Nauvoo, Day Two (longest post ever)

Tues. June 29, 2010

This morning started out with a Missionary fireside in the chapel. Many of the most powerful moments of this pageant experience will not have a single picture to record them. This is one such moment. It was inspiring. Edifying. Tender.

The Nauvoo mission president and his wife spoke – Pres. and Sister Ludlow. Sister Ludlow’s talk especially spoke to my heart. She spoke of not postponing joy. How many times do I find myself saying things like, “it will be better when…”  or “I’ll be so glad when ______ happens” ?  She reminded us that all of us have trials and challenges. Moments that become our story, moments we will remember and tell over and over again with much laughter. Why wait until then to laugh about them? I felt a personal challenge make laughter part of the story in the first moment. Later, the stories will be that much richer as I remember the adversity and the laugher.

The Nauvoo Temple President and his wife also spoke. They spoke of the hand of the Lord in restoring the Nauvoo temple. The Saints were commanded to build a temple and many were hesitant. They had built a temple in Kirkland, Ohio, only be leave it behind as they moved to Missouri. In Missouri, they began two temples only to be driven out. You can imagine their thoughts at the idea of building another temple. But after that initial hesitation, build it they did. They dedicated one day in 10 to the temple quarry or building site. The temple is built on the bluff over looking a large bend of the Mississippi river. Today, the temple is striking. In the 1840’s it was breath taking. Amazing. Stunning, easily the most beautiful edifice along the Mississippi. When the persecution intensified, so did the pace of construction on the temple, until workers were working around the clock to finish it. It became a monument of their faith.

The Saints were forced to abandon their homes, farms, business and most importantly, temple in the winter of 1846. I strongly believe that the memories and covenants of the temple strengthened their shoulders to face the hardships and sacrifices ahead of them. A few years after the Saints left, the temple burned to the ground in an intensely hot fire. A tornado flattened the parts of two walls that were remaining shortly after the fire. The foundation stones remained, sleeping among the grass and weeds for over 100 years. And then the Lord started the work to restore the symbol of testimony of so many. Missionaries unknowingly met up the grandson of William Weeks, the original architect who gave the church the original plans found in an attic. A lithograph was found of the original temple. Through various miracles, the church was able to re-buy the 6 original land parcels. And 150 years after the saints turned their faces West, the announcement came that the temple would be rebuilt. Today, it is 98% exactly as the original.

The Temple Pres. made a comment that Joseph Smith saw the temple finished in a vision. Joseph also knew that the Saint were heading west and had begun plans to take them west. Joseph was murdered before it was finished. The temple Pres. said that he firmly believed that the temple that Joseph saw in the vision was the temple as it is today and that Joseph knew it would be rebuilt. I had never thought of that before.

The music- the fireside opened with the core cast singing to us – it was amazing. It gave me tingles. After a few talks, the work crew – 15 young men ages 16-25 stood together and sang “We are as the Army of Helaman”. The spirit was so strong. Then we came to the final hymn, “I Stand All Amazed”. Brad Thompson, the musical director, came to the microphone and asked us to sing our testimonies, to let our emotions for the atonement be expressed in our singing. Oh I wish I could some how share with you the hymn we sang. Tears poured down my cheeks as we sang our testimonies through that wonderful song. It was beautiful. During the closing prayer, you could hear sniffles throughout the congregation as everyone was deeply moved.

           

After the fireside, we moved to the grove next to the pageant stage and had a safety meeting. We have a lot of medical ability in our cast, which is always comforting. After the safety meeting, we broke apart into our districts. Our district meeting focused on this quote by Brigham Young:

