Monday, July 11, 2011
Exhausted in the Service of God
We have had a most wonderful week. Everything seems to be going quite well. Last Sunday Elder Camp gave us a talk about last years YPM's and how the second week of pageant is really when the fatigue started to set in, and sickness occurred. And sure enough this past week three of our Elders rotated through a stomach flu that completely whipped them. On Monday my counterpart for HHRB, Elder Christiansen, was out bad, so that meant for both Monday and Tuesdays shows I had to play the part of Peter for both casts. It was actually rather exciting. We always have a company meeting right before our shows, and when someone will be sitting out the dances, we use that time to re-position our cast to fill the empty spots. So then everyone is on their toes for the show! On Monday we were doing this process of filling in so that I would be Peter, and we forgot one detail...my solo on my off cast, right before whistling and whittling brigade (same solo I wrote about last week:)) Because in that single solo I have a different counter part...but he couldn't do it, because in this cast (A cast) he played the role of William the Englishman...anywho..No one realized there wasn't anyone to sing that part basically untill it came to that part of the show: So I walk off stage from the scene right before, and it's like it all hit us at once and we realized that someone had to go on! So I actually walked on (As Peter) and sang the solo...it was really out of place, and rather funny. The sickness then took my companion out for a day, and he missed HHRB; and then Elder Elwood was out for a day. The sickness has really hit the Sr. missionaries too, yesterday they closed 3 sites early because there was not enough man power to give tours there.
Then on Wednesday, which normally is my P-day morning, I subbed in JPAA for Elder Johnson because he and his companion were spending time with Elder Harrisons family that were in town. So this week was even more busy for me because of the extra show roles I had. But it was very fun. It was really neat as well because on Monday I was playing Peter when Emily's roommate Saundra came with her family...and if it weren't for the cast switch she wouldn't have seen me in that role. And then on Wednesday at JPAA one of my friends from high school, Morgen Luedkey, was there. Turns out her grandma is our accompanist 2 times a week, because she's on a mission here, too. It's so much fun to run into people I know.
Also this week I ran into a girl from my tap class this last semester at BYU, and on Saturday Danny Anderson's little brother and sister were there with their Church tour group. (It's Ben and Caroline right...) They came to the visitors center right after one of our shows. and then I saw them, and Bro. Tesch at the Pageant that night, too! It also turns out that my companion, Elder Toone, is cousins to the Barlows, (one of them recognized me as "Becca's older brother"...I think he said you were scenic lab partners or something)...who were on the tour with Ben And Caroline.
On Saturday morning Elder Packer was able to open his mission call here in the first MTC for the church, The 70's hall. He will be serving in the New Jersey, Morristown mission. He leaves Sept. 7th. We had to have the meeting at 7am because that's really the only open time we have. We, the Elders, arrived first- only to be greeted by our leaders, and President and Sisters Ludwig. As we were walking down the street towards the 70's hall, sister Camp and Sister Ludwig were chatting at how exhausted we looked. But then Sister Ludwig made a really neat comment, that was later shared with us. "How great a blessing it is to be entirely exhausted in the service of God." THAT IS SO NEAT. Being a missionary is the best time ever, literally our every hour is filled with service. And here it sometimes feels even more physically demanding than my proselyting mission in Texas. But being so physically tired has really allowed us to trust and depend on Divine help to see us through the end of the day, or the end of the week. But being so tired never felt so great, nor was it ever accompanied by such great blessings.
One of my favorite happenstances here in Nauvoo is when we greet a family, or group in the morning...and then we continue to run into them at all of our shows. (be it over a day, or over their entire stay here.) One of these experience happened on Friday and then again on Saturday. On Friday we were out singing on the streets of Old Nauvoo and we were greeted by a group wearing similar outfits to our own. They were a group of Mennonites from Iowa. We sang for them and then they sang a parting song for us in German. We continued to see them at Sunset, and at Pageant. They were very shy, but as soon as you talked to them they opened right up. Then an even neater group of young men came to JPAA on Saturday morning. They were a small group of deacon age kids from West Ogden that came with their 'basketball' coach. They first talked to me because they thought it was hilarious how I (as the school master) fell in love with the 'feckel face lady' : Then they came to one of each of our shows that day, and after each show they looked to greet me, and we talked about their experience. During Sunset before we do the 'Audition' skit, some of us get to go into the audience and sit by people. I went and sat by them before surprising them and running up onto the stage when they called for volunteers:) It was really neat. Two of the kids are recently baptized members and were here having a really neat experience. Overall it was neat to create a memory for them, and for me, and to share the experience of the spirit of Nauvoo.
