Pageant Week
Dear family
Sorry we're late, but last week was hectic. Sunday we had Cathy and John here for Church. John headed for Vermont after the meetings, but all of the the Hicken family came back to our house and played games that night. Last night we moved back to Zion's Camp and had no internet. So here we are after getting a new internet connection (which is not fast).
We worked seven temple shifts in five days before spending Friday night, Saturday and Sunday with John and Cathy's families. Wish you all could have been here, too.
Monday was exceptionally busy in baptistry, I worked there all day and we had numerous family groups and more than 130 patrons baptized. For a small font area, that is as busy as it can get. for for session, 8, 10, 12 and 2. Afterward we had to do all the cleaning there and some of the other areas of the Temple since the cleaning crew doesn't come in during Pageant week and with the crowds it is busier than normal.
At night we had FHE with Jerry Artsinger
who was Pageant director after 1988 when we began the current script. His theme was 'All the dirt on the Hill Cumorah'. He was involved for years before the script changed and so was his wife. They are theater professionals, she in costume design and he as a director and professor in Rochester.
The old Pageant did not have a story line, just vignettes or skits. The brethren felt it was focused on the Lamanites, was too disjointed and did not focus on the Savior enough. In 1988 after Pageant they asked Orson Scott Card to write a new one based on Nephite point of view, carry and story line and our Testimony of Christ. He did by March of '88 with four months until Pageant in July. They needed a new set and no one was available to build one among the professionals, they are out a year most of the time. It was looking like the old script might be used one more time until the old sets all mysteriously burned up. (Jerry really didn't want to do the old script another time.)
However, Morton Thiokol, who built the Challenger space craft that blew up in 1987, wasn't doing anything in Brigham City in 1988 so they built the set. It was delivered barely in time, but it made it. Miracle #1. The music contract was not let until March of '88, but Crawford Gates had written it in the expectation he would be asked, so it was ready. Miracle #2.
The Tabernacle Choir and Utah Symphony, a union operation, had only three days in the Tabernacle to record the 1 1/2 hours of music. Then President Marion G Romney died and there went one day. Then, if they were recording during a union break, the shop steward blew a whistle, ruining the sound so they had to do it again. At the end of the second day they had barely enough time to play the last number. It was a good track and then the steward blew his whistle, just as they ended. Miracle #3.
Sister Artsinger needed leather for costumes, but had never purchased any before. The leather sellers in the theater district in New York City only deal with people they know or are referred, neither of which the Artsingers qualified for. As they walked down, ringing buttons and saying into little grates that they were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and represented the Hill Cumorah Pageant, one after another old them 'NO'. One man asked if they were the Mormons, and when they said yes he invited them in, Miracle #4, and helped them understand how to get the most from a cowhide. Miracle #5. They later asked why he was so helpful. He explained that after Pearl Harbor he joined up with his friends and was sent to Hill AFB. He was terrified being so far from Brooklyn and among Mormons. But he soon discovered that when he visited these homes with his friends that Mormon mothers and Jewish mothers were the same, they fed you, a lot. Then he was in North Africa while they were bombing Italy. It was before Passover and they needed unleavened bread but couldn't get any. One night a Captain Robinson came and got him and flew him to Tel Aviv braving Nazi night fighters to get them unleavened bread. When they got back he explained that as a Mormon he understood sacred things, which was why Stan, 45 years later, was so willing to help a sacred Pageant. Miracle #6 was seeing how far ahead the Lord prepared for this pageant. And the leather costumes last 30 years longer than nougahide. Miracle #7
Last was casting. A professional show can take a year to assign parts, student productions weeks, they had half a day for 750 parts. Jerry was really nervous until he had the impression to cast a certain young man for Joseph Smith and then an assistant director volunteered the same person. Jerry understood then that it was the Lord's show and he just had to work on the law of two or three witnesses and everything would be okay. And it was. Miracle #8
One year they forgot to cast young Moroni and old Mormon. When they realized this they thought they would have to start all over since these were central characters. he walked out of the meeting with the assistant directors and so two men, a father and son, he did not recognize and asked what their parts were. They apologized but they were two days late and hadn't been cast. To Jerry they were perfect for the parts he needed. He then found out that two years previous the son had felt he would be Moroni. Miracle #9. The Lord knows what he wants, we just need to help.
There was more, but that is enough for now.
Lots of good things on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (I did baptistry again) and Friday. Saturday I took Joe and Jackson with a girl from our Sunday School class for baptisms.
Before that we went to the south line and saw the stone fence built by the Smiths. It is high craftsmanship and took lots (and lots), of work. This is comparison wall of rock.
We took the kids up the Hill Cumorah and showed them the old monument.
After that we went to Fayette and watched the Priesthood Restoration film. Later we went to a fun Amish store for lunch and I held seats for the Pageant for everyone. This is the stage
I testified to several people of the miracles surrounding the Pageant just as I have you.