“If you feel evil, keep it to yourselves until you overcome that evil principle. This is what I call resisting the devil and he flees from me…When you are influenced by the Spirit of holiness and purity, let your light shine; but if you are tried and tempted and buffeted by Satan, keep your thoughts to yourselves – keep your mouths closed; for speaking produces fruit, either of a good or evil character…you frequently hear brethren and sisters say that they feel so tried and tempted, and have so many cares, and are so buffeted, that they must give vent to their feelings; and they yield to the temptation and deal out their unpleasant sensations to their families and neighbors. Make up your minds thoroughly, once and for all, that if we have trials, the Lord has suffered them to be brought upon us, and he will give us the grace to bear them..But if we have light or intelligence – that which will do good, we will impart it…Let that be the determination of the individual, for spirit begets spirit-likeness; feelings beget their likeness…If then we give vent to all our bad feelings disagreeable sensations, how quickly we beget the same in others, and load each other down with our troubles, and become sunk in darkness and despair! …In all your social communications…let all the dark, discontented, murmuring, unhappy, miserable feelings – all the evil fruit of the mind, fall from the tree in silence and unnoticed; and so let is perish, without taking it up to present to your neighbors. But when you have joy and happiness, light and intelligence, truth and virtue, offer that fruit abundantly to your neighbors and it will do them good, and so strengthen the hands of your fellow beings.”

Emphasis mine

This principle is powerful and so applicable today. I love that he uses the word vent twice. How many times do we vent and leave a trail of bad fruit in our wake for others to pick through? To me, the most powerful teaching is what to do with our own bad fruit, because we all have moments of frustration, disappointment, offense, trial, and irritation. This week we have learned that it is how we react in those moments that makes us saints, those are our defining moments. So if we are not to give vent to those feelings, what should we do? Ray, our artistic director, made me laugh last year when he said, “You don’t swallow bad fruit. It will make you sick!” So if we don’t unload it on others, if we don’t keep it inside, what do we do with those feelings? I love what Brigham Young said – you let it “fall from the tree in silence and unnoticed.” You let it go; let it roll off your back. You share the good and let the bad go.

We have become good friend with Shanti Rose, the cast member who plays Emma Smith, who shared with us the phrase, “Drive-by fruiting”. Sometimes in life, people make a negative comment to us and the natural man wants to say something back. It has been so wonderful to recognize those comments for what they are – a drive-by fruiting, and let them go.

Today in district meeting, Jeff (plays Joseph Smith) likened others’ comments/fruit to Shanti’s grapes –  one grape was good except for a tiny spot of bad. I thought of how easily and often I have eaten the good half of a grape and tossed the bad. Suddenly, I realized that is how I should handle conversations, especially when bad fruit is present. Let the bad comments fall to the ground unnoticed and focus on the good. 

I have loved seeing us work on these principles. We have laughed at ‘drive-by fruitings” and have worked hard to frame everything in the positive. We have cheered when asked to run another part of the show again even when we are hot and tired and sore and the cheer has made all the difference. Ryan worked really hard to figure out a way to express his feelings for his cravats in a positive light – he came up with: “I love this cravat so much that I will wear it on the performances only so I don’t get it dirty.”

After District meetings we met on the stage for our first stage run through of the dances. The Stage is a raked stage, which means it is at a steep angle. Even walking becomes a challenge on an angle. Lots of laughter as we tried to remember what we had learned the night before, squish it all into the stage space and run it on an angle. The fact that all were laughing and no one was injured was a huge success. We did get to start fine-tuning it a few more times.

After a 2-hour lunch break, we headed back to the gym and air conditioning where we worked on the evening dance. And then after dinner, we headed back to the stage where we learned the blocking for the healing scene, the laying out the city and the parade. I really loved how my “family” – Ryan and I and a grandpa and his granddaughter, really came together in the healing scene. I felt bonded to these people I only just met as we worked together to tell our story. Ryan is the sick one in our family and I think back to my feelings when he was born and spent a few days in the NICU. The worries, the prayers, the peace, the overwhelming joy and gratitude as he got better and came home.

Over and over, we keep talking about that the pageant is our story. Every single one of us has experienced a miraculous healing. Everyone one of us have experience times we desperately needed the Savior. We are not acting on stage. We are telling our stories, out testimonies. We just happen to wear pioneer costumes as we tell our stories.

 Love you all!

Julie