Just Kidding!I actually did have some more stuff for you about my talk that I typed up for you guys ;) I just wanted to give you guys a bunch of the "other stuff" that you really probably weren't as interested in about my talk in that first letter. It sounded like a fun prank to me….so I did it :) I'd like to imagine that the thoughts were something along the lines of "really? That's ALL he could say about it? Did he not read the part of my letter where I told him we were excited to READ his talk?" Haha oh boy. Love you Mom!
I have included the story I shared with the congregation. No....I did not read the whole thing. In fact, when I got up to the stand, I didn't take a single note with me. So obviously it wasn't told exactly like this (I think it was funnier in person than it is to just read it). But This (recording all the details of this experience), is just some of the fun I had while preparing for my talk. Enjoy!
Oh...and slight disclaimer before reading....it hasn't been checked for spelling/grammar errors. This was just the story that inspired my entire talk so I though it would be fun to write it down.
About 15 years ago, I remember vividly one morning in which I woke up earlier than normal (it must have been about 5 or 5:30 am). As I danced my 5-year-old-self down the hallway to the bathroom I recall noticing that the kitchen light was on. I must have decided that discovering whatever action was going on in the kitchen would be way more fun than going back to sleep because the next thing I remember after noisily flushing the toilet, and washing my hands is employing the very best of my secret-agent-crawling skills as I made my way back down the hallway towards the living room. The knowledge that it was still sleep time and that the parents would send me immediately back to bed if I was discovered caused me to consider carefully whether or not I would continue my journey towards the light which was emulating from the kitchen into the living room or if I would just stay put in the safety cover of the dark hallway where I could quickly scurry back to bed without being noticed. I was rightfully concerned. No matter how good my secret agent skills, my parents seemed to always know whenever I was up to something that I shouldn't have been doing. I listened carefully from the safety of the hallway before venturing further. When I couldn't hear a thing, my confidence in my abilities to make a safe trip to the kitchen and back without getting myself in trouble grew stronger. So I crept further out.
Eventually my efforts won me a vantage point of the kitchen. I saw my dad, head bowed, sitting at the kitchen table alone! I remember coming to the conclusion, "Dad must have fallen asleep at the table!"
With this realization, all fears of being caught went away as I stifled my laughter and moved closer for a better look. Out of nowhere, my dad's hand moved from the rested position on his lap towards the table. The pure horror of being caught sneaking around during sleep time shook me to the core as I made the realization that dad wasn't asleep after all! Furthermore, his hand movement probably meant that he had seen me and was now getting ready to come pick me up and carry me back to bed! I had by now crawled myself out into the wide open spaces of the living room. There was no place to hide. In desperation, I flattened myself to the floor. I knew that the flatter I was, the better my chances at blending in with the carpet and being overlooked. Frozen in fear, I watched as his fingers turned a page of his scriptures. It was at this point, when I realized that I hadn't been caught after all that I remember thinking, "WHAT???? Dad is reading his scriptures during sleeping time!?!?!? That isn't fair! Why don't I get to do that! I want to read my scriptures during sleep
time too!"
From my pancake position on the ground, the wheels in my head started turning: hmmm….I bet I could do that! I should go get my scriptures and try it. That sounds like the perfect excuse to be out of bed. Dad wouldn't send me back to bed if I was reading my
scriptures....would he? Despite my fears, I decided it was worth a shot.
So I grabbed my scriptures from the scripture basket in the living room and walked as fearlessly and authoritatively as a 5-year-old could muster to the kitchen. As I sat my self down across the table from my Dad and flopped the scriptures open in front of me, I
announced, "I couldn't sleep so I decided to read my scriptures."
I don't remember exactly what my Dad told me, but it was something to the extent of, "Ok...Just do so quietly."
I sat there in shock. My master plan had actually worked! But now I had a different problem. I actually had to read my scriptures quietly. That was something I had never done before! The only other times I had opened the scriptures was for night-time family reading
sessions before bed. And for that, I always had Mom and Dad helping me sound out all the hard words!
Not knowing what else to do, I simply mimicked every single one of my Dad's motions. When he turned a page, I did too. When he squinted deep in thought, I did too. When he rocked forward in his chair to examine a verse more closely, I did the same thing. And thus
proceeded my study of the scriptures until my Dad picked up a fancy looking double-sided red/blue pencil as he carefully underlined several lines of scripture. He had me beat. Not even in my big box of crayons and colored pencils did I have anything that looked even
closely like unto the fancy "scripture pencil" that my Dad had used to mark and write in his scriptures!
