Impromtu

Well if any of you have ever taken a speech class in High School you remember the speech that you had to do without any preparation. You are given a topic and have to speak for about 5 minutes on it. This last Sunday Ryan and I had a refresher course. About two weeks ago now Ryan and I were asked to speak in sacrament meeting, well without asking Ryan what week would be best I went ahead and agreed. Wrong thing to do, with Ryan's schedual he had no time to prepare a talk and so I called the Bishop and told him that this Sunday wasn't good for us but we would speak another time. He said, "not a problem and that he would catch us again". Ryan and I didn't think another thing about it. Well we walked into church on Sunday and looked at the program and saw to our horror our names typed in bold letters it seemed. Before Ryan could go up to the pulpit and talk with the Bishop, the Bishop stood to start the meeting. Ryan asked if I even had called the Bishop, which I defensively said I had. Well I don't remember much of the sacrament being passed or the songs sung. I was frantic and praying that the bishop just forgot to tell the person printing the program there had been a change. We were not that lucky. The Bishop called me up there after two very short testimonies from some young men and it was only 11:27. Holy Cow!! Well the topic quite appropriately was "purpose in suffering"!!! I informed the congregation that I was totally unprepared, and that it was the Bishop's fault, in the most respectful way I could. I can't honestly tell you what I spoke about for 15 minutes, but I think it had to do with pioneers and some of my ancestors, I actually read a scripture. Ryan did a great job as well and shared his conversion story. The Bishop had about 10 minutes at the end to make up and he apologized for having "forgotten" that I had called him!!! All is forgiven, we survived, but I hope the next time I speak I am more prepared!!