Chickety Chinese Choir

Elder Bednar has been here in Taiwan for the last few days. We did a fireside with him on Friday night, had stake conference with him on Saturday and again on Sunday. I decided that I would embarrass myself and join the choir to sing....in Chinese! I thought it would be a good excuse to be as close to him as possible. And he would probably get a good laugh out of me trying to sing in Chickity Chinese the Chinese Chicken.

Let's just say that over these last three days, I have been very blessed to be taught by an apostle of Jesus Christ. I certainly felt the power of Elder Bednar's calling as he talked with us. The whole fireside on Friday night was just Elder Bednar answering questions that people in the audience would ask. It was awesome to see him respond with such powerful answers out of the scriptures and from personal experience. I felt it was a stunning visual/auditory testament to the scripture, "open your mouth, and then will it be filled." He obviously had not rehearsed his answers because the questions asked were very specific and he gave specific answers out of the scriptures. It was awesome!

I had been thinking the whole time that it would be so cool to speak German with Elder Bednar. He served his mission in Germany, after all. I told myself over and over, "You've got to speak to Elder Bednar in German!" I just had this burning desire and couldn't calm it down. I was singing in the choir, right? Well, after the sunday session of conference was over, I still hadn't talked to him. We all stood up in respect for Elder Bednar and as he was walking off the stand, I yelled at him (because he was pretty far away by this point) and said, "Elder Bednar!" He looked at me and I was nearly stunned into silence. Then, I stuttered a few times and finally managed to blurt out, "I was just wondering, do you speak German with President Uchtdorf?" He got a big smile on his face and said, in German, "Yes, we do it all the time." I was so overcome with joy and nervousness that I was rendered speechless for what seemed like a few minutes, but I was at last able to come through with, in German, "I think that's great!" I felt like a complete dork afterward for a little bit and everyone I was with was making fun of me and are still making fun of me. They are quick to mention that the whole chapel was completely quiet and reverent except for the yelling white man. (oh and everyone was staring at the yelling white man!) But, who's the one that got to speak to the apostle in German?