Today we finally got some down time to take a much needed recovery nap. It's basically the only down time we'll have before we leave...which is still a month away. We're busier than every, but loving every minute. Last night as we were leaving pageant, I looked back at the stage and the amazing scene of this audience watching this huge production...and I felt overwhelming gratitude to be here and be a part of this Heavenly Town.
Our Typical Day
7am special meetings as needed
8am rehersal for the coming weeks pageant with family cast
9am sites/ district meeting/ or song rehersals
10 call for JPAA
11:30 lunch
12 call for 2nd JPAA
1 set for HHRB
2:30 HHRB
4:30 2nd HHRB
6 dinner
6:30 call for Sunset
7 Sunset
8 run to pageant to greet guest before show
8:30 Pageant starts
We finish our part of pageant and make it home by about 9:45
Then we crash at 10:30pm
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
It's Pageant Time
Another great week gone by. Sunday is a great day to take off and really relax- at least for a while. But the rest is much needed because we hardly get any during the week. We now have our early morning rehearsals for pageant every day at 7:45-8:45 and then we pick up our regular busy schedule with a half hour for meals and adding Pageant performances every night now! The pageant opens on Tuesday. I've never seen the pageant before. But being a part of it has been so great so far. We've actually only had 4 rehearsals so far and we only have one more before Tuesday!! Keep in mind that's all been this past week and we had to learn two dances! It's so incredible.
Last Sunday night Vocal Point from BYU put on the Sociable. They did a great job. After our sociables the Mission President invites the featured guests and all the young misisonaries to their home for an Ice cream social. Sis. Ludwig makes this most delicious hot fudge, and we all mingle with fun people like Susan Easton Black, The BYU folk dancers, The Community of Christ Interns, Pageant core cast, and Vocal Point. Vocal point gave us a private concert in the living room of the Presidents home. It was really neat. They were standing and singing right in front of a huge window which ran the length and width of nearly the entire wall. During one of their songs about Christ it began to downpour outside and then lightning and thunder. Of course we sang for them as well. It was a really neat evening.
On Monday we sang at two commemorations of Joseph Smith, because the 27th was the anniversary of the Martyrdom. First was the commemoration put on by the Community of Christ chruch, they held it in the Smith family cemetary. We sang "Nauvoo" by their request. and then at the LDS Commemoration we sang "No Ordinary Brothers." That was held at Carthage, It was a really great service.
I also thought I'd write a little bit about my characters in the shows. In Just Plain Anna-Amanda, I play the role of the school teacher. JPAA is a musical with a message specially directed at children. Anna-Amanda learns to just be herself..."Because there's nobody else like you! and you are a very important person" It's a shorter play but lots of fun because many of the characters are caricatures. The school master sings a song about Bible characters and the importandce of learning! The kids love it.
In High Hopes and Riverboats I play the character of Peter, the sidekick to the main character Chance. Peter is a logging man from Wisconsin that's come down to Nauvoo to sell lumber to the growing city of Nauvoo. The story is that Chance falls in love while here in Nauvoo, and also converts to the Church. He chooses to go west with the Saints...meanwhile Peter, chooses to go back to Quincy. .. But Peter has a family, he's still a good guy i promise:)
This is a fun handout we got during our district meeting: "As Latter Day Saints we are practically obsessed with anxiously engaging ourselves in good causes. Maybe it's subliminal....Glancing through the hymnal last Sunday I noted that we who are called to serve are all enlisted to go arching, marching forward because the world has need of willing men to all press on scattering sunshine. We wonder if we have done any good in the world today because we have been given much and want to do what is right, keep the commandments, press forward with the Saints, choose the right, and put our shoulders to the wheel going where He wants us to go. However, as the morning breaks high on the mountain top, truth reflects upon our senses, and while we still believe that sweet is the work, we also realize that we have work enough to do ere the sun goes down. And thus we ask Thee ere we part, where can we turn for peace?"
During one of our JPAA shows her mom comes on stage and gives Anna a bowl of apples. Well, during the pre-show puppet show, I slipped a wooden man doll into the bowl. So then when Sister Steele came on as mom, she saw the doll and started laughing a lot, she barely made it through the scene, it was hillarious.
