The Tabernacle Choir/Hill Cumorah Pageant

THE TABERNACLE CHOIR

Friday we had an opportunity to listen to the Tabernacle Choir at the Joseph Smith frame home.  They were passing through from Williamsburg on their way to their performance on Saturday at Chautauqua, NY.  They sang a couple of songs after they had an opportunity to walk through the Sacred Grove.  They sang "Oh How Lovely Was The Morning" and "God Be With You Til We Meet Again".  It was amazing how beautiful the sound carried, even in the open area where they were standing.

It rained almost all afternoon and then cleared up about 10 minutes before the buses arrived.  There were a couple hundred members who had come out to see them. They had to wait for over an hour as two of the buses had problems which delayed their travel.  Elder Jensen of the Seventy and his wife were traveling with the Choir.  They stopped, shook our hands and talked with us a bit while we were waiting for the Choir.

Then, two days later in church, we had several members of the stage crew who were driving the semi trailers with all their stuff.  Chautaugua is only about 30 minutes away from Fredonia.  There were also a couple of other families attending the branch who had been at the performance the night before.  One was our Area President, Elder Cook of the Seventy.  He was the concluding speaker at sacrament meeting.  It was the largest attendance we have seen at the branch.

HILL CUMORAH PAGEANT

Saturday, our branch had an assignment to provide 4 brethren at the Hill to help in unloading the buildings and setting up the cast team tents.  It was nice to be back there and helping in a small way as they were getting ready for this year's pageant.  Work crew had just arrived and they were putting up the stages.  The light towers had gone up early in the week.  Suddenly the Hill Cumorah is looking like pageant time. 

We will be on a totally different schedule in the temple during the two weeks of pageant.  We work essentially every morning of the week from 7:00am til noon.  We have the afternoons and evenings free.  The temple is closed every evening after the 5:00pm session is finished.  We will probably spend a fair amount of time at the hill.  We will be taking Kelly Schmelzer with us on both Friday nights.  We have been taking her out to lunch once a month since we have been here.

We love you all and hope you are all having a great time preparing for the family reunion.  God bless you all.