Hill Cumorah Pageant

Finally I'm getting around to posting the good stuff. The whole reason we went to Palmyra, New York was to see the Hill Camorah Pageant. It was wonderful! The cast mingles with the crowd before the performance. They were all very friendly, fun to talk to and patient with camera happy travelers. Here are a few pictures of the costumes we saw. Some were amazing! The snarly guy is King Noah from The Book of Mormon.




Here are pictures from the performance. Not all of them are mine. Thus there are some good ones and some not-so-much good ones. Sitting a 27 miles from the stage was somewhat of a strain for my little camera. But considering the stage consists of 12 stages and takes up the side of a Godzilla hill we felt very much a part of the action.


The whole thing was great. The effects were impressive. With all the fire and explosions I can see why it's outside. Granted, there's historical reasons for being in that locale also. There was a monsoon that I'm convinced drenched the first couple rows of saps-who-saved-seats since Thanksgiving 2003. Waterfalls went from stage to stage, towers broke in pieces tumbled to the ground and exploded and the Savior descended from the Heavens. It was amazing! I highly recommend this to one and all. And it's FREE! Free parking, free performance, free shower (if you want to join the saps in the front row). You just have to get there in July. Happy travels.

We halted our mad attempt at setting land speed records on our drive home to stop in Kirtland, Ohio. This town is also significant in our church history. We toured the Kirtland Temple, dedicated in 1836. Baby enjoyed the freedom to move around. We both enjoyed the air conditioning and the little break it gave us from being on the road.

1,634.7 miles and 5 days later we arrived home. It was a grand adventure.

The Sacred Grove

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints the Sacred Grove is special to us and part of our religious heritage. Baby and I had an opportunity to spend some time in the Grove. It is a beautiful and peaceful place. A great way to start the day.

Smith Farm

The homes pictured below belonged to Joseph Smiths family in the early 1800's. We were able to take a free tour of these sites. At every turn Baby dearest had many admirers.

The log house was three rooms and housed 11 people. I can't figure out where they all fit! Let alone lived! This is a rebuild of the original log home.



Their frame home built after the log house was more spacious. This is the original building that their oldest son built for the family. The picture of the stone sink is white washed. Which is a major bummer for all of you since it was the coolest sink I've ever seen. Now I want to chisel my own for a mud room. When I say "chisel" I really mean electric dremel tool.

This is how they kept bees. Apiculture has come a long ways since then. Now if we could just train the bees to deliver the honey. "Here'z your clover honey, Ma'am. The orange blossom will be here in 4 weekz." "Thank you. Here's a blueberry bush for all your hard work."

Church News

Good news for the church from Afghanistan. Last Sunday the fourth branch in the country was organized. Following is a statement written by the district president, Gene Wikle. Cool eh?

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

On Sunday, September 28th the fourth military branch in Afghanistan was organized. The Salerno Military Branch was created at Forward Operating Base Salerno. The Salerno Branch has 31 members. The new branch presidency is comprised of President Steve Haga, Christopher Witte, First Counselor, Tim Wilson, Second Counselor and Joel Ellington, Elders Quorum President. LDS Chaplain James Montoya officiated on behalf of the District Presidency. I am grateful to these brethren for accepting the call to serve. I know that they will bless the lives of the members serving at FOB Salerno.

As of October 1st the Kabul Afghanistan Military District is comprised of 442 members serving in four military branches, 18 service member groups and at 17 remote locations. We have been blessed to have members serving from many countries to include the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Germany, South Africa, Australia, Philippines, Canada, and the United States. This is truly an international effort of service by saints from the four corners of the world united to help the good people of Afghanistan in defense of freedom.

What just happened?

A couple months ago in a weekly servicemens group meeting we discussed the possibility of initiating an addiction recovery program. The group leader got in contact with some people at LDS family services to get some more info. About the time I got back into country he asked if I would spearhead the program and think about holding meetings during the week on days I wasn't flying.

The next day: somehow we were mentioned in the Church News.

Crazy crazy.

I need to repent

The hymns are like scripture put to music, right? So we should love all the hymns in the hymn book because they invite the spirit and teach gospel principles. Right? Well, there are a few that I just don’t like, and a couple that I can’t stand. Instinctively I know that I am wrong, and I need to repent. However, I really want to rip Scatter Sunshine right out of the book.

Last Sunday was my first experience with conducting music for sacrament meeting. Like most things, it’s harder that it looks. Things get interesting because our accompaniment is a prerecorded track. The songs switch tempo and sometimes wait a really long time to begin succeeding verses. Picture everyone holding their breath, mouths open, staring sidelong at the CD player. A few people, including me, start the first word and just draw it out until the music catches up.

Like this-

Thhhhhhheeeeeeeeee (one hand holding the hymn book, and the other handing descending very slowly, vertically, through the air) eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (quick breath!) eeeeeeeeeeee Spir-it of God, like a fie-ur, is bu-urn-ing…

And to top it all off, we have songs in 6/8 time -nobody told me about 6/8 time- like Scatter Sunshine. A song that I have never heard sung well.

Ever.

It’s a song about being positive and setting a shiny example for the gloomy and depressed. The melody is impossibly high and low at the same time, and it has different little ‘parts’ for the men and women. It always ends in an ugly disaster. It is a disadvantaged song.

So there I am, trying to sing this so-sweet-my-teeth-are-rotting song to strange music, in a strange beat, to unsynchronized music. It’s emotionally hard for me to be so bad at something! I really sucked at leading this song. On the other hand, the congregation wasn’t looking at me anyway- they were all squinting down at the page- as is it was written in Greek. By the second verse, I had put my hand in my pocket except for the first and last few beats. It couldn’t have looked as bad as what I was doing with it before. But I don’t think anyone noticed anyway.
I disliked that song before, now I really, really, really dislike it.

If you read this, maybe you could leave a comment with some kind of positive support for that song. If I could convince myself that it has some redeeming quality, my repentance process might be quicker.