HI!!!
Hello Brothers and Sisters!! How was your week?! Mine was pretty crazy great as you are about to find out!
This week was FULL of late nights, so many of these entries from this week will be short, but hopefully entertaining! Most of this was written today, so hopefully you all enjoy!
Monday- Today was just a short day of rehearsal, but it still felt like a full day! We had a special guest come into rehearsal. His name is Brother Warner. When the Nauvoo Pageant was first put on in 2005 he was the director. Now one thing you need to know about Brother Warner is that he is AWESOME!! He taught us so much, and the Spirit he brought with him was PROFOUND! I couldn't believe how gifted he was, and just how in tune with the Spirit he was! It was like learning at the feet of an apostle almost! I mean, he is a former member of the Seventy (which in our Church, the Seventy are really awesome leaders! Like the Seventy from Christ's time!) After he left, we worked hard on the British Pageant! I get to learn a song in Welsh for that show, and it is SO COOL to sing it! Fun fact, Welsh people are very proud of their singing voices. Even more fun fact, the Welsh members of the Church were the ones that started up the Tabernacle Choir all those years ago! How awesome is it that I get to tell of their heritage! Super fun! At the end of the day the whole cast went up to Bountiful (a city in Utah) to the Director of Experiences house for some family barbeque! First off, his house was GORGEOUS!! AND! He literally-I-kid-you-not-I-am-being-dead-serious-no-joke lives ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE BOUNTIFUL TEMPLE! Like you go into his front yard and the temple grounds are literally twenty feet away from the lawn. HOW COOL IS THAT! My DREAM HOUSE! Anyway! We had a good time there, and learned a lot more about my new friends! As we were leaving though it was kind of scary as there were a bunch of police cars around and they kept very quietly but sternly telling people to go inside their houses. Apparently there was someone bad around and they were taking precautions. Very scary, but I didn’t feel too worried! The Spirit wasn’t bugging me at all, so we just got in the car and drove away! On the way home, one of my friends and I were riding with a former vocal professor of Brigham Young University who is SO SMART and she showed us some really awesome music she kind of helped create! It was mesmerizing how beautiful it was! What a great day!
Tuesday- Today was nice and busy, but Spiritually uplifting! I believe I mentioned earlier that one of my friends had a tragedy in their family recently, and because of this he had to go home for a week to be with his family. Due to this, we were short one actor who had to play an important role! Luckily the director's son was able to step in and help us out! And he did SO WELL! It was honestly a miracle that he was able to memorize all those scripts as he had to learn three shows in the space of a few hours! He is a great man, and we will miss the spirit he brought with him! At the end of the day one of my friends asked me for a blessing, and I was having a weird day too, so I asked for one in return. It was a really special experience honestly!
Wednesday- What a great day! First off, some of us went as a cast to a building just across the street from the Conference Center (where we have been for the last week and a half) called the Relief Society building! It is the headquarters for the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! Just walking around in there felt SO amazing! We had a rehearsal there for a show in which many of us are representing the Apostles of the past. One of the brethren in the cast pointed out that we had to be careful as to how we portrayed these great men, because modern day Apostles walk around that very building every. Single. Day. It was truly humbling to be reminded of who we are supposed to be as we act. It is quite unlike any experience I have ever had as a performer! After our rehearsal, my friend and I went looking for a bathroom. We were on the top floor of the Relief Society building, and we weren’t too surprised to relaie we could not find a mens bathroom anywhere. We didn’t know what to do! Luckily, one of the production team came and stood outside of the door of one of the women's bathrooms so my friend and I could go in real fast! We of course took a picture hahah! So yea, cross that off of my list of things-I-didn’t-know-I-wanted-to-do-but-now-that-I-did-them-it's-fantastic! After that, it was back to work! (we sent the mirror selfie into the cast groupchat and got a lot of really funny reactions haha!) We had our very first performance of the Nauvoo Pageant tonight! We put on the show for our friends and family in the Conference Center Theatre, and it was SO AWESOME to perform again!
