Open Mike Sunday

F&T, otherwise known as Fast & Testimony is definitely an experience here in Milwaukee. I have come to appreciate this day in my years as a Milwaukeean and know that I will miss it once I am gone. You never know what you're going to hear and today was no different. For what seemed like 20 minutes, I got to listen to a woman talk about her cat "muffin" who had recently passed. Now, I should have prefaced this by saying she followed a woman who had lost her mother not even 12 hours prior to Sacrament Meeting. And yet she continued to talk about her feelings about her cat. She discussed it with her Visiting Teachers. She asked her Home Teachers for advice as well, and keep coming back to the question "why", "why did Muffin need to die". The cat was 18 years old! I guess I should be more sensitive, but I really do NOT like cats. Previous F&T meetings have had a higher ratio of members under the age of 9 bear their testimonies than adults. Then there is the guy who really likes to hear himself talk so he gives a Sunday school lesson from the pulpit. Oh, and the lady who finds answers to every problem she might have in the scriptures by playing the flip and point game. And then there was this guy from the City Branch who thought he was on stage doing a comic routine. Never do I hear...I want to stand and bear my testimony, it's always, "I felt like I needed to tell you what happened to me this past week", or, "hey, how are you all doing today?". Where was everybody the day the Bishop stood up and reprimanded everyone for the way F&T meeting had changed. I remember it. He pretty much told us how to bear a testimony from beginning to end...not that I really appreciated being told how, but I guess he was inspired because people in MKE really do need help!