Abridge Too Far

I was asked to be the concluding speaker in church last week. It was originally supposed to be my Gramma Bourne speaking, but she couldn't do it, so I filled in for her. It was a tough week to get a talk written as we had a million things going on that week, and also because I didn't remember that I was speaking until Wednesday. I spent most of Saturday getting it ready, breaking for a few hours in the afternoon to attend a surprise 30th birthday party for my good friend, Kevin Buchanan. I was to be a surprise guest at the party, but the real surprise guests were Emmanuel and Dean who flew in from Toronto to attend. Anyways, I was able to get 15 minutes worth of material written on the topic of Discipleship by late Saturday night, and I was able to go over it a couple times and make revisions between Bishopric meeting and Sacrament meeting on Sunday morning, so I felt prepared.

I wasn't aware of this before hand, but the other two speakers that day, the youth speaker and one of the Elders, were both giving farewell talks as they were both getting ready to leave the ward. Erica Takahashi was leaving to attend BYU Hawaii, and Elder Blocker was leaving to go home to Utah. They both gave excellent talks, but due to the nature of farewells, they both went significantly over time. I really didn't mind at all, but I was left with the dilemma of trying to condense a 15 minute talk (it actually ran for 20 minutes when I timed it the night before) into less than 6 minutes. I made the observation that as the concluding speaker, you often find yourself in a position either like Mormon or like Moroni. As Mormon, you find yourself having to abridge a large amount of material into a much smaller record, and as Moroni, you realise that you have more time than originally thought you would, so you have to keep on writing. I was in Mormon's shoes that day. I also noticed that it was probably the first time in my life that I had been the oldest speaker in a Sacrament meeting, and that I suppose life must all be downhill from here. I skimmed through the material pretty quickly, and a lot of people told me they enjoyed it, so I think I was able to pull it off. There's a lot in there that I wish I could have covered however, so I'm contemplating writing it all out the way I wanted it to be presented, but it's all in point form, so it's a matter of finding the time to do it. Maybe I'll find myself in Moroni's shoes sometime soon.