"I Love to see the Temple"

Last semester, I started a tradition with one of my best friends from my ward. We'll call him Seth. Because that's his name. Seth and I started going to the Temple every Saturday morning at 6am. Here's a pic from our first trip!

Since then, Seth and I have continued to go every Saturday morning and we have invited several friends to come with us. Our 6am-Temple-Trip-group is a little different every week, but we are still doing the same work. Here are a few more pictures:

Since we started this tradition of going to do Temple work every Saturday morning, my personal Testimony of the Temple has grown significantly. Even though right now I can only do Baptisms and Confirmations for those who have passed on, I can definitely see the difference the Temple has made on my life for the better. I have a Testimony that the Temple is a holy place and that the blessings that come from going to the Temple are very abundant. I am very grateful for the opportunity I have to live so close that I can attend the Temple every week. I love this gospel and I love the Temple. 

"I love to see the temple.

I'm going there someday

To feel the Holy Spirit,
To listen and to pray.
For the temple is a house of God,
A place of love and beauty.
I'll prepare myself while I am young;
This is my sacred duty."
-Janice Kapp Perry

Singing Praises

Phenomenal Choir concert last night by the BYU Choirs! I always enjoy listening to great music from such amazing talent. BYU has four top Choirs: Men's Chorus, Women's Chorus, BYU Singers, and Concert Choir. First on the program was actually a guest choir- the choirs from Timpanogos High School.

The Timpanogos High School Choirs were a great introduction to the concert, but I must say, when the Men's Chorus came on stage they just blew them away. They began with an arrangement by Mack Wilberg of a song called "Saints Bound for Heaven," then went on to sing a piece by Stephen Chatman entitled "Reconciliation." This was an incredible piece with beautiful lyrics from Walt Whitman's poem, "Drum Taps," that is written about war. To finish their part of the program, the Men's Chorus sang a wonderful arrangement of "Master the Tempest Is Raging."

Up next were the BYU Singers! Holy cow! They are the smallest of the top four choirs, but they just put so much emotion into what they are singing. They had an incredible performance yesterday. They started their performance with a song called "Stars Over Snow," a very lush and beautiful opener. Following this was a lovely piece with a Flute soloist and piano accompaniment. And to finish, their final piece was "Wade in the Water," by Alan Koepke. The BYU Singers were my favorite performance last night because of how much emotion they portrayed to the audience. Stunning.

The last two choirs, Concert Choir and Women's Chorus, did an outstanding job as well. The Concert Choir's second piece was a very interesting one. It was based on a Gregorian Chant, so they first sang the Chant as it was written, and then sang the arrangement. So cool! Gregorian Chants can be kind of dull to us because they are mostly in all unison and are taken very slow. But that is just how church music was back then. This arrangement by Maurice Duruflé was gorgeous and took something very simple into something really interesting. The Women's Chorus was amazing, as always. They sang two very moving slow, lyrical pieces, and ended their performance with a fun arrangement to Sarah Bareilles' "Brave." This was one of my favorites of the night.

As a conclusion to the concert, all five choirs (620 voices) joined in singing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." This was a powerful closer and a great finish to a wonderful evening of performances. I can't wait to go to more choir concerts coming up in March!

Enjoying the Experience!

Was this a New Year's Resolution or something? To start up a blog? Not exactly... I started a blog for my Freshman writing class here at Brigham Young University. So it is really more for a grade than anything else. However, even though I am not that into writing and actually consider myself a pretty bad writer to be honest, I'm going to try to enjoy this experience. Something I have learned throughout my life is that some things are just as fun as you make them, so that is my goal for this Blog - to enjoy the experience!