God "Rest" Ye Merry, Elders and Sisters

We haven't done much resting this last week, but we've sure been doing a lot of music in one form or another. In addition to the 3 early morning rehearsals plus one devotional per week, we've been involved in rehearsing and performing in several other things. We're singing in a small group, and I'm singing in a women's sextet next week at the branch Christmas party. Besides that, a different sextet sang for the New Missionary breakfast, and I also played my flute for that. And the branch choir sings twice a month, and we're gearing up for Dec. 21 at the moment.

And that's just the stuff we're performing. There's a whole lot of music going on all over the campus. From 1 every afternoon until about 9 in the evening there are groups performing in many of the buildings on the campus, all the way from the Church Office Bldg. and the Joseph Smith building, to the Visitor's Centers, to the library and the museum. So any time it gets quiet upstairs I just slip down to the lobby or the mezzanine and there will always be something going on.

We walked down Friday evening to look at the lights and could hardly see them for the crowds of people, mostly families, milling around. It was very cold, but very wonderful. I'll try to post a picture of my favorite scene -- the nativity scene in the middle of the reflecting pond, with the floating lights. There's something about it at night. I just love it and am always very moved by it.

The Tabernacle Choir is divine and they're doing all my favorite Christmas music. They use a lot of music by another great arranger (there is another great arranger besides Mack Wilberg, believe it or not). I always look forward to anything that has the name Arthur Harris on it -- he never disappoints. For this morning's broadcast in the Conference Center they had all the gorgeous decorations up and it was heavenly. We were sitting in the very tippy top row for the First Presidency Devotional tonight (every single seat in the house was full by the time the broadcast started. The picture is of the warmup before it started.

What a wonderful time of year this is. I never thought I could survive a Christmas away from family, but I'm managing okay so far. I have to fight the envy I feel for those missionaries who either go home or have families who come here, but I have to admit that being left to our own devices allows us to spend more time reflecting on how grateful we are for the "reason for the season." We are so grateful for our Savior and so anxious to do those things that he would have us do. I love my Savior, I love my companion, and I love my mission. I love my family so dearly and tenderly and wish only the best for them all and pray constantly for their welfare and well-being. I'm so proud of the kind of people they are. For all of those who support us and pray for us and wish us well, we thank you. We're doing fine and wouldn't be anywhere else -- at least at this moment!

'Tis the season!

Here are pictures of what we see every day, and what Bob has been up to in the library (I don't include my own research because it just doesn't seem to be happening for me). I love the pics of that lovely family and what they represent. Temple Square is absolutely beautiful. Bob hasn't begun to take pictures of the lighting yet, but it's spectacular. But I think my favorite sights are the biblical figures they have scattered around the Square; they're so reverent but so human, and bring me such peace. The Tab choir did all Christmas music for the broadcast this morning and I was in heaven -- my favorite music of all, and we'll get it all month long, not just from the Choir, but every day and every evening, in every venue on Temple Square, there are performances by some group or artist or other. I think every high school in the Wasatch valley has fielded a group, and there are several flute choirs, several mission choirs, some string groups, some Mexican groups, a bagpiper group -- a little bit of everything. Tomorrow afternoon at 3 I'm going to sneak down to the lobby and listen to a flute choir. What a great place to work!!

The shot of the microfilm is from an old German church record written in Latin. It's no wonder that Bob has to spend hours at a time when he looks at that particular microfilm. First he has to decipher it and then translate it.

And while I'm at it, I'll publish a picture of the continuing work they're doing across the street, with the helpful supervision of every staff member on the 3rd floor East in the Joseph Smith building. We're all doing a spectacular job. (Sorry about the photo placement. The pictures never go where I want them to and I don't know how to move them. But you get the drift.)

Hey -- I love you all!!!!!

Let's see . . . a title. Umm, how about "More thoughts on yet another Sabbath?"

