Elder Bednar's Visit

Here they are, all dressed up on a Tuesday night, ready to listen to an Apostle of the Lord. We were SO excited to hear that Elder Bednar and his wife were going to make a visit here to Okinawa. It was a wonderful evening. Cliff and I actually met him 3 years ago at Chaplains' Conference when he came to speak to us, but instead of giving us a talk, he opened it up to questions for the entire time. It didn't occur to me that he might do the same thing here, otherwise I would have spread the word so people would have their questions ready...but that is exactly what he did. There were lots of great questions, though, and I think we all learned a lot.

Even though the questions and answers were great, I still think my favorite part of the night was in the beginning when he shared his military connections with us. My favorite was learning that as a young missionary in Germany, he was assigned to work with young, American, military families. I don't think I will ever think the same of these sweet, young elders who we see at our various duty stations. You just never know who they will grow up to be!

Afterward, Patrick and Jake stood in line to shake his hand. (Troy already had before the meeting started.) Patrick was overwhelmed with the evening, and had a profound moment with Elder Bednar as he visited with him, but he's keeping it private :-(.
(Inquiring minds have been shut down.)

Coree just hung out with me, waiting...you see, I didn't want to take a chance on him recognizing me. Remember his 'famous' talk about being offended, and reaching out to the offended to plead with them to 'come back to the fold'? Well...that was the year he came to Chaplains' Conference, and after that I waited in line to shake his hand. I told him that when I listened to that talk, I knew exactly who I was going to invite back and I was excited to do it. He pulled out one of his cards, handed it to me, and asked me to write him a letter about it. I still have the card...and I invited the person back, but the whole thing was sort of anti-climactic...and I just never had anything noteworthy to write about, so I didn't. He is SO amazing with names and is SO quick and NOT hesitant to speak his mind...it would NOT surprise me if he had said, "Where's my letter, young lady...I gave you an assignment, and you would ignore one of the Lord's servants?!" Highly unlikely, I admit...but I wasn't taking chances just the same.