I am so grateful to be involved in the Nauvoo Pageant and have the opportunity of going to one of the most beautiful and historical temples in the church. On Tuesday, many of the people in my cast and I did a session in the temple. It was awesome! Afterwards we went up to the fourth floor to wait for a sweet treat. The windows of this room were the red, white, and blue stars that you see at the top of the temple from the outside. How cool is that?! It was awesome to look through it and see the Joseph and Hyrum statue and look across the Mississipi. But it got better! We were taken in small groups to climb up a narrow and steep staircase to the top of the temple tower where the bell is! It was super hot, but awesome! I climbed up as far as I could and touched the top of the dome and then I touched the bell! It rang while were were up there, so that was cool. The view of the tower was incredible. If you think the view coming out of the temple is awe inspiring, that was nothing to this! You could see for miles around and everything was just so beautiful. I couldn't help but picture the city blocks filled with houses and carriages and the early saints walking around.
That night my cast performed it's first show. It was a little down because I was backstage and not able to watch them or perform with them, but now I know that I am performing in a different, but just as important way.
Yesterday was awesome, too. I did sealings and inititories in the temple before going down to the baptistry to help the youth in my cast do baptisms for the dead. I love it down there because it brings back memories of my first experience in Nauvoo when I went there every week. Going to the temple to do the work has a even special feeling with it when I know that this is the place were it all was restored again. This is the place where my ancestors were endowed and sealed to their families for eternity. This is the place where they first learned of baptisms for the dead and first did those. It is sad to think most of them never saw it finished, but it has often been quoted here that Joseph Smith saw the temple illuminated in a vision. What temple did he see? The one they built or this one? We know they could not have illuminated their temple back then, so it is amazing to think that he probably saw this one. This is his temple that he dedicated to the Lord. It is just so inspiring to see it and be around it everyday.
In the missionary meeting before the pageant last night, I was asked to be the one who begins the congregation in reciting "The standard of truth" quote. It is a very powerful quote that talks about how nothing can stop this church from progressing. I was honored to do so because I know that it's true. I feel it when I am here and especially as I am serving as a missionary here. So many times these past two weeks I have felt like Alma in the Book of Mormon as he was serving his mission. The joy of testifying and bringing others to Christ is like nothing else. Wanting to preached to all people and help them feel the love and blessings of the gospel fills my soul. All these things gave me power and motivation last night as I went to the fair. I have started having companions to go with to talk to people. The Buckners like to compete for referrals, but I really just want to talk to people and testify. However, yesterday I had in the back of my mind that it would be nice to get 10 referrals that night, although it would be a stretch. I first talked to people with Josh Buckner, who is 16 or 17 and then I went with Sarah Chapple who is 14. I had many good conversations and got 3 referrals. Although, I went up to a large youth group and strongly challenged them to each give two referrals by the end the night. I was bold with them, but I have a feelings they will follow through. I just wish I could have followed up with them after the pageant, but that is impossible with the crowd.
Last night was my cast's second peformance and I was the kid catcher on the front side of the stage, so I got to watch and record parts of the pageant. I recorded parts that have lines that have come to mean things to me or are ones that are just funny. The whole thing is good, so I recorded a lot. :) While watching it I was really impressed by everything it said about the temple and it's blessings. I was especially impressed as it talked about families being together forever through the sealing power in the temple. I think it was because I had just done sealings in the temple earlier in the day, but it really increased my testimony of eternal famililes and what it much have meant to them to know that their families would be together forever whatever happened as they went west.
After the pageant I went around with Sarah as my companion. After most everyone had left, we had 9 referrals!!! I wanted to get one more to make it 10, so we went to a new bagpiper and got one from him. I got a total of 13 referrals last night!!! It was incredible! It's not so much about the referral cards as it is about the people who will be getting the cd of the pageant and having access to the spirit that it brings. I am excited for tonight.
I titled the blog as I did because that is what we printed on our cast shirts and it is very true for me. I've learned things here in visits past, but I've learned so much about myself and about the gospel and the early saints that will never be erased. Mostly I've learned how to be a missionary, what works, what doesn't, and how easy it is to testify to people of the truth.
One last thing. This morning I went down the trail of hope with lots of people in my cast. I was able to walk down with the Buckner family and my two family support friends. Members of the core cast stood along the trail and portrayed different said and things that they said. It made it come alive and even more real. I felt chills as I heard the horse hooves coming down the street as carriage drivers took people down Parley street that way. The people, the sounds, just everything made me feel like the early saints were there. Someone was playing a violin, and in the distance we could hear the bagpipers playing by the Mississippi river. In the past I have always walked down Parley street in solitude because I wanted to feel the Spirit and sacredness of it. However, I realized today that I was missing out on the greatest experience ever. I realized that not one of the early saints walked that trail alone. Every thing we heard and read as we walked down the street testified of how much hope and faith the saints had as they were leaving. They were sad, but not sorrowful or depressed, which are the feelings I usually feel when I walk down that street. Today, however, I began to understand a little better how they had that hope. They were not alone. Just like I had an adopted family to walk down the trail with who I know love and care for me, the early saints, who had little to nothing and even some without family, walked down Parley street as a community--family. The Zion-like community brings faith and hope and bouys a person up and let's them know that it's going to be okay. The other things that I feel led them to go forward across the river with faith, joy, and hope is their knowlege that they were following God's prophet and they had made covenants with God in His holy temple. Brigham Young has a quote where he called it "The fire of the covenant." It is what gave them the strength to leave and the strength and motivation to go back to rescue others who were stuck on the plains years later. The covenants gave them peace, power, protection, and perspective to endure the wilderness.
I wish I could put into words all the feelings and thoughts I've had on this, but I know that there is a reason why they had to finished the temple and be endowed before they left. I know that the saints took the Zion-like community with them across the plains and that is how they made it through. That feeling is still here. They are here. The pageant begins and ends with the lines, "When you're here, we're here." The final scene of the pageant movingly explains why that is. They took with them what they built in Nauvoo and taught it to their children, and they taught their children and it has been handed down from generation to generation until now we have the church that we do. Coming to Nauvoo is like experiencing the seeing the roots while tasting the fruit. You can feel the early Saints here every where. This place is sacred. Yes, the weather is terrible... it's hot, you're always wet with sweat and dehydrated, but you get used to it because everyone who comes here, comes for a purpose and I feel it in everything I do and with everyone I meet.
No comments:
Post a Comment