MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE . . .

You can be sure that nothing is going to happen unless you ask

While attending a Saturday brunch this morning with several other senior missionary couples, one of the senior sisters related the following true story that occurred in The Big Apple not too long ago:

There was standing room only for the mother and her teenage daughter as they rode the New York subway in close company with hundreds of commuters who were reading, entertaining themselves with hand-held electronics, or otherwise just lost in their own thoughts. Looking at all of the people around her, the mother pondered what might happen if . . .

So fearlessly, in the midst of all of these total strangers, the woman suddenly addressed everyone in the subway car with a loud but friendly voice:  "Excuse me, everyone! May I have your attention, please? My daughter and I are from out of town, and we don't know anyone here in New York City. There isn't anyone to sing happy birthday to my daughter today, so would you mind joining me in doing this?"

Amazingly all of the passengers in the subway car then spontaneously sang "Happy Birthday" to the woman's daughter. At several  subsequent station stops along the train route, many of the disembarking commuters paused to tell the somewhat embarrassed young lady that they wished her well on her special day and in the coming year.

But that's not the most remarkable part of this story. According to the senior sister missionary who shared this tale with us today, she asked the mother which birthday her daughter was celebrating when the subway passengers sang to her?

"Oh, it wasn't really her birthday," the mother confessed. 

The woman in the story is our mission president's wife, and she is a truly delightful, outgoing, and fun-loving person who obviously isn't afraid to talk with anyone anywhere!