Today, our ward was butchered

Not my words, but I couldn't think of a better description (although that sounds far more negative than I'm feeling about it).  Last week a struggling branch was disbanded, and it was clear at that point that they had something in the works because we, 2nd ward, and the former branch were all invited to one big sacrament meeting this morning.  So a couple of members to the south were given to the Council Bluffs stake, and couple to the northeast to the Sioux Falls stake.  Part of our ward was sent to the Vermillion branch, which I'm guessing will very shortly become a ward - they announced today it met all the requirements except the sheer number of members attending.  That part that went to Vermillion included our former bishop.  Instead of going mainly east-west, the boundary between 1st and 2nd wards now goes mainly north-south.  I'm still in 1st ward, but I'm guessing that over half my former ward is now in 2nd.  Both wards got part of the former branch that was disbanded, and our ward got some people who had previously been assigned to branches up north.  1st ward had a majority of stake leadership in it, and that is now split fairly evenly between the two wards (we also have 5 branches in the stake - that's it!)  Our new bishop and one counselor came from the other ward, and our old YW, YM and primary presidents are all now in 2nd ward.

Next Sunday should be interesting, to say the least!

I am a bit sad - a bunch of my friends are now in the other ward.  On the other hand, we all share a building, so it's not as if I wont' see them regularly - and it will be fun to get to know more people.  But it's exciting in a lot of ways - it would obviously be great to have a third ward in the stake, and I think it's probably a good thing to have stake leadership more dispersed as well.  Part of the problem is that there's a Mormon compound of sorts in one little community - we have a bunch of doctors and dentists, and they all live within walking distance of each other, and are also all very strong and active.  It's a bit ironic, too, because one concern when I was house hunting was not changing wards since I loved mine so much.  My apartment is in the area that moved to the other ward, but with a majority of our members, and my house is about 2 blocks across the line to stay in the old ward.

So, onward and upward.  I'm sure it will be chaotic as a brand new (and rather young looking for a bishop) bishop works to get all the vacancies filled.  It will be interesting, too, to see who actually stayed and who went - I know for a number of people, but there are a lot that I'm not exactly sure where they live boundary-wise.