Hey!
Last week, the Bishop of our Ward came up to me and asked me if I could give a talk in Sacrament Meeting on any topic that I wanted. With this invitation to be a speaker, as many of you may have guessed, I was not too thrilled about it but as a missionary, there is no way I could have rejected. So I smiled and graciously accepted his request. It wasn't anything new having to be up at the pulpit. Every time a missionary moves to an area, they have to stand up in sacrament meeting and bear their testimony, which is easy. But this was different because I had to prepare a 15 minute talk and be the main speaker. I wasn't to excited about it needless to say. But I wanted to make sure everyone enjoyed it and it was about something that everyone could use that also wasn't about missionary work (they get tired of that). So I chose to talk about patience because that is something that everyone can work on. Preparing it was no big deal but thinking about it was. I'm not the biggest fan of giving talks in Sacrament Meeting. Teaching at Zone Conference the week before was not to big of a deal because I was able to include everyone and ask questions. Talks are just you standing up in front of everyone and speaking by yourself for 15 minutes straight. Well Sunday came and they announce that I'm going to be the last speaker which is never any good because being the last speaker, you have to adjust your talk to make sure the meeting ends on time without going over or under time. For me the problem was not going under time because the last speaker before me ended her talk really quick and there was 30 minutes left in Sacrament Meeting! I now had to make my 15 minute talk take double the time! Luckily for me I took this into account while preparing my talk so I made sure I had enough stuff to talk about to last the whole time if I needed to. I'm very glad I did as well because it would have made me look bad if it all gone under time. Surprising myself, I was very calm and not nervous at all as I was up giving the talk. I was even able to take up that extra 15 minutes left on the clock! It was actually kind of fun giving the talk. Now for all you Ward Leaders that may be reading this, don't take any of this into account for when I get home, because I still don't really like doing it!
Well another Moves has come and gone and my companion and I are both staying here in Udon. I'll be his last companion of his mission because at the end of this Moves period, he goes home and then I follow. Its coming close! It's kind of scary but not that scary because I still feel like I have forever. Well I love you all and hope all is going well at home in that cold climate. Talk to you next week!

Steve