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| Monday, May 20, 2013 |
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North Texas. The talks were all designed to convince us that even converts of a few weeks are heirs to the pioneer legacy. All of the speakers had pioneer ancestry. I missed most of the details, due to pre-existing calling assignments being carried out during the meeting. (Plus, nowhere to sit…) |
East Tennessee. No ward activity, and no mention of it in sacrament meeting. I heard there was a youth fireside that touched on it, though. |
Missouri. Sat at home healing from a bad rope burn. Sounds pretty fitting as I know of nothing pioneer-related regarding my ancestry. Been told that the Spirit was uncommonly strong from the pews though; so there might have been a mention or two from the seemingly large Utah based population in the ward. |
san diego. stake activity on saturday, complete with rope-making, hatchet-throwing, woofem-making fun. hot dog dinner served, each ward takes on an activity. no horse or carriage rides this year, but the kids still loved it. no mention at all in sacrament meeting and no pioneer songs, either. :( I’m a convert, but adore the history of the pioneers and can’t sing “come, come, ye saints” enough. |
1. queuno – I don’t like those talks that try to convince me that I too am a pioneer. 2. Blue – are there many Utahns there? 3. NewlyHousewife – rope burn? Dare I ask how you got a rope burn that bad? 4. makakona – wow that is one good activity |
A couple of good talks in sacrament meeting. A string quartet (two violins, cello, and bass for extra cool) played gathering to Zion tunes for prelude and Come Come Ye Saints for closing with a soloist on 1st verse, congregation and organ coming in for 2nd and 3rd, soloist again on 4th (“and should we die”) and congregation coming back in for final chorus (“oh how we’ll make this chorus swell”). It was nice throughout. I had the lesson in priesthood, and began by reminding everyone that the day marked the occasion that those settlers of what would become a great city arrived at their destination and disembarked from their canoes. Yes, canoes. It was on July 24, 1701, that Cadillac arrived at Detroit—no, not the Cadillac that would arrive in Detroit two centuries later—Antoine Cadillac leading up a band of 51 voyageurs. More on that at “Fatti Maschii Parole Femine” |
Our Washington ward had a pioneer luau on Saturday, which looked a lot like a potluck lunch. What to wear? Bonnets with leis? I guess that was an improvement, because for the last 3 or 4 years, Pioneer Day has been ignored. It was ignored this time, too, except for a 1 minute talk by the bishop, concluded with “that’s enough of that, let’s pray so we can dig in.” Our ward’s not great about celebrating. The leaders ignored Mother’s Day, then tried to backpedal by handing out treats a week late. Father’s Day talks were on fasting. Christmas carols are limited to the week before Christmas, and patriotic hymns are just never never sung. Sigh. |
The dog’s leash. He likes to run around a lot before doing his business. I just happen to be stupid enough to step outside when this was going on. |
Central Indiana – Wasn’t even mentioned. The speakers were all given the topic of “the gospel” and they each did a fantastic job. One of the better Sundays I’ve had in a while. |
Adding to my comment above, Primary children took turns “fleeing” out the window of the Primary room to push a handcart around a bit. Nice to have windows that can really open. This was in Maryland. |
6. John Mansfield – Bass – now that is cool. I also did not know about Detroit… 7. deb – Pioneer luau – now that is a nice twist on things. Sounds like your ward is a bit lame… 8. NewlyHousewife – got it. Not as crazy as I was thinking. I figured you were out roping cows or horses and one of them got away from you… 9. Mephibosheth – good meetings are always a blessing 10. John Mansfield – that is interesting – I bet the kids loved it |
I’m in Massachusetts and our ward had a ward social the day before that wasn’t pioneer-related at all (as far as I know; I wasn’t able to attend). The Ward Council planned it about two weeks before and tried to keep it simple. I think it was to placate the desire for a Pioneer Day activity (our ward members don’t seem to be too excited about pioneers). Sunday’s meeting involved a few pioneer-type songs and we sang Come, Come Ye Saints in RS. But the talks had nothing to do with the holiday. It’s a shame… When I was a kid, we would dress up in bonnets, have hand-cart races, churn butter, and build a campfire to celebrate. I have no pioneer heritage of my own and my parents are both converts, but so were the pioneers! |
No activity in our ward here in the East, which surprised me, given the high number of Utah transplants in our area. |
13. Paroled from the Primary Presidency – bonnets? Wow, that is a bit much for me. 14. kim – Sort of the low end of the celebration spectrum |
There was a parade in Enoch Saturday and one in Cedar City Monday (Enoch’s next to Cedar, a tiny town; hence, a tiny parade). I didn’t make church but I’m pretty they sang “Come, Come Ye Saints.” I wish we could sing that song faster. When I led the music, I made the organists play all songs faster. |
Annegb, I was going to write about it later, but our chorister last Sunday, besides being a good musician, is 1) eighteen years old, and 2) ran the mile at the state track meet a couple months ago in under four and a half minutes. It took concentration for me singing in the congregation to keep up with him. A couple times I slipped, had to pick myself back up, and find a place to jump back in with him. It was a great way to sing. |
15-16, I have both sides of that experience of a slow hymn. Often when I feel a hymn is dragging, I notice it’s because I’m not actually focusing on the words, and thinking about them. Some of my favorite hymns, when they are slowly played, it’s like the words are slowly poured over my mind and I can ponder and think about the various layers of meaning the hymn has. I’ve noticed when I rush through a hymn at a fast, enjoyable pace I have less change to think about the hymn and experience the meaning of the words, as opposed to just experiencing a beautiful composition of words and music. I’ve equally noticed a lot of slowly played hymns where I’m thinking, “Who in the world picked this hymn? I’ve never even heard this hymn before?” and occaisonally, I’ll try to focus on the words and find some great meaning out of it. If the hymn was played quickly in this instance, it would be all I could do to parrot the words out of my mouth without having them distill upon my soul so to speak. So it would seem in all but a few cases of the most well known songs, pick your poins: you can either have music with words that you experience, but you have to be in the right mindset and paying attention and thus it becomes beautiful to you, or you can have music which is beautiful to sing and be a part of and the experience of the meaning is lost unless you’re very familiar with the hymn. |
pick your poins |
#8, I call B.S. when I was in high school, some boy or girl came to school every day with a “rope burn” and it was always on their upper shoulders or side of their neck. So we know you were actually recovering from a pioneer day hickey! |
No activity in our ward here in the East, which surprised me, given the high number of Utah transplants in our area. Why should it surprise you? Once someone leaves Utah, it’s appropriate to stop celebrating state-specific holidays. |
