Well we finally had our turn at speaking in Sacrament Meeting today. Usually, all missionaries get an opportunity to speak in Sacrament Meeting, teach a Sunday School lesson and a Priesthood or Relief Society lesson before they are released. We've done priesthood and Relief Society and now Sacrament Meeting. We'll see if we escape without doing the Sunday School lesson.
Anyway, the Sacrament Meeting talk and preparation was a different experience for me. Ann did a great job with hers. The assigned topic was "Life on Earth." I had written down several ideas and thoughts and kept praying about which of the ideas I should use. For some reason, none of them seemed to be right. I kept coming back to a topic in an article from the Deseret News Church Section about enduring to the end and finishing the race. However, I didn't think I wanted to use it. But nothing else seemed to click with me. So, a few days ago, I thought, "alright I will use it for the basis for my talk." For the first time in giving a talk, I wrote it all out. I've never done that before. I usually just make some notes. But for some reason, I felt that I should write it out word for word.
Following the meeting, I had a temple missionary come up to me before I was able to leave the stand. He asked if he could get a copy of the talk. He said that he was sure that I had it on my computer. With tears in his eyes he said that he wanted his wife who wasn't in attendance to read it. He said that she needed it. So, I handed him my copy and he thanked me. While walking down the aisle a sister temple missionary walked up to me and thank me and said that she felt that I was talking to her. She said that it was just what she needed.
It is amazing how the Lord uses us to accomplish His work. I now know why I kept coming back to the topic and why I wrote out the talk.
