The Only Reason We Have talks

Scott-

We’ve all sat through a sacrament meeting that went overtime. Maybe there were too many speakers. Maybe one of the speakers wasn’t paying attention to the clock. But get a load of this. We attended the Kendah Town Ward this morning and with NO talks the meeting went 30 minutes overtime—90 minutes long. We blew past the hour mark before the sacrament got started. How is this possible? 28 new converts—the same people who were baptized yesterday—were confirmed. There were no lags, it moved along beautifully, but even 2 minutes per person still takes an hour. (Note: this is not a once a year event. It happens every month.)

Kathy and I had dinner with Elder Bednar and the African mission leaders who will be serving in Africa, while at the MTC last month. We sat around one long table and had a delightful time listening to him talk with the Africans about Africa. At one point he said, do you want to hear one of my favorite African stories? He continued, explaining that he was at a meeting in Congo with several stake presidents. One of them said we need your help and explained. We often have 25 to 30 convert confirmations in our sacrament meetings. The confirmations take up the entire meeting and leave no time for talks. This is a problem. Could we schedule a different meeting for the confirmations, so we don’t miss out on the talks? Elder Bednar smiled largely and told us his answer—the only reason we have talks in sacrament meeting is because there aren’t enough confirmations to fill up the time!