Pageant was like a 2.5 week trip to Zion, but that doesn’t mean it was easy. Practicing and rehearsing in the blazing sun for five to six hours wasn’t easy. Staying up till 1am every night wasn’t easy… after performances there was a devotional, a clean up action in the house (the field where the chairs were set up), then a munch and mingle at Zion’s camp. All good and fun, but it would get late. It wasn’t easy to camp for the whole time… we lived in three tents and when it rained… well… we got wet. But without the trials, we wouldn’t have experienced the miracles. We had a lot of rain miracles, for example. It would rain while we were out proselyting right before the show, then stop before it began.
We spent a lot of time in our cast teams, groups of about 15 kids our age w/ 4 adults to make sure we didn’t tear down the camp or anything. I got to know so many amazing people in my team… Noelle, Gian, Spencer, Geordie, Annie, Sarah, Holly, Thomas, Danni, Clarissa, Jesssica, Jordan and Meg were all a part of my daily life. Meg became my second sister. We were companions every night when we went out to talk to the people who had come to watch the pageant. She’s really amazing… full of fun and the nicest person ever! Our leaders were great too… Rodger could make us all laugh, especially with his nerd impressions. Claudia did lots of crafts with us, and as a goodbye gift made us all a pillowcase with our favorite scripture on it. Wendy and her husband Michael were from Canada; I loved their accents and Wendy did all the worrying our moms weren’t there to do for us.
Our activates ranged from making a piñata, bracelets and little wooden boxes to swimming in a lake to pulling weeds at the Palmyra library as a service project. Once we had a YSA water activity where we tried to fill a holey pipe with water, catapult a water ball to hit a styrofoam head mounted on a stick, play water balloon volley ball with towels, fill a bucket of water using a ball as a sponge, eat ice cream Sundays and more.
Our cast teams also visited the church sites in the area like the sacred grove, the printing shop where the first Books of Mormon were printed and others. My favorite one was the sacred grove... Meg and I spent some time wandering down the well-kept paths, soaking in the golden peace we found there. I could easily see why Joseph had chosen that wood as I felt the light breeze whispering through the brush and felt the life of the forest flowing in, around, and through me. Sitting on one of the many benches near the path we pulled out our scriptures and reread the account of Joseph Smith’s first vision. It was beautiful.
In addition to cast team life, we naturally had rehearsals. My whole family got some interesting parts, and we were all wicked except John. My mom was a Doynne in Jerusalem who kicks Lehi out of the city with my dad who played a Judean prince. Laura was a ceremonial dancer in the same scene. I was a Tableau of Peace and War Lamanite Warrior Dancer which was awesome because I got to dance around a campfire and participate in the tsunami – where all the Lamanites jump down the stages and wipe the Nephites out. Daniel was a Lamanite warrior, Aaron was a slave and a Lamanite warrior as well, and John was a converted child in Alma’s scene. Our costumes were awesome, and you really have to see the pictures to know what I mean: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=47991&l=791da&id=586571018
My black mullet and Dad’s black curly beard were definitely amazing touches.
One of the best parts was the scene where Christ comes to visit the Nephites and the Lamanites. It’s the climax of the pageant and the only scene where the entire cast (just over 700 people) is on stage. It contains the whole reason for the pageant: to help people come unto Christ. Even though it’s only an actor portraying Christ, the spirit was so strong. As I listened to the words he spoke, I tried to think how I would feel when I someday see my Savior face to face. My testimony of Christ grew so much... I know that He loves us, and that He loved us so much that He visited the people in the Americas so that we would have a second witness of Him and receive clearer guidance from Him. There were two things Christ said that really struck me; first his invitation to “Arise, and come forth unto me.” We need to seek Him before He can step in and carry our burdens, and often that means taking a step into the dark with faith that His light will follow. Second was that he is “the God of the whole earth”. That just sends chills down my spine. It means he knows, understands and loves each one of us... and because we’re so different from one another and so weak (we all make mistakes), his love for us must be boundless and perfect.
I could feel that love so strongly. I felt it every time when we went to talk to people before the pageant. That was definitely my favorite part of it all. Every evening my companion Meg and I would say a fervent prayer that we would be led to talk to the right people, that we would have the spirit with us and feel a love for those we were teaching, give a little spiritual thought for each other, and go to testify of Christ. And it was amazing. As we opened our mouths words spilled out. Powerful ones. And I wasn’t making them powerful. The spirit was testifying with us that what we were saying was true. One evening we stumbled on an old lady who spoke German, and I was there to bear my testimony to her in her native language. We spoke with several non-members… one of them was an Asian reporter from Canada. The spirit was amazing. We knew he could feel it too as we testified of Christ, of the Book of Mormon, and of what we knew to be true.
Every single evening we had one of those very special experiences. I learned how to better recognize the spirit as we wandered through the crowds; I learned how the spirit communicates with me. My testimony of Christ grew a thousand fold as I testified of His love, mercy and atonement. The Book of Mormon is such a powerful tool! We would read one or two verses to those we talked to before we testified of the truth. Each night when we gathered to our flags for the processional the spirit testified again that we had done what we had been sent to do. If that's what a mission is like, I can't wait!