Seems like I only have time to think "profound" thoughts on Sunday, and not much time then until after supper. It's fascinating to me how many different ways there are to pronounce things in English. Relief Society and Sunday School, although ostensibly taught by a teacher, tend to become group discussions. In our meetings this afternoon we heard the following accents, including the teacher (from Alabama) who has one of the deepest southern drawls I've ever heard: "Idaho Marmon," New Jersey, high English, low English, Scots, South American, Norwegian, Samoan, Hawaiian, Japanese, French, German, Australian, and New Zealand -- did I miss any? Probably! It's always interesting to hear, but still everyone's point of view remains the same. The Scots woman who spoke in sacrament meeting today and her Jewish/turned-Mormon husband spoke so very differently, both in style and approach, yet the solid core of the gospel was the same. The gentleman had a very interesting history -- there is not a trace of gentile blood anywhere in his ancestry, and he was riased in what is called a stetl (I think) and hadn't had much exposure to non-Jewish people until his family emigrated to England (which explains his very proper British accent). I wish he had been able to cover his whole conversion story because he had quite a spiritual experience as he was exposed to the gospel. He was very poised and proper, even when emotional, and a complete contrast to his darling little wife, who was as Scots as could be except that she was so cheerful and funny and uninhibited.

We've been following the home news -- so very glad that Greg and his family are safe in Anaheim, and that Amy and Matt now have the keys to their new home. All these happenings make me wish I could be there to share the various experiences with you. I'm always concerned about you all, but I don't obsessively worry as I have occasionally been prone to do. The reality of the Lord's blessings, that is to say my actual sure knowledge of them, allow me to feel substantial comfort regarding what's going on in my kids' lives. President Roberts promised us that our families would be blessed as we serve, and I feel very confident that they have been, even though I am well aware of the difficulties some of you have experienced since we left. Both my sweet husband and I have lived in the pit for a while (separately, needless to say), and are feeling unbelievably blessed and happy right now. I'm fairly convinced that there's nothing that can't be overcome, especially knowing what we know.

And along those same lines -- we just had a conversation with B0b's daughter in Texas, who has been supervising the repairmen in our home who are repairing the damage caused by a water leak. She had an opportunity to talk to one of them, who asked if he could possibly get a Book of Mormon somewhere. Christi knew right where to go for the sisters' stash of B of M's and DVD's, and fixed him right up. There were other things she mentioned which made us very grateful to be serving as we are, if it means blessings for our children.

She had other news as well -- the Frisco 4th ward is going to be split next Sunday. We'll be going home to a completely different ward, and will be cut separated from many friends, I'm sorry to say. We were sort of expecting it, but it was still jarring to hear. And exciting as well. But I fear that we will lose Bishop Platt and that will be very hard to bear. The only thing that could alleviate the angst would be if they let us be in the same ward with the Kovaches, but their ward isn't involved in the split, so I guess that's not going to happen for a while.

When I recover from the weekend I'll blog about it. In the meantime, love and kisses to all.

Thoughts on the Sabbath

I've been thinking about the Sabbath, and how our activities sometimes seem to belie the real meaning of the word, and yet at the same time prove its point. For active Mormons our "Day of Rest" can sometimes turn out to be the busiest day of the week. And yet there is a spiritual charge and renewal that comes from the sabbath day meetings that you can't find anywhere else. Today our day didn't have any "down time," or chance to rest until after we got home at 4:15. We were forced to stop while the pork roast did its thing in the oven. Our day started at 9 a.m., when we left for the tabernacle. That always, always sets us up for the entire rest of the day. It's like a preview peek into heaven, and today's broadcast was especially moving as it was celebrating Veteran's Day. We had time for a quick sandwich before going back to the JSMB for a sextet rehearsal, choir practice, and our 3-hour block of meetings. I got a new choir accompanist today and she gave the choir wings. We sang for sacrament meeting, and it was wonderful. The choir has grown so much bigger, and they've grown musically as well. It's such a privilege to stand as their conductor. They give me back so much. I will surely miss them when it's time to head back home. Fortunately, no matter where we are, the sabbath day stays the same and always gives back to us more than we invest in it. So even when it is sometimes exhausting, it's still a blessed day of rest.

A couple of links for you

Many thanks to my friend Linda Smith, who provided this link for me: http://www.simicommunitychristmas.com. I'm extremely interested in one of the performers in particular (Amy, natch!), and many who will be doing the various mini-concerts are friends and former colleagues of mine. It made me very nostalgic to read the bios and see the photos. Linda does amazing work and seems to thrive on having too much to do, as you can see by her blog: http://lamsingslink.blogspot.com. Frisco's was good last year, but I doubt if it could have come up to this standard. Go, Simi! I'm sorry to be missing out on all the fun, but we're in a good place to be in the audience for some beautiful Christmas concerts here, and I'm really looking forward to them.

