Here's the rest of the story of my adventures in Nauvoo this summer...
Okay, so after a week of rehearsals and learning, we had a day of rest on Sunday July 4th. At least the family cast did anyway. The Core Cast had to perform "Our Story Goes On" that night, and I went, but I forgot my camera. Oh well. But I also learned some more powerful, and somewhat painful, lessons that day.
I went to sacrament meeting at the Nauvoo 1st ward Sunday morning, and had made plans to meet up with our core cast member who played Scotsman Robert Laird. "Pseudo-Scotsman" and I sat together during sacrament meeting, and it was a fast and testimony meeting too. Someone from the ward got up to bear his testimony and he quoted Doctrine and Covenants 122:9 "Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less." It was in that moment that I finally understood; Mom's time on earth had been done and the cancer that she got was the means to take her home. If it hadn't been the cancer, it would've been something else. Yes, I was sad, but then I remembered that I can do her temple work, finish what she started since she was a baptized member of the Church. I look forward to doing that for her.
After sacrament meeting, I went home and slept for hours. I couldn't believe how exhausted I was. But it was a good exhaustion. Once upon a time, my other friend from the pageant, Parley Pratt #1 told me I'd understand what "Nauvoo exhausted" was. Boy, was he right!
After my long nap, I went to "Our Story Goes On". Because of where the house I was staying was, it was easy for me to walk to the old City of Joseph stage where it was being held. It was a moving, and almost painful, experience. During the show, the women in the core cast sang a beautiful redition of Martina McBride's song "In My Daughter's Eyes". Even typing about it makes me want to cry. I was sitting alone in the audience, tears streaming down my cheeks, because it was making me think of Mom, and wondering if she knew that I loved her, if she saw it in my eyes. There was another "scene" where it dealt with the death of the mother, and I started crying again. I was beating myself up because I didn't bring any tissues.
After the performance, Charly, one of the core cast gals, and who just happens to be a good friend to me, came up the rows of chairs and just gave me a hug. I asked, "How did you know I needed one?" She didn't say much, except to say that she loved me and that I was a wonderful woman, and a good person.
The next week was performances and during the days, we had free time. So, I took advantage of that and went to the temple twice, did some studying. I also went to the Visitor's Center to see the Joseph Smith movie. It's one of my favorites and I'm looking forward to when it comes out in DVD.
The last night was quite bittersweet. I had loved every second of being in the pageant. I had come away with several new friends and was wrapped in a cocoon of love that I didn't want to leave. But it was time for me to go home and start taking everything I had learned home and apply it to my life.
Now, we have one man to thank for my being in the pageant. That would be Paul Walstad, aka "Parley" 1. He used to play Parley Pratt, until this summer when Ray Robinson was called to take a job in Utah, as Director of Musical and Cultural Arts for the Church. So Paul was called to be director of the pageant, and Paul Cartwright played Parley this summer. :) Anyway, for the past three years, Paul, or Wally, had been wanting me to apply for the family cast. Every time I'd go to the pageant since 2007, he'd ask me to apply for the next summer's pageant family cast. When I finally finished the process (right before Mom died), I got in.
So, the last night, I went up to him and I said, "Thank you for not giving up on me."
He replied, "Thank you for not giving up on us." Meaning the pageant and the gang, and the work that needed to be done.
I will close this blog entry with the statement that we recited at our cast meetings before our performances, because most importantly we were doing missionary work.
"The standard of truth has been erected: No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done."
Slan go foill...
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