I’ve been working on my lesson for tomorrow (it still needs a lot of work), but I decided to take a quick break. Why do they have me teaching about eternal marriage? I’m not married, I’m not even close to getting married. What the heck do I know about marriage? In fact, I’m probably the worst person to teach about a subject like that. It scares me to death. Half the time I don’t even want to get married. I look at those around me who are married and all they ever say is, “Don’t get married” and “Don’t have kids.” Great encouragement guys!

No, I have a lot of great examples, but the problem is, it’s the bad examples that tend to stick in your mind. They’re the ones you remember when you’re thinking about the future. And then, in the Gospel Principles manual President Kimball says, “marriage is perhaps the most vital of all the decisions and has the most far-reaching effects…Of all the decisions, this one must not be wrong.” Great, that’s comforting. No pressure, right?

A couple of days before conference, Steph and I were having a discussion about marriage. We kinda talked about how important it is to make that decision, how difficult it can be to keep working to make sure it is successful, and how you can’t be selfish. Then, on Sunday, as I was listening to conference, Elder Nelson started talking about celestial marriage. He said some of the exact things that Steph and I had talked about. I texted her and we agreed that he had been listening to our conversation. It was just kinda crazy. But I’ve been thinking a lot about that talk over the last couple weeks. It’s the only thing that has come to mind every time I’ve read through my lesson. Apostles know how to say things way better than I do, so last night I listened to the talk again as I climbed into bed at Stacey & Jon’s, and tonight, I printed it and I’ve been going through it paragraph by paragraph. I decided to focus on that tomorrow ( I thought about just playing it from my iPod and then ending class after those 15 or 20 min, but decided that that’s probably not the best way to magnify my calling). I’ve pulled ideas from the manual, but I think I’ll mainly dicuss the talk. Well, I’ll attempt to discuss it. I get so tongue-tied when I’m trying to talk in front of people (shut-up), and no one in my class ever volunteers except the other teacher (because he feels bad for me) and the ward mission leader (because he feels bad for me). So we’ll see how it goes. Probably about as good as any other week.

Well, I should probably get back to it so that I can get some sleep. I don’t want to go to church tomorrow looking like death-warmed-over (yes, I have been told I look like that before) and give people more reasons to feel bad for me.