That is all. All is well.
Keep moving forward.
Love Elder ROSE!
Last Sunday night Vocal Point from BYU put on the Sociable. They did a great job. After our sociables the Mission President invites the featured guests and all the young misisonaries to their home for an Ice cream social. Sis. Ludwig makes this most delicious hot fudge, and we all mingle with fun people like Susan Easton Black, The BYU folk dancers, The Community of Christ Interns, Pageant core cast, and Vocal Point. Vocal point gave us a private concert in the living room of the Presidents home. It was really neat. They were standing and singing right in front of a huge window which ran the length and width of nearly the entire wall. During one of their songs about Christ it began to downpour outside and then lightning and thunder. Of course we sang for them as well. It was a really neat evening.
On Monday we sang at two commemorations of Joseph Smith, because the 27th was the anniversary of the Martyrdom. First was the commemoration put on by the Community of Christ chruch, they held it in the Smith family cemetary. We sang "Nauvoo" by their request. and then at the LDS Commemoration we sang "No Ordinary Brothers." That was held at Carthage, It was a really great service.
I also thought I'd write a little bit about my characters in the shows. In Just Plain Anna-Amanda, I play the role of the school teacher. JPAA is a musical with a message specially directed at children. Anna-Amanda learns to just be herself..."Because there's nobody else like you! and you are a very important person" It's a shorter play but lots of fun because many of the characters are caricatures. The school master sings a song about Bible characters and the importandce of learning! The kids love it.
In High Hopes and Riverboats I play the character of Peter, the sidekick to the main character Chance. Peter is a logging man from Wisconsin that's come down to Nauvoo to sell lumber to the growing city of Nauvoo. The story is that Chance falls in love while here in Nauvoo, and also converts to the Church. He chooses to go west with the Saints...meanwhile Peter, chooses to go back to Quincy. .. But Peter has a family, he's still a good guy i promise:)
This is a fun handout we got during our district meeting: "As Latter Day Saints we are practically obsessed with anxiously engaging ourselves in good causes. Maybe it's subliminal....Glancing through the hymnal last Sunday I noted that we who are called to serve are all enlisted to go arching, marching forward because the world has need of willing men to all press on scattering sunshine. We wonder if we have done any good in the world today because we have been given much and want to do what is right, keep the commandments, press forward with the Saints, choose the right, and put our shoulders to the wheel going where He wants us to go. However, as the morning breaks high on the mountain top, truth reflects upon our senses, and while we still believe that sweet is the work, we also realize that we have work enough to do ere the sun goes down. And thus we ask Thee ere we part, where can we turn for peace?"
During one of our JPAA shows her mom comes on stage and gives Anna a bowl of apples. Well, during the pre-show puppet show, I slipped a wooden man doll into the bowl. So then when Sister Steele came on as mom, she saw the doll and started laughing a lot, she barely made it through the scene, it was hillarious.
That is all. All is well.
Keep moving forward.
Love Elder ROSE!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Today is a day of mixed emotions! Today marks the half way point of our summer here in Nauvoo! The time goes so fast. But we're still excited to make every moment count as we continue on through the summer! We also got a companion transfer today. It was mostly a surprise, we found out about it on Friday, and all of a sudden two days later we're thrown into new companionships. My new companion is Elder Toone! He's basically as tall as me, and built like an ox. He's from Centerville, Utah. He is 22 years old. He plays both Henry and Captain in High Hopes, and Boots in JPAA.
We had the funniest performance on Friday...Well mostly just me I guess. When we do my off cast, I play the no-name character of Arza Snow. My no-name sister (portrayed by Sister Brower) Patience Snow came on in the very first scene and was talking to another character and whispered that we used to have a dog named Blackie. To which I shockingly replied..."What you lost Blackie?" Keep in mind none of this is the story line, or heard by the audience. So then through out the whole play I was playing the young Arza Snow, who was looking for his lost dog. I was pouting on stage, and basically it was just really funny! There are several slow motion parts that we couldn't stop laughing through! Then I have one singing line that goes like this: "I whistle for my pony, I whistle for my dog; I whistle in the sunshine, and sometimes in the fog." And when I sang the Dog line I pouted, and immediately I heard the sisters laughing out loud from off stage. I struggled to sing the rest of the line because I wanted to laugh so bad!
