Calling old friends and making new ones

OK so I have been so lame at keeping in touch with old friends. I have just been so caught up in moving around and adjusting to new life and new friends that I have not really made a lot of time for old friends. I just thought that I needed to stop being myself and start keeping in touch with people better. Family and old friends. I started calling some of my old friends on Sundays because guaranteed the conversations were going to be long. Only because they were so long over due and I knew it would really kill my minutes or theirs. Weekends are free and usually, so are peoples schedules. Mark is so much better at keeping in touch with all of his friends than I am. So I am trying to learn from him, how to be better.
There is always room in my life for new friends, but I just want to say that for every old friend I have ever had there is a special memory and a special appreciation for having known them. For all the ways they served me and influenced me in my life. I mean to speak of all friends both close friends and casual friends. Friends I have known for a short time and friends I have known forever. If you ever considered me friend and I you, than I am speaking to you.
I don't know if it is because I am in a spirit of gratitude or what, but I just want all my friends to know how much I love them and appreciate them. It feels like I am giving a thank you speech at some stupid award show and I am afraid that if I say any specific names than I will leave someone important out, and there are just to many thank yous to give and maybe Even to many people to call. So if you read this and I have not called you know that I do think of you. Who does not benefit from good friends?
A Persian fable says: One day a wanderer found a lump of clay so redolent of sweet perfume its odor scented all the room. " What art thou?" was his quick demand " Art thou some gem from Samarkand, or spikenard in this rude disguise, or other costly merchandise?" -"Nay: I am but a lump of clay. " -Say! Then whence this wondrous perfume?" - " Friend, if the secret I must disclose, I have been dwelling with the rose."

I have made it a habit to memorize all the names of those people I ever have in my family Wards. I have been very successful at doing this and know all or most of the people in my Ward. I began doing this when I came home from my mission. I was in a singles ward in Elk Grove CA serving as head of the search and rescue comity. In short I was in charge of finding and reactivating the less active or inactive members of the ward. At the time it was about 600. I began to think about why people stop going to church and a lot of it has to do with not feeling welcome or like they have no friends. It is particularly true in singles wards. I thought that one of the best ways I could fulfill my calling was to prevent inactivity by befriending all who came. Know them by name and be sure they always sat next to someone. If I ever saw a person I did not know or someone who sat alone I would sit next to them and get their name and then be sure to use it every time I saw them. Because there were so many people in the ward I made the goal of memorizing at least three names each Sunday and three more at institute or at FHE. I would quiz myself in my mind s I sat in class and looked at all the faces to be sure that I knew them all. Something of a testimony grew in me from doing this. I found that I loved them all because I knew them. And if Christ knew all of his sheep by name why should we not do the same. A ward family, are those we are given to look after and care for. They are our family. not only Bishops should know the names of all in the ward. I found that by knowing the names of all the people in my singles ward I personally felt like I belonged and I was enriched by those I had come to know. It is hard to describe how it felt, but I know it was good. Good for them and especially good for me. It is a simple thing, but it made such a difference for me. So much so, that I strive to keep up the effort in what ever ward I find myself in no matter how big. It will only bless you to do it. I feel that I have been very blessed by all those I came to know both young and old in my Durango ward in Arizona. They all felt like family to me and I love them. I miss them as I am sure I will miss the ward I am in now when I am moved on to where ever we will live next.

If I knew you and you knew me, If both of us could clearly see, And with an inner sight Divine The meaning of your heart and mine I'm sure that we would differ less and clasp our hands in friendliness. Our thought would pleasantly agree if I knew you and you knew me." - Waterman