I get so hungry for piano time that I snuck into the Training Zone this morning and played on their little upright piano for about an hour. Felt good!! I guess I'll be playing flute on a piece for the Elijah Choir Christmas concert, and I got to write it myself. It sounds pretty good over the arrangment I did for the Simi Valley Stake Choir a few years ago as part of a medley. So that will be my Christmas music jollies for this year. I can see by all the lights going up and being tested that it will be beautiful here during the Christmas season. Nevertheless, it will be our first holiday season without any family and will feel very strange indeed.

What an interesting day!

And what an interesting week, actually. Today may have been the highlight of the week, however, because after lunch we were invited to share an elevator car with none other than Russell M. Nelson, who is a perfectly lovely man. There was another familiar-looking gentleman with him, who was probably a GA, but whose name escapes me, along with their two wives. Of course, we are counselled to leave the GA's alone and not pester them, and I was hesitant to crowd in with my scooter anyway, but they insisted we come in, and he made very nice conversation with us until we got off, and thanked us for bringing our Texas smiles to the mission. We floated up to the 3rd floor.

It's been a week of reunions, of sorts. Two days ago we had lunch with Dick Bybee, an old friend from So Cal, who sang with us in both the Cambridge Singers and the So. Calif. Mormon Choir. He's living in Utah now and works at the COB 2 days a week. That was great! And today the Whites, the couple who trained us and whom we replaced, came up for a little visit and we all had lunch together and that was fun too.

As far as my job goes, I seem to spend as much time on music as on my regular duties, which duties tend to be "clumpy," meaning that I'll have a couple of extremely busy weeks and then a couple of weeks where I have nothing to do, so I spend a lot of time on my laptop. I'm doing so much in the way of transcription, transposing, and arranging that I almost feel as though they should give me the title Asst. Scribe of Music or something similar. It's nice to be useful, and I love doing it. I think it's really neat that after all my qualms about serving a mission, we should be sent to one where we both can use the talents we've been given to build the kingdom. It couldn't have worked out better. I love watching Bob at work -- today he took photos of 37 incoming missionaries as well as a group photo and it's pure enjoyment to watch him work with the people and get them to respond. He gets lovely shots and then makes them look even better afterwards. He'll be missed when he leaves.

We had a really good snowfall about 3 days ago but it's mostly gone now. The cold has stayed on, though, but so far we're handling it well. Bob is going to go to the DMV and pick up a Handicap placard for me so that on days when it is rainy or snowy we can use the garage at work. Doc Hansen gave us the form and it's all filled out and ready to turn in. Wish I could take it to Texas with me!

Life is good, and we're happy!!

I've been negligent

I can't believe I haven't posted any pictures of the destruction of the ZCMI complex. It's a subject of rapt interest in all the zones that have east-facing windows with a view of South Temple. I have a video, which I don't even know if I can embed here. The first part, of Dexter the T. Rex at work is pretty good, but then I began waving the camera around and talking to a friend, because I thought I had turned the camera off. So once the picture turns into the scooter handlebars you can quit watching. The other two are the way the place looked about the middle of last week, and the the way it looked after we came back from a day off. Dexter is really chewing up that building!

We had a lovely encounter earlier this week and it was a huge surprise and about as delightful as anything could possibly be. We bumped into Bob and Linda Little from Simi Valley, who had stopped off in SLC for some supplies before making a whirlwind visit to California and then returning to serve the remainder of their mission at the Nauvoo temple. They looked great and we were thrilled to see them. And then a couple days later I finally made contact with an old singing friend from California, Dick Bybee, who is working in the Church Office Building. He sang with me and my sons in both the Cambridge Singers and various church choirs. We're going to go to lunch next week and he can meet my dear husband. I'm looking forward to that!

As for the rest of the week -- we had 2 soup socials on Monday, when it was still quite warm outside, and we went to a concert at the tabernacle last night, when it was finally beginning to turn nippy. Today it rained, so perhaps winter is here to stay. I haven't had much to do at work and so have been getting a lot of music projects done. Most of it is for other people, but some of it is for me, me, me.

Here goes with the pictures. Wish me luck!

Sorry, but I can't get the video to load. Too bad. I keep hoping that Dexter doesn't find Wall-E.