is awesome because it is like 2 minutes from our house! I still feel bad for those people who still have to travel a half an hour to church! yuck! And there are some new families from our East Stake who were assigned, like us, to the branch. We meet in the Relief Society room at the same time that the Pines ward meets, then our kids and youth join up for Primary and Sunday school and Youth, and all of the adult classes are separate. I was kind of excited because I have a lot of friends in the Pines ward, I thought we'd be with them more, but all the adult classes are separate, so I just see them passing in the halls. But I'm glad my kids have so many friends in primary now! With our 18 kids from the branch, the Pines ward primary is up to 100 kids!!!  Ben is in the Elders Quorum presidency, and I am the bulletin/program lady. I'm really excited about this calling, because I get to kind of be the 'social' coordinator. I will be in charge of taking pictures at activities, and keeping the bulletin board updated with activities and photos, and I'm going to do a family spotlight each week so we can get to know each other. And I get to enjoy church every Sunday without any responsibilities! :) I'm excited for this new chapter, but so very sad that the last one has ended. When President Mott called us a few weeks before the new branch was formed he asked us if we would be willing to stay longer than our initial 2 year assignment to the Spanish branch, and we told him we most definitely would! He said they might need us a bit longer, so now who knows how long we'll be in the branch. Maybe forever. Now that they meet in the Valley, Ben and I have both said we wouldn't mind staying forever! :)

The week of the split, our good friends, Juan and Maria Vazquez got sealed. Juan is the guy who has worked for Ben this past year. They are awesome! We love them so much. After their sealing, we all got together for a big dinner at the Stake Center. It was a nice ending to our Indiana Branch and a great beginning to our Valley branch. As all people were there, the old members and the new ones.

 I'm really excited to be a part of all of this. When President Mott spoke at our branch during the split, he told us that we will look back on this day as a big day for the church in Spokane, and more especially the Hispanic members of the church. Our next goal is become big enough that we become a ward and get to combine with our Indiana branch again. :) I feel like Ben and I have had some pretty cool callings and experiences together and this is definitely where we are supposed to be right now and maybe forever!
Oh, and remind me to never give my husband my camera again while we are waiting for the ordinations and setting aparts to happen, which we did as a new branch which was pretty cool! :) This is what you'll get: