Sweet Birds Singing: HCP Second Day

It has been fun practicing the Harvest scene. Even though the dance is incredibly easy it’s fun to do and I work with a planting tool to pretend I’m planting seeds in the new world. Stephanie and I work with an older woman named Lavona who is a hoot. She and her husband recently returned from a mission to Indonesia. She has 64 grandchildren and many great grandchildren. Even though her husband just died she has always wanted to be in the pageant so she applied and she is such a trooper! She is lively and so much fun. She takes TONS of pictures of absolutely everything to blog it for her family.

One funny thing about Saturday’s practice is that we practiced on the “Cyber Stage” which is an area of the grass where the simulated stage is spray painted on the grass. I sat on the white spray painted area (which certainly looked completely dry) so I had splotches of white all over my capris the rest of the day. This reminded me of my brother Steve’s experience in pageant when he was a young boy helping to paint the benches held up by cinder blocks. They were to paint the wooden boards green and could sit down on the unpainted ones as they went along. He accidently sat on a freshly painted one and had a green stripe on the backside of his cut off shorts the rest of the day.

Primary has been very fun! We made cool bead animals. Lily made a lady bug but others made snakes, lizards, dragonflies, and bees. I heard they have Elders and Sister bead patterns in the craft office so Becky Nielsen and I are anxious to find the patterns for these. Some of the kids like Taryn and Chloe are SO great at doing them—they just fly through. They have completed every pattern.

We hiked to the top of the hill with the kids. The kids wanted to roll down to the bottom but it was a no go. Bro. Bagley is SO wild with the kids. He lets them steal his hat and screams and rough houses with them. It’s way over the top for me but the primary presidency seems to love letting the kids get their wiggles out. We had some spiritual moments too with a lesson on Nephi and the brass plates. The kids made their own brass plates with these metal sheets they engraved with an overlay pattern of a liahona, sword, title of liberty, and bow and arrow they etched with a nail.

There are a few things topsy turvy in the casting this year. In Emma’s cast team of 17 year olds are some major roles such as Court Alma and Hill Moroni. These are roles usually filled by men in their 40s so it is so unusual for boys to be playing these huge parts. The directors just felt led by the spirit to choose them. But the largest mix up of all is in the casting of the New World Savior. Stephanie’s husband Chad Hawkins has been cast in this role. Chad played Joseph Smith the last time their family came to pageant in 2009. They have applied to come back to pageant every single year since then but have not been accepted. They have been very disappointed but patient in just feeling they would get back in when it was meant to be. In casting this year the directors asked him to be Joseph Smith again but he reminded them he had played this role before. They conferred for a while and came back to him. They said it was unusual but they felt strongly that he should portray the Savior. The reason they wanted to choose him was that he was “never out of character.” What I believe they meant by this was that he always had the spirit with him. As far as I’m aware this role has always gone to either a recently returned missionary or one just about to leave.

Until last year the descending Savior would be suspended from wires between two light towers and lowered during the descension scene but last year there was a new extension system installed where he stands on a small square and is extended vertically into the air. This is much safer—especially during windy conditions. Stephanie and I were able to watch Chad do this for the first time yesterday. Afterwards he said that it wasn’t scary to go up on the small square that is barely big enough for his feet but that during performances he will be holding the black cape in front of his face to block his white robes so a member of the work crew will be guiding his feet onto the square. In fact, they will be guiding him up the stairs as well. Psychologically it will be difficult to be trusting that an 18 year old is getting your feet in just the right place in the pitch black before you are jettisoned into the air. He is excited to try it with the cape but probably won’t be able to until Tuesday. He will do such a great job in this role. He is humble and kind and has a great presence.

This morning we went to the Sacred Grove. We were all alone there for 45 minutes or so and only on our way out did a few others trickle in. There were, however, many bees humming—a little too close to our faces. Still it was a wonderful and peaceful experience. We have an ornithologist on our cast team so I’m hoping we can go there with the primary and have him teach us which birds are singing.