I quit piano at age 13, then went on my mission to Japan.

My trainer was a fantastic musician, musically trained and even had a contract before going on his mission, and he could play George Winston's Pachabel Kanon in D almost all by sound, and we would play the CD often.

About a month or so after being in Japan I made a cassette tape to send home to my parents. I pretended I was at the Church and that I learned to play this new song, that I rediscovered my talent for the piano and that I hoped they liked it.

I then pressed play on the CD player.

Thinking there is no way my family would believe it was actually me, since there were no mistakes...well apparently they believed it was me. My mom got up in sacrament mtg bore her testimony that it took her son going halfway around the world to discover his talents. She was a school teacher and played it for her class, and then took it to the music teacher to ask his opinion. He said "Wow, he's pretty good."

I learned all of this in our phone conversation at Christmas and broke the bad news to them that it wasn't me.

The family was furious.

I told them that I had the sheet music and that I'd really try to learn it before I came home. So any chance I got to play, I slowly started to learn the song.

My parents came and picked me up in Tokyo, and I sat my mom down in the annex of the Tokyo Temple and played this song and then my Mom of course had me play it for my homecoming. It wasn't perfect but I did it and can still play it pretty well today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wAGacczNho