They had a regional Young Adult Conference this past weekend which extended into Sunday afternoon. Therefore, hardly anyone was at church. I was the first person to arrive (my husband would be so proud - 10 minutes early because I took a taxi instead of a tuk-tuk). As soon as I arrived the Branch President came out of his office, greeted me, and asked me to say the opening prayer. I passed the time until church started chatting with the full time elders. I even commented to one of them that I had thought the Branch President was going to ask me to speak instead of asking me to say the prayer. Less than 2 minutes after I said that he came and asked me if I had my scriptures with me (which I did) and then asked me to speak for 5 minutes. I had to smile!
But no worries; I talked about the sons of Helaman and what kind of mothers/parents/example they must have had to raise such great sons; and compared the sons of Helaman to Laman and Lemuel, who saw angels on numerous occasions and still managed to make all the wrong choices for them and their families, even though they had a prophet for a father. I added that not all of us have great parents/families, which is why it's so important to come to church each week to feel the love and support of the other members.
One of the full time elders also spoke, along with one of the local sisters. It was a pretty good meeting considering all the talks were extemporaneous.
