Blogger of Jared

Sister Womack walked to the front of the chapel. Earl Johnson knew what was coming. Her talk would include a few old stories from her life that were unremarkable and only loosely related to the topic. It didn’t take very long to confirm that his prediction was true. Earl leaned back in the pew and closed his eyes like he often did during boring talks. Sister Womack was talking about something her father did when she was a child ….

[The Mormon Tabernacle Choir finished the hymn ‘The Spirit of God’ in an impressive crescendo, and President Monson walks up to the microphone.]

‘Brothers and Sisters, welcome to this morning’s session of conference. Usually all of the speakers in conference are General authorities or members of General Auxiliary Presidencies, but we are making an exception today. Our first speaker is a member of one of the local wards in the Salt Lake area. His name is Brother Earl Johnson, and he has a special and important message to share with us. Brother Johnson will be followed by Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of twelve. Brother Johnson.

‘Brothers and Sisters, I am so grateful to be able to speak to you today. Grateful, and scared to death [laughter]. I would like to share with you today a message about the atonement based on the third chapter of Mosiah…..

‘Earl. Earl!’, Sister Johnson poked Earl in the ribs to wake him. Earl woke up, a little startled, and looked over at his wife of nearly 50 years. She was glaring at him in an unapproving way. ‘It’s time for the rest hymn. You missed Sister Womack’s talk’.

Earl felt that he had not really ‘missed’ anything. He stood with the rest of the congregation and sang ‘The Spirit of God’ with them. The performance was not nearly as good as what the choir had done.