I felt somewhat defeated that my independent scripture reading would now require that I break the silence to ask Dad if I could borrow his fancy pencil. But, being left with no other option, I opened my mouth and told Dad that I needed to borrow his pencil. He handed it to me from across the table and I quickly colored about as many lines as my Dad seemed to have marked before quietly sliding it back to my Dad across the table. I watched and waited anxiously for Dad to mark his scriptures again. I had finally discovered "The fun" of scripture
reading: marking them! I borrowed his pencil another 3 or 4 times before my luck ran out.... My Dad stopped the borrowing fest with, "Ben, You can use one of your own colored pencils. They work just the same."
I, knowing differently, explained to my Dad that my colored pencils weren't the same. His pencil was very different. My pencils were meant for coloring. His was meant for scriptures. My Dad sighed and handed me his pencil saying, "Here. This can be your scripture pencil." For a moment I felt guilty... After all, I wasn't trying to take away Dad's Fancy scripture pencil! I just wanted to keep borrowing it! And would taking Dad's pencil from him cause any
repercussions? But then, all guilt and fear was swept away as my Dad reached into his scripture case and pulled out an identical pencil. With a clean conscious, fresh outlook on "how to have fun while reading my scriptures", and my very own scripture pencil, I re-dedicated myself to the best way I had discovered to read the scriptures in my very short personal scripture-study-career. And what would be that best way? Marking (or maybe better said, "coloring them") them of course!
I think I had almost colored in an entire page of scripture before my Dad looked up from his scriptures and interrupted with a soft yet stern correction, "Ben, your scriptures are not a coloring book. "Feeling the need to prove that I hadn't ever even imagined my scriptures to be a coloring book, I replied, "I know Dad. I was just marking a little bit" as I indicated the only parts of the page that were still white. Knowing that I was now walking on thin ice, I was
careful to ensure that Dad could see even more white on the following pages and verses that I chose to color. After a few minutes of struggling in silence to prove to my Dad that I knew all along that the scriptures weren't a coloring book, I recall my Dad saying, "It's best to only mark the words that are most important to you." He then invited me to come look at his scriptures and explained to me how he very neatly and carefully marks only the very best (words, phrases, and only sometimes entire verses) of all of the wonderful messages he
finds in the scriptures. He then invited me to do the same.
Realizing now that it was more of a hunt for the best words before nicely marking them (not even close to coloring), I sat myself back down on my side of the table again and began my personal hunt for only the best of the best words and phrases. It was a very slow, even painful process for a 5 year old. But the joy and excitement I felt when I finally found the words and phrases that were what I considered to be the best of the best in my 5 year old heart was extremely precious to me. Even from the very young age of 5, I knew, because I
had felt it in my heart and mind, that scripture study was important.
Well, there you have it! That's the story I told! Other than that though, I bore my testimony in the following way (I have done my best to re-create my unscripted testimony for you guys in list form).
1) I spoke about how grateful I am for a loving Heavenly Father who has put wonderful priesthood holder examples in my life like my father whom have helped and inspired me to gain a deep love for the scriptures.
2) I spoke about how that love for the scriptures has been such a valuable blessing for me as a missionary.
3) I spoke about how grateful I am that those priesthood holder examples in our lives allow us to copy, mimic and even study their every movement (sometimes even more than we study our own scriptures) with patience because of their knowledge that in time, as a direct
result of our mimicking and copying , we will gain understanding of life's great lessons for ourselves (only one of those lessons being a deep love for the scriptures).
4) Then I gave what I hope could be described as my powerful missionary witness of the truthfulness of the gospel.
Oh, and a last minute thought for the family.... in case it's interesting to you at all, I got lots of very kind feedback. One of the nicest things an older lady said was, "your dad would have been very proud to have heard your talk today." Even the youth LOVED it! I was pleased about that because they are always the hard crowd and I had in fact even focused my preparations on the great and ominous task of engaging young and old alike. Sweet eh?
Well, love you guys!
Elder Ostler
P.S. The following pictures are what I wanted to include as part of my joke. The one of me winking is the only one I was planning on sending. But the others are pictures that elder Richards snapped without my knowledge while I was having a hard time composing myself for the wink picture.....so if it wasn't such a funny one for you guys, just know it was fun for me :) ....hmmm probably come to think of it, I'm sure it's definitely more funny to me than you guys….but oh well. I'm sure it will be enjoyed regardless ;)