Thursday- Today was our last day of rehearsals before leaving for Nauvoo! It also was the night we performed the British Pageant for friends and family! My day started earlier than it had the last week and a half as I had to be in Salt Lake by 7:40. We were to perform Go Ye Into All the World for the experiences board for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! We performed in the Relief Society building on Temple Square! It was such a wonderful performance! You see, most of the actors in Go Ye are male, as the story is primarily out the early missionaries of the Church, who were Apostles. However, right before we performed, the Sisters in the cast also do a special little play (called a vignette) about the formation of the Relief Society. It is simply wonderful to watch! I cannot even express the magnitude of the Spirit you feel as you watch that show! I had the privilege of sitting in the audience to watch this particular performance, and was absolutely sobbing at the end. Most of us were actually. There were even a few times where the actresses would have to pause and breathe because of how powerful the Spirit was in that room. The Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is an elect organization, and I know that its formation was directed by God! After that special showing, we had breakfast in the Relief Society building, and even got to go on a mini tour! OH!! And remember how yesterday my buddy and I couldn’t find a mens bathroom?? Yea so it turns out we just had to walk about 6 yards down the hallway to find one hahah! Oops! Fun story though! One of my friends gave me a treat today because I keep buying Skittles from the vending machine in the tunnels. I mean, like every day I am buying Skittles and passing them out! Well, she gave me a bag of FREEZE DRIED SKITTLES!! Yep, you read that right! Freeze dried Skittles! And they are AWESOME!!! Since they are freeze dried they are all crunchy and don’t stick to your teeth! It’s super interesting and I love them! Since it was our last day rehearsing in Salt Lake, I realized I had missed a really special opportunity to walk around and look at all the art and exhibits in the Conference Center on my lunch break! Well, it was my last lunch break, so I left at lunch with my sandwich and went for a stroll! I met some really great people, and many of them would stop to ask me questions since I was wearing my missionary badge! Sister Missionaries are tour guides in the Conference Center, so I was quite flattered that people thought I was as knowledgeable as a Sister Missionary! Luckily, I knew the answers to what they were asking! SUPER GREAT STORY! So as I am walking around, this one Sister Missionary comes up to me and goes, “uh, I think I am on your email list”. And I just stood there shocked because she TOTALLY WAS!!! We both basically said, “who even are you by the way? How do we know each other?” And it was hilarious! Basically I need to find out who she is sometime! Small world in the Church though right?! Anyway, we performed the British Pageant for our audience of friends and family tonight, and some of my family members showed up! It was great to have them there and to see them! I LOVE performing for the people that I love!
Friday- So today was a little different. Since we didn’t have rehearsal anymore, some of us were going to go up to Bountiful Utah to go to the temple with one of our cast members who was going through the temple for the first time! I was a little nervous though because I wasn’t going to be able to sleep for very long, yet in the morning my ride called me and said “hey man, I gotta sleep some more, so I won’t be going… sorry”. I told him that was NOT a problem, and promptly rolled over to go back to bed! A bit later my cousin called me because he locked himself out of the house, but aside from those two interruptions I slept for ELEVEN HOURS! And did I need it! After I got up I played some games with my cousins and uncle, and we were up way late into the night! We played Ticket to Ride, Cover Your Assets, and Risk! Unfortunately, because I slept for so long, I wasn’t too sleepy when it was time for bed. Then on top of this, I started to feel a sore throat coming on. Which is not good. But! I have a few days to recover before we get to Nauvoo!
Saturday- So on this day I basically got a two hour nap before I got up to go to the Provo City Center Temple with some friends. My voice was a little crackly, but not too bad. After the temple, we got some pizza and ice cream, and just visited together! I then went home and played even more games with my cousins! Afterward we went shopping for some things I would need in Nauvoo, like bug spray and sunscreen because I forgot to get them in Tucson, and I was really feeling tired. So I went for what was supposed to be a twenty minute nap, and turned out to be a two hour nap. At this point my voice was really bad, and I decided that on Sunday I would go on what is called “vocal rest”. That basically means not talking in order to let your throat heal. After my nap, we played more games again, and I went to bed trying to take measures to let my voice heal. We made some deep fried Oreos, and I think that must be the cure!
Sunday- This morning, I went to church with my uncle and cousin, and then went straight home for another nap. My voice seems kind of alright, but my throat is not too great. I’ll be alright though! Just need some rest and water! After that nap, I started writing this email! I can almost guarantee that we will be playing games tonight haha!!
Well, next week I will hopefully do better at my daily entries here so that I will have some better stories to tell! Of course, before I go I would like to share a scripture with you all! It really helps me feel like everything is going to be alright in my life! It is from the Book of Mormon, and it is in 1 Nephi 11 verse 17. It says, “I know that [God] loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things”. This verse is a great reminder that at the end of the day, God loves us, but if that is all we know, it's okay! So Brothers and Sisters, I would like to testify that I know that God loves you personally. He cares for you. And no one else could ever love you as deeply, and as much as He does. I know that's hard to believe sometimes, but it's true my friends. I love you too!
Much love,
Elder Taylor
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