The Talk....

Mark was assigned his first Primary talk.....fear swelled within my heart.... He simply cannot be trusted to speak in public, his edit button has never functioned properly, if at all... You would think after 18 months in Primary they would know that by now?

Worse yet, the topic was his family...and what he could do to strengthen his family. The topic alone was fraught with the chance to spill all sorts of good family secretes. So I wrote the talk with the hopes of containing and managing the damage.

Mark and I sat down to review his talk. The first time through he said everything I told him to say. Second time through he started adding in things here and there. I decided to skip a third time through because the talk may not resemble at all the intent of the author, i.e. me.

I told Rick he was ad libbing his talk, and Mark piped up "Yeah I am adding to it."

Sunday came and I spend the entire time in sacrament meeting trying to get Mark to use his "church" voice and whisper. He was being exceptionally loud. Finally it was off to Primary. Opening song, prayer, scripture, and then the talk. The counselor who was conducting said "Now it is time for our talk." Before she could introduce Mark he was up off his chair and said "Yeah that's me, Mark Vincent." No introduction necessary.

I went up to help Mark. After hearing me endlessly repeat during sacrament meeting the necessity of using his church voice, Mark thought the time to implement this would be while giving his talk. He whispered the ENTIRE talk. Good news, nobody could hear what he "added" to it..... My secretes are still safe.