April 23, 1978... of what I had to say, and with a few scriptures it wouldn't matter what I said, but now I have no excuse and they expect to hear a good missionary lecture). Well, of course when he asked me I was scared - like I always am. I began to worry and think about what I might talk on, but I felt as though I should only worry about memorizing and Speak Your Language because that was what the time was set apart for. And, if I worried about speaking when it was time to speak (or maybe a little sooner) the Lord would help me. So I tried to do just that.
I felt pretty confident in myself and my ability to prepare a well worded speech but by Saturday night I was ready to panic (almost). The President of my mission sent us a letter that said to bring no other books than the standards works, Jesus the Christ, Articles of Faith, and A Marvelous Work and a Wonder.So after deciding I would keep all the rules I left all my quotes and cute stories home, and hadn't though much of it until now.
Because I have to give a speech out of those books (most of which I haven't read) which are written on subjects either very deep - or very specifically simple - it was very difficult because I didn't have any time to read anything nor time to send home for something. By Saturday night it was too late to go buy a book at the bookstore, so I was humble and I prayed sincerely that I might receive some help in preparing anything. I couldn't help remembering part of my setting apart that said, "and your ability to teach it (the truths of the Gospel) to your fellowmen will grow or be magnified by the Spirit." So I preyed for that and tried to pray for the right reasons too, not to impress my friends but to help spiritually strengthen them for the next week.
Well that night during grammar study some very scattered ideas and stories I had been thinking about seemed to all come together into one good theme. And that night I stayed up until 12:45 preparing that talk (word for word) like I have to do. But ... Next Page
Don't wait a couple months to add the next page, I want to know how the talk went :) I do like this idea of putting your journal into a blog. Perhaps I should do that for mine. Someday...
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