Sunday at church we found out that Elder Bednar would be coming to speak to our stake and the Zurich stake on Thursday night. It was kind of late in the evening for the younger kids, but Nicholas asked if he could go, so I took him and Chris stayed home with everyone else. We drove into Zurich, picked up Chris at work, and then he dropped Nick and I off at the tram station nearby. We rode that over to the Stake Center, which was an adventure in itself. We sat on the window ledge in the very back, and every time that tram would stop, we would have to hang on really tight or else we would slide to the floor. I really enjoyed having so much alone time with Nicholas. That hasn't happened for a while now.
We arrived at the Stake Center an hour before the fireside was due to begin. Both foyers were already completely full of people waiting to get in. He was speaking at a mission conference beforehand, so they were waiting to let people sit down until that was over. I wasn't aware of this, however, and thought people were standing around because it was already packed full in the chapel. I decided to check it out for myself and walked over to the cultural hall door that adjoins the chapel. Lo and behold, there was hardly anyone sitting down, they were waiting until the mission conference was over. Since I had already opened the door, I decided to just continue on in and Nick and I found some comfortable seats and waited it out.
I had brought a little dinner for Nick and I since we had to leave home so early. We muched on our cheese and bread, and then the conference was over and they let everyone else come sit down. Many people who were sitting in the back with us, rushed forward to get better seats, but we were both content to stay where we were. We had padded seats, on an aisle row, and were right in the center of the room. What more could we ask for? It was amazing how many people just kept streaming in. We saw lots of people from our ward, and many friends from other wards. By the end, the chapel, cultural hall and stage were completely filled, and they were standing three deep in the back and on the sides. I believe they even broadcast it into some of the classrooms, like they do for stake conference. We were so happy we got there as early as we did.
Instead of giving a prepared talk, Elder Bednar let us ask him questions. He explained that there were certain types of questions he was looking for, and gave us an example of a question NOT to ask. "Elder Bednar, where is the Sword of Laban?" His answer, "I don't know and I don't care." If we wanted to play "Stump the Apostle" that was fine, but he was not going to participate. Nicholas was very intrigued by how funny he was, and had quite a good laugh at Elder Bednar's jokes. Every one who had a chance, asked very good questions and the answers were amazing. He told stories from his time as a missionary, stories from high school, stories from his time so far serving in the Quorom of the Twelve, and I was really impressed with his genuineness and humanness. His wife also spoke, and gave an amazing testimony of how the Spirit helped her deal with one of his callings at a time when she really didn't think she had the strength to cope. Nicholas kept whispering to me, "Don't cry. Your eyes are getting shiny. Don't cry!" I did have to wipe away a few tears, but nothing overly dramatic. I think I kept it together rather well. 🙂
It was starting to get late, and we still had an hour ride home, at least. I told Nicholas that if it wasn't done by 9, we would leave anyway, so he could get home and get to bed. He begged me to stay, he didn't want to miss anything. He had been absolutely reverent and attentive the whole time, so I figured if it meant that much to him, we would stay til the end. We didn't get home until 10:45, but I think the few hours of missed sleep were well worth the lifetime memories he and I both gained.
He also told us some things that he specifically said we were not to blog about, so I won't, but they were awesome. neener neener neener 🙂