Mission Language

Fri. July 2, 2010

I slept in until 7:00 today! Nauvoo has a lot of late nights and early mornings for sure. We met in the grove next to the pageant stage at 9:00 and talked about the language of our mission. We read from Preach My Gospel and talked about how everyone will hear the gospel in their language. Then we discussed the language of our mission – how we communicate through our bodies. We discussed the amazing gift our bodies are and the many miracles that they can do and how that gift is to be treasured, appreciated and embraced. We shared how our bodies can be a blessing and how to move with joy. I thought of stretching and extending myself – physically and spiritually. I have always loved Willowtree sculptures and bought myself one a year ago. This week I bought this beautiful angel –

I love the extension, the joy, the embracing of life. Interestingly enough, she is entitled “Courage” which made me think of Nauvoo as well. How much courage it took for me to apply and come by myself with Ryan, how much courage it has taken to walk the single life road again, how much courage it takes to share the gospel with others and even more to ask for a referral. This angel will always remind me of Nauvoo and the many lessons I have learned here.

At 10 we met in our districts and discussed setting goals and our plans to reach our goals. I loved sharing together. I have really missed like-minded goals and discussion and felt like I was soaking it up.

Ryan paying attention in district meeting. He keeps telling me that he listens better if he is doing something. Right. :)

After district meeting, we ran the show again, practicing our mission language. Amazing the difference it makes in communication when you can’t speak and have to find other means to communicate. I feel my testimony in a different way. It has made me think a lot of how I can use my body to share my testimony. How I carry myself, express myself. It has given me much to ponder.

Alex leading the mission language discussion.

After the run through, I ran to Keokuk to the Walmart to pick up a couple of things. Adam Bohl is the work crew young man in our district and it is his birthday today – he is 23!  Everyone signed a card for him and we got him a tie tack of the Nauvoo temple. One of my keepsake memories is walking past the backstage a while after we gave it to him and seeing him in all of his harness (he works the light towers) sitting on a pioneer trunk reading everyone’s comments. It struck me – the little things in life do matter.

Upon my return from Keokuk, I ran to the gym (and AC – yeah!) for our afternoon rehearsal. Today was the Powerpoint run through – where we sat in the gym and ran through the entire show in a power point presentation with our individual blocking books. We were able to discuss problems – entrances, exits, props, bottlenecks, and find solutions together. A couple of things about this- first, I love that everyone kept the challenges to themselves until we sat down to work it out together. No one brought it up in the middle of a run through but waited until we could all sit down together to work out the kinks. Secondly, I loved how every problem was phrased with a solution attached and that all were open to helping each other. People were constantly volunteering their efforts to make the way smoother for another. There were no accusations, only solutions. Loved it.

Youth playing Kung Fu - ask Ryan how. They played it a lot both years now. 

Susie Geersen, the costume director, talked to us about how to wear our costumes after the powerpoint run through. The costuming dept. of Nauvoo really underscore so many of the lessons taught in this experience. Amazing attention to detail. Again, the little things matter. Not only do they outfit all of us in costumes, we all have multiple costumes. We start the pageant in our darkest costumes and through out the show change one piece at a time until we are in our lightest costume at the end. And each of us have varying degrees of dark to light. Why? Why go to so much work for something that most will never ‘see’ in the show? The costuming is symbolic of the sanctification of the saints. That is amazing to me. We share our testimonies even in our clothing. I appreciate the layers of the gospel, the layers of refinement as I added and stripped various layers of costumes. Occasionally, someone will comment on how the lights get brighter at the end of the show. They don’t. They intensity of lighting never changes throughout the show.  It is each individual person loosing their dark layers and putting on their lighter layers. The sanctification of the saints. The sanctification of each individual. 

We had a longer dinner break as they wanted us to run the pageant in real time which meant that we had to be at the stage at 7:30 to run the bagpipe parade and then the show at 8:30 with lights and sound. With the break, I ran to the Laundromat and caught up on all of the laundry. Even this turned out to be a lesson for me. There were a few of us from the pageant in the laudromat and a couple of others. Suddenly, I realized how easy it would be to visit with my pageant friends. We love each other and had much to talk about. But suddenly I remembered that we were set apart at “special witnesses of Christ” and that my purpose was to invite others to come to Christ. I decided to strike up conversations with others in the Laundromat. I met a sister from the Philippines.  And a couple moving to Maine. And then I met Laura. Laura and her husband Adalalberto are natives from Mexico but they have lived in Arizona for years and are now moving to Florida. On the way, they decided to detour and see as many church history sites as possible. They have 6 kids – four boys (Helaman, Zenif, Amulek, and Ammon) and two girls (Gwendolyn and Wendy). They toured all the sites in Missouri and then came to Nauvoo. They had a hotel for two nights but then realized that they had miscalculated and were going to miss the pageant. They didn’t have enough money to extend their hotel stay so instead, they let the hotel go, drove to Walmart and bought a pup tent for 4 and a camp stove and were camping 8 days so they could see the pageant. I couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t complaining – she was happily doing laundry for her family of 8, talking about how excited they were to see the pageant. Tears came to my eyes. I realized that not only have the cast made sacrifices to be in a show honoring the sacrifice of the early saints, many of the audience have made great sacrifices to be there as well. It was a tender moment. I hugged her and invited all of them to the run through that night.

We met at 7:30 and practiced the bagpipe parade with the pipers. I LOVE the pipers. They are sweet, wonderful people that work very hard for very little recognition. The play throughout Nauvoo and before every vignette. They play during the Frontier Country Fair and during the pageant. It was so much fun to all walk the parade route behind them and the flags and end up at the stage. I love how the bagpipes sound like so many sounds blended together to create a harmony. I love how they are throughout the entire Nauvoo experience. 

We ran the opening (the anthem and prayer) so we could get a feel for the timing and just have a moment of prayer, and then we began our first run through with sound and lights. We had an audience of 30-40. Afterward, some of us went out to talk to the audience and I made friends with two brothers from Arizona. They gave us a referral but we had to search to find anyone with a referral card. What a nice problem to have! I must say that I was following Ryan’s lead. He went out to talk to the audience right after the show and struck up a conversation with them first. I love how kids are great examples of doing the right thing. 

I titled this post Mission Language. Today, I have learned so much about the language of disciples of Christ. I've learned how I can use my body and even my clothing to testify of Christ. I have found Christ in the average and mundane, like clothing and laundromats. I've learned of the common language of sacrifice, music, and love. With those thoughts, I leave this quote by Pres. Thomas S. Monson:

"There is one language... that is common to each missionary - the language of the Spirit. It is not learned from textbooks written by men of letters, nor is it acquired through reading and memorization. The language of the Spirit comes to him who seeks with all his heart to know God and keep His divine commandments. Proficiency in this language permits one to breach barriers, overcome obstacles, and touch the human heart."