I never have. I've wondered what it would be like if 10, 15, 25 minutes passed and no one came forward.

This was soooooo common in my ward.

We had a bishop that would let us go early if no one stood up. For years we'd go home 10 to 20 minutes early.

Another bishop "set the tone" by asking three people to come forward, then he'd let the meeting flow. We'd get maybe 5 to 10 minutes early with him.

Yes many times. I never once beared a testimony voluntarily. I have done it after being told to .

A couple of times.

Bishop used the first 10 minutes to reiterate the latest letter from Salt Lake. Remember the every member a missionary program? Everyone had been told off about not doing more to bring their non-member friends and acquaintances to church. I think the bishop also wanted to hear testimonies about doing missionary work and getting behind President Benson with his new program.

So everyone sat in cold silence for 20-25 minutes. My ward had a god awful meeting time of 2-5 pm because of wards jammed into the stake center while another meeting house was remodeled. So the clock was almost reading 5pm so asshat bishop got up and called his leadership team out of the congregation; EQ, HPGL, YM and YW presidents, Primary, and RS. I'm not going to single out the sisters but a few starting crying about losing keys, fighting with their hubbies then gushing about the atonement. Damn meeting went all the way to 5:30. The bishop allowed it to happen too frequently.