The Talk

   Sacrament meeting at the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints is much different  than worship services in other denominations. On most Sundays the service starts with an opening hymn followed by announcements. Then another hymn is sung and after that the Sacrament is blessed and passed. (This would be like Communion or the Eucharist in other churches.) Once this is done the ward listens to talks which are given by members who have been contacted during the week and asked to speak.
  When C said that Brother Wise had called and wanted to speak with me a week and a half ago, I knew what was coming. I was going to be asked to give a talk. Being asked to give a talk tends to strike fear into the hearts of most church members. I am not one of those. I actually welcome the chance to give a talk. Most of my speeches are presented to the Toastmasters group. I know my group well and I get to choose the topic. Talks for Sacrament meeting are assigned. I know most of the people in our ward, but the group can change based on who is on vacation or who has visiting family. I also have to stand behind a lectern. In Toastmasters I can roam free around the whole front of the room. The height of the lectern leaves little room for things like gestures. It means I have to rely mostly on my voice and content to add interest to my talk.
  I was surprised that I was being asked to speak. My last talk was a year or so ago. I knew that Brother Wise knew this because records are kept of who speaks and when. It prevents people from being called on to much and gives more members a chance to speak.
  Brother Wise called me, made his request and gave me my topic. I was to base my talk on an address given at General Conference in April. This is another challenge. I needed to use the topic, but to put my own spin on it. I felt equal to the task.
  I was pondering what I would say while getting ready for work. Suddenly a lot of ideas and phrases popped up in my head. This happens to me sometimes. When I get really good ideas it is a good bet that the Holy Ghost is behind it. I'm not creative enough to come up with some of this stuff on my own. I've been known to make jokes about having a Holy Ghostwriter.
  It was a busy week. There was not much time for me to practice. I was a little nervous about that. I decided that I was going to use a prop, my viola. During parts of the talk I would play snippets of familiar hymns to show a point. The challenge with this was that I hadn't played the viola in quite a while. I was still  a bit rusty. I went over it in my head moving points around and hoping I'd remember it all. On Thursday morning, I practiced it out loud in the car as I drove to Toastmasters.
  Friday,I ran though it without the prop. It went well but timed out at about ten minutes. I needed to add more to it. I made some notes and tried again. A little longer, but not long enough. I kept working on it. Using the viola would add time.
  Saturday I got up early to run. While I ran a few more ideas popped into my head. After the cats were fed, I outlined the talk on notecards. I ended up with 15 of them. That's a lot. Most of the time I have less than ten.
  I practiced it a few more times and kept coming short of my 20 minute time limit. When I timed it, it kept timing out at 15 minutes. I decided to invoke rule number 27 in Toastmasters. If your speech differs from you time limit, adjust the time limit. There was nothing I could  add to the talk. Adding more would make it sound padded. As it was, it was nice and tight. I just needed to warn the person conducting the service so he wouldn't be caught off guard and would have something to fill the extra time.
  I practiced my song snippets. This was a little more difficult because I was playing these snippets by ear. C helped me get them so they were in tune. I practiced a few more times.
  Sunday morning found me practicing again. I ran through it twice and then packed up the viola and my notecards and prepared to go to church.
  Once we got to church, we did a quick tuning and run though. I was ready. I sat next to another woman who was going to speak. She leaned over and said, "You probably are not nervous about this because you do it for fun." Most people know I am in Toastmasters. "On the contrary," I said, "I am nervous. I'm just able to hide it better because I've had more practice." The truth was, I wasn't that nervous. Training was about to take over. I knew I'd do all right.
  The Sacrament was blessed and passed. The first speaker went up to speak. She had just turned 12 years old and did a good job. The second speaker got up to speak. Her notes shook as she carried them to the lectern. Her talk was very good too. We sang another hymn.
  Then  it was my turn. I went to get my viola out of its case. I walked to the lectern and set it within reach. I took a breath and began to speak.
   Maybe it was my imagination, but I didn't hear the usual sounds of babies and inattention. As I looked around most of the eyes seemed focused on me. Some of them rather intently. During part of my talk I began to choke up. This happens sometimes. My eyes bean to tear. I paused and waited for the tears to clear and my throat to open again. Most of the time I try to talk through the choke up. This tends to make it worse. My new strategy was working. I continued to speak.
   Finally I got to the end. I had one more snippet to play. I messed it up three times before I got it right. Somehow I was able to make it work in the context of the speech. I turned the fumble to my advantage, some thing I'm not often able to do. I sat down triumphantly. That was the best bit of public speaking I'd done in a long time.
  We sang the closing hymn. I stayed up front to speak to Brother Evans for a few minutes. Then I left the front of the chapel to go to my next task. I felt like doing a cartwheel and a couple fist pumps. There's nothing like the feeling of giving a good Sacrament meeting talk. A few people stopped to complement me. I smiled and thanked them. What a wonderful way to start the day.