On December 16th, we had an all-Spanish sacrament meeting. Bishop Rackham conducted the meeting completely in Spanish, the sacrament prayers were in Spanish, as well as the opening and closing prayers and the talks. Sister Ali normally translates the English talks into Spanish for those wearing headphone receivers. For this meeting, she used the wireless microphone to translate the Spanish into English. Sister Maria Garcia spoke first, and she was followed by Brother Jose Garcia and his wife Margarita (no relation to Maria). It was a wonderful meeting and carried a special spirit. Many of the members remarked afterwards about the special spirit that was in the meeting, and how grateful they were to be able to hear the extraordinary stories and histories of these members as they introduced themselves to us and taught gospel principles. Conducting the meeting in Spanish was one of the scariest things that the bishop has done. Since he does not speak Spanish, he typed out what he wanted to say and gave it to Brother Francisco Lopez, who translated it for him. After several hours of practice, he was able to pronounce most of the words correctly.
