My sister's kids didn't like church. All 3 of them were pretty close in age. She taught school and they'd all get home from school before she did. One of her sons found a letter in the mail saying he was to give a talk the next Sunday. He took it and she had no idea it even existed. He faked being sick on Sunday and she went to church and they were looking for him. She thought it was hilarious.
The youth talks were once a month and spread out through the year. They had enough young people back then. The first four months (Jan-Apr) were reserved for deacons/beehives, (May-Aug) was for teachers/mia maids and (Sep-Dec) was for Priests/Laurels. The person giving a talk had to turn a set of index cards which included notes whether the assigned speaker used them or not.
What does this have to do with getting out of a talk?
Not much, except if it was known that assigned youth speaker didn't show up, the previous youth speaker would have to give his/her talk again using their index cards. It only happened a few times~ I never missed an assigned talk and fortunately for me, the person assigned the following month always showed up.
Well, I know the answer to that--not in the LDS church there wasn't.
My sister wasn't too bad about stuff like him doing that. Her kids all have good senses of humor. They are in their 40s now.
I don't remember that they assigned talks to the youth back when I was young. I think I may have given a 2-1/2 minute talk at some time, but they were in SS. I'm one of those who lived to tell about the meeting schedules. I was in my 20s when they changed it to 3 hours together. I can't believe it has been that long.
I always said no when I was older. I never gave prayers in church. Some stupid bishop challenged me to practice praying so I wouldn't be embarrassed as I obviously didn't know how. I always hated those prayers they gave in meetings. All the flowery language, etc. My roommate and my boyfriend/eventual husband decided to trick me. She was the RS president (singles ward) and she said I was giving the prayer. I gave it, but they never tried that one again. I wasn't mean about it. I just told them PLEASE don't do that again.
When I think about the ward I grew up in, I can't believe I ever made it as long as I did in mormonism. Three of my siblings didn't.
If Assorted Gems of Priceless Wisdom won't do the trick, then you're going to need a miracle. A for-real miracle.
So you start searching your brain. That time you couldn't find your car keys, but then you found them after all. Could that qualify? It seemed like a miracle at the time, but you really need something more dramatic for your two-and-a-half.
How about you got sick but then you got better?
That won't count either unless you were realreal sick and someone with priesthood authority poured olive oil over your head, when the hair on your head was greasy enough to begin with because you were too sick to wash it, but no doubt about it you did get better which was a good thing because then you could wash your hair, which definitely needed washing after they poured all that olive oil on you.
My favorite two-and-a-half minute miracle was a mother-son duo who were planning a trip to a nearby town to visit someone.
The son got a Prompting of the Spirit that told him NOT to go, because if they did something bad would happen.
He didn't have the nerve to tell his mother, because it just sounded too silly when lo and behold his mother came out and said the spirit just prompted HER to not go because if they did something bad would happen.
They never did find out what the Bad Thing was, but at least it never happened because they never went, but isn't it AMAZING that they both had the same Prompting of the Spirit at the exact same time? In fact it was a MIRACLE, and who knows what awful fate they were saved from?
Miracles -- they are never there when you need one, and you REALLY need one for your two-and-a-half minute talk.
Personally, I can talk for WAY longer than two-and-a-half minutes, as long as I don't have to stick to any one subject.
I liked giving the 2 1/2 minute talks. I worked really hard on them to make them unique. I memorized them and never looked at notes. What was wrong with me? (I know actually--but I'm not telling.)
Maybe you enjoy public speaking, and/or are good at it. :)
I gave a training once to my colleagues that I was very pleased with. I taught a (scripted) lesson in a foreign language that I knew none of them spoke. I had a "plant" in the audience who could answer my questions in the same language. I gave her a lot of praise, and acted out mild frustration with the others' lack of ability to respond to the lesson. The point was to give them the experience of being in a classroom with absolutely no idea of what's going on -- similar to what our immigrant students face. After that lesson, they we had a discussion, in English, about what would have helped (pictures, diagrams, maps, etc.)