I spoke in church yesterday. I made it a point to not include an unnecessary preface such as "for those of you who don't know me..." or "When Brother Gardner asked me to speak..." or otherwise giving an account of my timing and manner of presentation. (My talk was also completely devoid of humor, which is a stark contrast to the last time I spoke in church.) Anyway, since I resisted the temptation to give an account of my timing and manner of presentation in the context of speaking, I want to mention it here.

So, I was asked to speak one week prior to my speaking assignment. Two days later I received an email notifying me that they topic was changed. On Saturday I really started getting into searching the scriptures and past conference talks on the topic. And I got up early Sunday morning and organized my ideas and typed them up. Then I looked at the time. 15 minutes until church. Knowing that I had a 10-minute walk ahead of me, I had to forgo putting on make-up and straightening my hair in favor of having time to print my talk at the Wilk and still being able to be seated on time. While on my way to campus (my ward meets in the Varsity Theater in the Wilk) I realized that I didn't have my ID card, which meant that I wouldn't be able to print. Oh snap. But it was too late to turn back. So I pressed onward.

I got there and found a friend who let me use her card. Unfortunately, there was only 6 cents on it, which was a penny shy of printing even one of the two pages. Darn. And there really wasn't time to search out other options. So instead I borrowed a pen, went to the stage and sat down. Bro. Gardner came over to me and asked if I was ready. I told him I was just about to start writing it. Little did he know I meant it. So yeah, I busted out a comparable outline to what I'd previously prepared. In place of lost quotations I found scriptural references. And when my turn came, I had something to work with.

So there is my story. I'm really proud of myself for not telling people how unprepared I felt. I was trying to be true to some counsel I heard from Elder Oaks at Women's Conference about not wasting time making it about me. And I feel good about that.