easily amused

I watched the second half of General Conference with my family yesterday. (It was good! Naturally the talks and quotes that impacted me the most had to do with missionary work...)

Did you ever notice, by the way, how the prayers are so long? They're like a talk, in and of themselves. It's sometimes awkward ( I think)to wait for the prayers to end. Normally I don't have a hard time listening and waiting, but the closing prayer to the last session was particularly long.... I was listening, like normal when--- all of a sudden and from no where--- my dad's stomach gurgled really loudly.

Dad smiled, but he kept his eyes closed and his arms folded. I had to hold my breath so I would stay quiet for the rest of the prayer. I wanted to laugh out loud. I regained my seriousness for a moment and then my sister's snickered. I actually heard her suppress a laugh. Either she found Dad's loud gurgling stomach as funny as I did or her husband had done something funny. (Maybe both.) It was hard to stay serious, watching my sister (through squinted eyes because the prayer was still going on) hold her mouth so she wouldn't laugh out loud. And then, just as I thought I could listen to the prayer and stop holding my breath so I wouldn't laugh out loud, the rocking chair my mom was sitting in squeeeeeaked. A "HA!" actually escaped from my mouth. And then I was appalled. I had just said "HA!" during a prayer. How disrespectful of me; yet, the more I thought about the gurgling stomach, my sister suppressed laugh, my mom's rocking chair, it all seemed funnier to me. I held my breath for the rest of the prayer, my eyes watering.

At the close of the prayer, my family was looking at me. I looked back at them through watery eyes. "What was so funny?!" my mom asked me. I tried to explain, but I was having a hard time breathing and it felt so good to finally laugh out loud....

My brother-in-law told me that there were two things that he had a hard time with on his mission. One of them was staying entertained. In this age of technology, I can see missionaries having a hard time staying entertained: no TVs, i-pods, cell phones or lap tops; no video games or movies. But after yesterday's experience I don't think I'll have a problem with staying entertained. I'm going to be a fun missionary, in fact. I'm not only going to entertain myself, but my companions and those I teach will have fun with me. And, hopefully, they will relate the happiness and enjoyment they feel with me to the spirit. And they will want to feel the spirit and enjoy life like I do.

My only concern now is how do I explain to people that I'm not crying, I'm laughing?