Skinks and Marines
On the sweetness of Mormon life.
My wife found a black lizard in the hall at church. She told the primary kids he’d come to hear them sing, so they sang, loud.
A speaker told about a son who grew up apathetic about the gospel. He was less than half-committed. Then he joined the Marines. He wrote home to his dad that he was going to start praying and studying and toeing the line because the Marines–God love ’em–were in the gutter. Anything, even being pious, was better than ending up there with them. The father said that he worried when he read this letter. It sounded like the son he knew was going to be gone forever one way or the other. But when the new, pious version of his son came home to visit, the son was much more like himself than he ever had been before.
Filed under: Deseret Review | Tags: on the sweetness of Mormon life
Brian Duffin
July 19, 2009
Speaking of the sweetness of Mormon life, I attended a 6:30 a.m. leadership training meeting at the stake center. The stake president’s 2nd counselor started the meeting by saying that he was not sure where the stake president was. He mentioned that he had called his home, but received no answer.
About 45 minutes into the meeting, the stake president arrived and took his place on the stand. When his turn to speak came, he stood up, apologized for his tardiness and told of his propensity to arise 5-10 minutes before his alarm would go off. He mentioned that because of this, he rarely sets an alarm. The previous night, though, he was on a late night call for work and did not retire until 2:30 a.m. His wife woke him up at 6:30 a.m. after one of his counselors called the house. He said it took him five minutes to register why his counselor had called the house.
The long and the short of it? Stake presidents are human and are not immune from being tardy to meetings…even meetings they are supposed to preside at. 🙂
Mormon life is sweet!
Vader
July 19, 2009
I recall my fellow deacons sneaking a snake into Sunday School back when it was a separate meeting with its own sacrament services. The bishop was not amused.
gst
July 20, 2009
Brian, I wonder if the experience caused the stake president to think for a minute about the wisdom of calling these meetings at 6:30 a.m. Probably not. Why do we do this? I think it’s hazing.