Here is the old boundary stones between the Smith rented farm and the Alvin Smith farm.
At the Sacred Grove after Church I ran into cousin Pat Rose who was touched to turn left and not right and run into us. Another coincidence. Or miracle.
This is too long already, but I love you all.
Grandad
Sorry we're late, but last week was hectic. Sunday we had Cathy and John here for Church. John headed for Vermont after the meetings, but all of the the Hicken family came back to our house and played games that night. Last night we moved back to Zion's Camp and had no internet. So here we are after getting a new internet connection (which is not fast).
We worked seven temple shifts in five days before spending Friday night, Saturday and Sunday with John and Cathy's families. Wish you all could have been here, too.
Monday was exceptionally busy in baptistry, I worked there all day and we had numerous family groups and more than 130 patrons baptized. For a small font area, that is as busy as it can get. for for session, 8, 10, 12 and 2. Afterward we had to do all the cleaning there and some of the other areas of the Temple since the cleaning crew doesn't come in during Pageant week and with the crowds it is busier than normal.
At night we had FHE with Jerry Artsinger
The old Pageant did not have a story line, just vignettes or skits. The brethren felt it was focused on the Lamanites, was too disjointed and did not focus on the Savior enough. In 1988 after Pageant they asked Orson Scott Card to write a new one based on Nephite point of view, carry and story line and our Testimony of Christ. He did by March of '88 with four months until Pageant in July. They needed a new set and no one was available to build one among the professionals, they are out a year most of the time. It was looking like the old script might be used one more time until the old sets all mysteriously burned up. (Jerry really didn't want to do the old script another time.)
However, Morton Thiokol, who built the Challenger space craft that blew up in 1987, wasn't doing anything in Brigham City in 1988 so they built the set. It was delivered barely in time, but it made it. Miracle #1. The music contract was not let until March of '88, but Crawford Gates had written it in the expectation he would be asked, so it was ready. Miracle #2.
The Tabernacle Choir and Utah Symphony, a union operation, had only three days in the Tabernacle to record the 1 1/2 hours of music. Then President Marion G Romney died and there went one day. Then, if they were recording during a union break, the shop steward blew a whistle, ruining the sound so they had to do it again. At the end of the second day they had barely enough time to play the last number. It was a good track and then the steward blew his whistle, just as they ended. Miracle #3.
Sister Artsinger needed leather for costumes, but had never purchased any before. The leather sellers in the theater district in New York City only deal with people they know or are referred, neither of which the Artsingers qualified for. As they walked down, ringing buttons and saying into little grates that they were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and represented the Hill Cumorah Pageant, one after another old them 'NO'. One man asked if they were the Mormons, and when they said yes he invited them in, Miracle #4, and helped them understand how to get the most from a cowhide. Miracle #5. They later asked why he was so helpful. He explained that after Pearl Harbor he joined up with his friends and was sent to Hill AFB. He was terrified being so far from Brooklyn and among Mormons. But he soon discovered that when he visited these homes with his friends that Mormon mothers and Jewish mothers were the same, they fed you, a lot. Then he was in North Africa while they were bombing Italy. It was before Passover and they needed unleavened bread but couldn't get any. One night a Captain Robinson came and got him and flew him to Tel Aviv braving Nazi night fighters to get them unleavened bread. When they got back he explained that as a Mormon he understood sacred things, which was why Stan, 45 years later, was so willing to help a sacred Pageant. Miracle #6 was seeing how far ahead the Lord prepared for this pageant. And the leather costumes last 30 years longer than nougahide. Miracle #7
Last was casting. A professional show can take a year to assign parts, student productions weeks, they had half a day for 750 parts. Jerry was really nervous until he had the impression to cast a certain young man for Joseph Smith and then an assistant director volunteered the same person. Jerry understood then that it was the Lord's show and he just had to work on the law of two or three witnesses and everything would be okay. And it was. Miracle #8
One year they forgot to cast young Moroni and old Mormon. When they realized this they thought they would have to start all over since these were central characters. he walked out of the meeting with the assistant directors and so two men, a father and son, he did not recognize and asked what their parts were. They apologized but they were two days late and hadn't been cast. To Jerry they were perfect for the parts he needed. He then found out that two years previous the son had felt he would be Moroni. Miracle #9. The Lord knows what he wants, we just need to help.
There was more, but that is enough for now.
Lots of good things on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (I did baptistry again) and Friday. Saturday I took Joe and Jackson with a girl from our Sunday School class for baptisms.
After that we went to Fayette and watched the Priesthood Restoration film. Later we went to a fun Amish store for lunch and I held seats for the Pageant for everyone. This is the stage
Here is the old boundary stones between the Smith rented farm and the Alvin Smith farm.
This is too long already, but I love you all.
Grandad
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