Elder Bednar's Visit to Scotland

Last Wednesday, 16th September, Elder David A Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came to Glasgow Stake Building. He was scheduled to appear at 7.30 pm and we were all advised to be in our seats by 7 pm. Myself and my daughter arrived much earlier, 5.45 pm to be precise and the chapel was half full already! By 6.30 pm the Chapel and half of the Culture Hall which had been laid out with chairs was occupied. By 7 pm it was standing room only. Two other rooms in the building were also full (the speaker system extended to these rooms).

When Elder and Sister Bednar appeared the atmosphere was electric! We were in the presence of an Apostle of the Lord. Glasgow Ward Relief Society Sisters Choir were performing that night and they sounded like a choir of angels.

Sister Bednar spoke before her husband and relayed the story of when her husband was called as an Apostle, her wish to tell her children but having been told by the Prophet to tell no-one, Elder Bednar twice refused her pleadings to phone her children with the news and on her third time of asking he responded "No, Martin"!!! (referring to the Martin Harris incident). The story did end quite happily because their children heard the news from various sources and managed to get home in time for the Official Ceremony. Sister Bednar also relayed an incident when they were preparing to attend a meal where they would be seated at the Prophet's table. Their 15 year old son would also be present and Sister Bednar knew that her son did not like green beans and their advance copy of the menu showed that "zesty" green beans would be served. Sister Bednar spoke to her son and told him that he had to eat these beans, no matter what.

Come the evening of the meal, her son ate the beans with some obvious difficulties; taking a bite of the beans followed by a drink of water for every bite. When he had cleared his plate Elder Bednar said to the Prophet "I think my son should be congratulated, he has managed to eat all the green beans and he doesnt like them". The Prophet replied "Neither do I, I just pushed them around my plate so that it looked like I had eaten some and discreetly called the waitress over to remove my plate before anyone noticed".

When they had been home a few days, Sister Bednar thought that since her son had eaten the green beans at the Dinner she would serve them at home. At the dinner table her son wasnt eating his beans and Elder Bednar said to him "Eat your beans, son" but he didnt, Elder Bednar repeated his request "Eat your beans, son" still he didnt eat them, again Elder Bednar said "Eat your beans, son" to which his son replied "No, I'm following the Prophet"!! The audience were in an uproar!!

When Elder Bednar took the stand he said that this would not be the usual "talk" scenario, but that it was going to be a question and answer session. Various questions were asked from the floor and I will go into these in more detail in another post, I will simply say at this point that they covered a wide variety of topics from Temples to selection of Missionary Callings and how to get inactive family members back to active service.

Elder Bednar issued a challenge to the audience to find the six instances when the expression "one by one" is used in the Book of Mormon. Oh, and he said no cheating and looking it up on the net!!