Relief Society

I have about 30 minutes before tonight's missionary meeting and then the 3rd night of fun begins! This morning's rehearsal was intense. We blocked (practiced) the last 20 minutes of the pageant, which consists of 4 or 5 scenes. They happen pretty quickly, enough that when we rehearsed them, we went through all of them. One of the first scenes we blocked was the organization of the Relief Society. Most of you probably know that the Relief Society was organized in Nauvoo after the women wanted to do something to help the men who were working so hard to build the temple and they could see that they needed help. Joseph Smith took their idea and expanded it, "turn[ing] the key on behalf of women." I was selected to be a part of that scene, which made me very excited. After practicing it, all of us in the scene and one of the stage managers sat down to discuss what Relief Society means to us. It was a great discussion. I love Relief Socity and the sisterhood, friendship, and support it provides for me. Visiting teaching and other activities help us to become the women God wants us to be--with the skills, talents, etc that we need to accomplish our work on the earth.

The manager then told us that in the pageant music, there is a Relief Society theme that is repeated throughout the score. It starts in the welcoming scene with the "whistling boys" whistling the tune. She pointed out that it is also the "Praise to the Man" piece. I never noticed it before, but the relief society theme is played slowly by trumpets while we are singing Praise to the Man. This may not seem very significant, but it is. When we are singing praise to the man, all the Relief Society sisters form lines in the center of the stage and hold their arms out as the panels that make up the temple are ran up to the top of the stage where the men connect it and pull it up. I was chosen to be one of the 5 runners!!! I have the opportunity to be the one who holds the panel like a cape and run up stage and then hurry to put all the clips together between the panels and double check to make sure everything is in place before it goes up. We put the temple up in under 2 minutes, so everything happens very quickly.

I feel it a privilege to be a part of that scene and play such an important role in it because I feel like I am really like the one of the women who once lived here in Nauvoo. Although history books don't say much about the women who lived in Nauvoo, they did so much to make it so the men could go on missions and do what was needed to build up the church. The women were the backbone to the temple even being built, in a way, because they were willing to sacrifice their processions so that there would be money and the very best things provided for the temple. They took care of the men (sewing shirts, providing food, etc) so that they could build the temple. So, to have the women being the ones holding up the panels and getting it ready like that as the men pull it up, is a very powerful way to honor those women. I wish I could put what I am thinking and feeling about it into words better. I just love that the Relief Society theme runs throughout the pageant. To me it is a way of appreciating all those women and how much they really did (and do) contribute to the church.  Some people think that the LDS church doesn't treat women as equals or allow them all the opportunities that men have, but, to me, this is evidence that that is NOT the case at all. They just don't understand that women have been given special gifts and sensitivities and other abilities that we use in other ways to build up the kingdom of God. The women of Nauvoo were not just caring for their kids. They worked hard building houses themselves and taking care of everything from planting food in the gardens to serving or entertaining others outside of their families. I really admire those women and I am very grateful I can portray them on stage.

PS Keep praying that it won't rain on us when we perform at night! So far the weather has been great! It was super hot yesterday, but gatorade has become my best friend, so I hope not to get dehydrated like last night. Today was A LOT cooler, so I should be fine. Plus, I got 7 1/2 hours of sleep, which is pretty amazing when you consider how long my days are! Normally I only get about 6!