Rehearsals

Yesterday and today are about the same in regard to schedule. In the morning, I am at the Groves at 8 am. The stage for the pageant is right next to that, so the families rehearse for a couple of hours. While they rehearse I am at a tent with a bunch of toys and activities for the kids to do if they get tired of rehearsing and need a break. Yesterday I had fun pulling a little two year old in a wagon. Today we had some pioneer games that we did with them and that was a lot of fun for them. At about 10 am we have District meetings. My district is Anna Fordham and I am with the Chapples. They have adopted me and it is a lot of fun. It is a widowed mother, a grandmother, and their 3 girls and 1 boy. They are all so fun. After district meetings we rehearse for another 2 hours until lunch. These past two days I've gone to lunch with the Buckner family. I met their dad doing EFY a couple summers ago when he was the session director of a session I did. They have three boys and one girl. I love teasing the boys and they tease me right back. As I type this, I have their little girl in a stroller asleep because she really needed it, so for the past hour and a half I've been stroller her around as they've rehearsed. After lunch we meet at the jr. high for more rehearsing at two. We get the kids and do activities with them during that time. Yesterday they made sock puppets and learned a song in the pageant. Today they made wagons and learned a missionary song. We then have dinner. Yesterday it was at 4:30 but they moved it up to 4 so we have more time to get ready for the evening. After eating dinner, I go with the Chapples to help them get ready. This week they conduct the Frontier Country Fair in their costumes and then go on for the finale. Because the Chapples have so many girls, it is a great help for them to have me and I really love doing their hair and helping them out. We have to be at a missionary prayer meeting at 6 pm, but the last two days we've been a little late because we were getting ready. Hopefully, the earlier dinner will make it better for us to be on time. I sure hope so because at the beginning of the meeting they stand and recite "The Standard of Truth" quote, which is really powerful. We had a general authority, a seventy, speak to us yesterday, so that was pretty cool. After the meeting is over, we stand and sing "Called to Serve." It's really cool to sing it and know that I really am a missionary singing it! Actually, a couple people asked me yesterday if I ever have or wanted to serve a mission because they said that I am really good at talking to the people and trying to get referrals. I secretly loved that. It's not as hard as I thought it would be to talk to people. I got one referral yesterday from a member. We ask them if they know anyone who might be interested in the soundtrack to the Pageant. Only nonmembers can have it. It makes getting referrals easy. We also give everyone we talk to a sticker so we know if they have already been talked to. After the pageant, the stickers are void because we can testify to anyone. People are more receptive after the pageant and it is very easy to ask what impressed them most and then to testify of that thing. It is really fun. The only hard part is that there are so many in the cast that it's hard to find someone that isn't already talking to someone in the cast. I forgot to mention that on the first night, there were about 3,000 people in attendance. That is the biggest they've every had, they said. Last night we had a lot less. It most likely is because of the rain and that it wasn't opening night. The worst part was that lots of people left because it started raining. It didn't pour, but a lot of people left because of how wet we got as we watched. It didn't stop the pageant though, so that was good. Keep the prayers coming, though, because we want people to stay and watch the show. It's amazing.

Last night numerous things in the pageant stuck out to me, but the biggest one was that everyone is needed, even the children. Everyone has a part and is warmly welcomed the take part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The other part that I think will be a theme of these two weeks is what is quoted on the back of our t-shirts "To give more than we had, we gave of our ourselves." It is coming to mean so much to me that I don't know if I can explain it. It goes along the lines that this life isn't about me, it is about others. It's about having charity and serving others as Christ served.

Just as a side note, the guy that plays Joseph Smith in the pageant is pretty much amazing. It is interesting that on and off the stage, he has mannerisms that remind me of what the prophet Joseph was like. He's pretty busy so I haven't talked to him much, but my district grandmother insisted that I take a picture with him really quick before we had to go down the the country fair.

The country fair starts at 7 pm. We do that until just after 8. The pageant parade to the pageant stage is at 8:30. It begins with the bag pipers and flag bearers and then other cast members marching to the stage. We then sing the National Anthem and say a prayer. From there, the pageant begins with Parley P. Pratt entering the stage whistling a catchy tune.

Sorry I don't have pictures. They would all the look the same to you because it is just the kids doing different activities or of people rehearsing on stage. I will try to get a picture of my district so I can put that on here.