June 27th is the commemoration of the Martyrdom. We'll be singing at a couple of commemorations.
Also this week, Vocal Point from BYU came. It's weird because we feel like they are guests in our house. But it's also a lot of fun to share the stage with them. We went to their concert on Friday. And they'll put on the socialable tonight. Then we'll have an ice cream social just us and them afterward. We also got to meet the core cast for the pageant this week. We've started rehearsing the dances for pageant and our days are only going to get more and more busy! We have rehearsals at 7:45 every morning...so some days that will be a total of 7 shows for me! Whooo!
Love, Elder Rose
We had the funniest performance on Friday...Well mostly just me I guess. When we do my off cast, I play the no-name character of Arza Snow. My no-name sister (portrayed by Sister Brower) Patience Snow came on in the very first scene and was talking to another character and whispered that we used to have a dog named Blackie. To which I shockingly replied..."What you lost Blackie?" Keep in mind none of this is the story line, or heard by the audience. So then through out the whole play I was playing the young Arza Snow, who was looking for his lost dog. I was pouting on stage, and basically it was just really funny! There are several slow motion parts that we couldn't stop laughing through! Then I have one singing line that goes like this: "I whistle for my pony, I whistle for my dog; I whistle in the sunshine, and sometimes in the fog." And when I sang the Dog line I pouted, and immediately I heard the sisters laughing out loud from off stage. I struggled to sing the rest of the line because I wanted to laugh so bad!
June 27th is the commemoration of the Martyrdom. We'll be singing at a couple of commemorations.
Also this week, Vocal Point from BYU came. It's weird because we feel like they are guests in our house. But it's also a lot of fun to share the stage with them. We went to their concert on Friday. And they'll put on the socialable tonight. Then we'll have an ice cream social just us and them afterward. We also got to meet the core cast for the pageant this week. We've started rehearsing the dances for pageant and our days are only going to get more and more busy! We have rehearsals at 7:45 every morning...so some days that will be a total of 7 shows for me! Whooo!
Love, Elder Rose
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Beautiful Nauvoo
These past two weeks the BYU folk dance team has been here performing. One of the nights they performed someone announced how many performances they had done in the 2 weeks. So our team started doing calculations. For the team as a whole we have performed in about 108 shows. I personally have been in 86 of them, and all of that done in just three weeks of shows, preceded by only 3 weeks of rehearsals!!
We're starting a "Nauvoo Unity Fitness Fit Club!" You would think that running around all day in shows and in being so active, that you would stay in great shape. Not so :) We have treats too often, and we're not always eating healthy or exercising great. Sometimes I get really out of breath in the show dances. So in an effort to stay in good shape and healthy, we're starting this program. Everyone will set their own goals and then we'll track the completion of our goals on a big poster we've made to hang backstage!
Unity has become a theme for our group this summer, we're all striving for a "Zion Community." (thus the unity fit club!) But it's been great to follow the example of the Nauvoo people, and be willing to unite in everything.
Today we took the tour to see the Mansion house, the Nauvoo house, Joseph Smith's first home here, and the Red Brick Store. While we were up in the second level of the Red Brick Store we ended the tour with a song. We sang one of the two songs we sing before our show everyday...."Nauvoo"
"Through cities towns and countries fair, I've often found my way;
A numbered joys attending to fill each happy day.
Ten thousand beauties rare, have often filled my view,
but lovelier still and Queen of all is beautiful Nauvoo.
but lovelier still and Queen of all is beautiful Nauvoo....."
When we sang that time, not only was it the best we've ever done, but it was accompanied by the strongest spirit I've felt- out of all the many times we've sung it. It was amazing! A beautiful reminder of the truth of this work, and the things that took place in the Red Brick store, and here in Nauvoo.
Also, today we sang in Church. "My kindness shall not depart from thee." Another experience beyond the power of man. Being here and being a missionary is so amazing. Mom and Dad, and Grandma Rose came this past week as well. And they felt the awesome spirit that is to be felt here on this sacred ground.
This past Friday we had the great speaker, Susan Easton Black come and teach us about the events leading up to the Martyrdom. We all learned alot about the history and events that took place. How unjust their enemies were. But also how amazing these Saints were. Joseph was not only Prophet, but running for president, a Lieutenant General in the army, and Mayor of the city Nauvoo.
Truth. That is all.
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