Ok, since I'm one of those single guys, those bachelors, that Brigham Young is purported to have said are a menace to society, holding a Family Home Evening, as counseled and as President James E. Faust recently reiterated in the First Presidency Message in the June 2003 Ensign can prove rather interesting. Sometimes I visit my parents in nearby Hurricane and participate in their Family Home Evening. Since I'm no longer in a singles ward, I don't belong to a Family Home Evening group. Thankfully, I've got an LDS roommate who wants to be obedient, and who gently reminds should I forget or think to shirk. So we hold Family Home Evening after all, my roommate and I, joined by our mutual friend.

That's what we did tonight, the three of us, after a dinner of Subway sandwiches. Jason conducted the meeting, and asked for volunteers for opening and closing prayers. I volunteered to open the meeting with prayer. After the invocation, we sang Hymn #60, Battle Hymn of the Republic. Since my piano playing leaves much to be desired—I can play simple hymns okay, but with even moderate hymns, should I try to play while anyone sings along, any such singers will be driven crazy by frequent mistakes, pauses, and repeat attempts to get a phrase right—we resorted to singing along with Hymns on CD, the version with both singing and accompaniment. I always enjoy singing Julia Ward Howe's inspiring verse.

After the hymn, Jason shared a message about serving others, how when we do acts of kindness or service for others, we are following the example of Jesus Christ and serving Him. Then I shared some excerpts by Ezra Taft Benson of his seeing the sacred documents in the St. George Temple that recorded the work done for the founding fathers of this country, and also excerpts from Wilford Woodruff where he shared the amazing and miraculous experience he had in the St. George Temple where the signers of the Declaration of Independence appeard to him. I thought it appropriate since July is something of a patriotic month, what with Independence Day on the fourth.

We closed with another hymn, #30 Come, Come Ye Saints, one we also sang last week for Home Evening, but totally appropriate as here in Utah we celebrate the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 on the twenty-fourth of July. Jason offered the benediction.

And now Jason is plunking on the keys of my piano, enjoying himself picking out various tunes, while I sit on the sofa with my laptop writing this. I need to wrap it up and take Jason home. It's late.