(even though parts I and II were not explicitly labeled as such)
I know. I've tried other farm games before and the thing that's always driven me away from them is that everything happens so slowly. But now I can play a fast-paced, exciting farm game WITH MY FRIENDS. It doesn't get any better than that.
(Sorry if this offends you, Michael.)
I got up way too early this morning to see the "Trail of Hope" vignette, which is really a series of brief vignettes from the lives of people who left Nauvoo to go west. It was powerful and meaningful. Unfortunately, I had (a) only gotten a few hours of sleep and (b) not eaten breakfast yet, so I was pretty miserable when we got back. I was looking forward to taking a nap, but we had to go have a family picture taken. Then we had a testimony meeting to go to. By this point, I was hungry, tired, and grouchy, so I didn't get much out of it. And once that was over, it was nearly time to have our cast meeting, so I never got my nap. So I wasn't too happy until we actually got to the pageant grounds.
There my father and I met Adam, a religious studies student at Wabash College in Indiana. He was not a member, and indeed the only person I've met there who wasn't. He was thoughtful and had good questions, the answers to some of which also helped me. He wanted to know how one differentiates between emotion and spirit, which is indeed a difficult question. He also asked how one reconciles the "dark underbelly" with one's faith. He was somewhat cool to the actual doctrine of the church. But that's okay. Anyway, we talked to a few more people, did the pageant, and went back and talked to Adam. He might attend church tomorrow.
We held a cast prayer, said some (somewhat teary) goodbyes, and departed. We're leaving tomorrow after church.
Today began, as usual, with my waking up late in the morning. We did little until attending a vignette put on by some pageant cast members—"Letters of Joseph and Emma." It was somewhat underwhelming. I don't know how you can accurately portray the relationship between Joseph and Emma without mentioning the strain that polygamy caused. Thence we went to a talent show performed by the members of the Red Cast. We performed nothing, partly because we expected the other families to be a bit more serious about their talents than we were. This turned out not to be the case. It did remind me that I miss playing the piano, though.
Afterwards, my father and I attended another vignette, this one of excerpts from the King Follett Discourse. I liked it much better than the Joseph/Emma bit, although it too elided some of the more difficult doctrines taught in the sermon. I am impressed at Jeff Dickamore's ability to memorize such great swaths of the speech as he did. Then dinner and cast meeting. Referrals are good. But this time we're not telling you numbers. Because numbers are bad.
Preshow. This time, I partnered with my father to go talk with people. He's considerably better at that than I. I didn't say too much, and we got zero referrals, though not for lack of trying. (My dad is not particularly gung-ho about referrals, either, though.) And we had the pageant. Maybe I should describe it sometime, but not now. It's 1:30 here. After the pageant, we again got zero referrals. It's rather amazing how quickly the seating empties after the show ends.
But the night wasn't over yet. No, for we had the FAMILY DANCE. We headed over to the junior high school gym for an hour and a half of RAUCOUS PARTYING. And really not a whole lot of dancing, at least, not on everyone's part. We did a few of the basic line dances, a couple of slow dances, and a jitterbug, but most of the time was taken by THE DANCE OFF. Divided both by age and gender, contestants competed for the title of best dancer. All of the male contestants in the over 20 group happened to be core cast members. It was rather interesting to watch Brigham Young, Hyrum Smith, and Heber C. Kimball duke it out on the dance floor. (And MY DISTRICT LEADER won.) Brigham did the worm. One of the pageant work crew won the overall title; he was insanely good. Then we had NAUVOO IDOL, a karaoke competition. The winning team (out of four) ended up consisting of core cast members: Brigham, Heber, Hyrum, and whatever Brigham's wife's name was. THEN the night was over.
And now the night is really over; I'm going to another vignette at 8 AM and it's almost 2.
So the full extent of my ruffianness consists in my running on stage, standing in a circle seething with other likeminded ruffians, waving a wooden rifle, and shouting my assent to destroy Joseph Smith. I don't even get a torch.
I wish I knew how to converse with people, especially outside of any meaningful context. Walking up to an arbitrary person and beginning to speak about anything meaningful seems incredibly difficult. This is related to the Nauvoo experience both in that I have to talk to audience members after the performance and in that we are to form a Zion-like community among the cast during the pageant.
Drinking lots of water is fun. Especially if you're sweating enough to not have to go to the bathroom. There's just a sense of accomplishment in looking at an empty quart bottle and knowing you drank it all in the last hour.
What kind of idiot designs a sink/faucet combination so that the faucet protrudes less than an inch over the edge of the sink? There's hardly room to do anything with that.
How did they manage to give me the wrong size of T-shirt? I clearly specified that I should receive a medium. Why did I get a large? Now I've had to spend $8.50 on a red cast T-shirt so I have something I can wear.
There's one young man in the cast who at first listen seems to be completely tone deaf. But if you listen closer, you realize that he's actually singing a sixth below the note he's supposed to. He does it in such a way that I'm relatively certain he's unaware of it.
The oxen holding up the baptistry in the Nauvoo temple are buried up to their ankles in the floor. Apparently some people speculated that these were oxen "in the mire," which rumor the temple president roundly denounced. Apparently, that's just the way things ended up: the saints had placed the oxen on a bare floor, which was then covered with a layer of red brick in a herringbone pattern. These bricks covered the hooves of the oxen. Then they copied it when they rebuilt the temple. So sometimes we inappropriately read symbolism into an unintentional artifact. Bad us.
This morning there was an optional choir rehearsal for a musical number in tonight's cast meeting. I went, naturally. Sadly, it was musically rather pedestrian; we merely sang a hymn in unison. The director spent most of the rehearsal describing to us the differences between a secular choir and a church choir. His main emphasis was the dichotomy between the oneness of a Zion community (the church choir) and dependence on a director (the secular choir). I'm not sure I completely agree with his classification, but it's an interesting thing to think about with any choir. Afterward, he presented a powerpoint, during which I read my scriptures.
We were scheduled to do baptisms for the dead at 12:30. So we did. The font was nice and warm. I got to wear two sets of clothes, a practice called "double-suiting," so that I could begin by being baptized, change, and then be confirmed. I ended up sitting through a huge number of confirmations: probably over 200. Jorgen fell asleep a couple of times. But it was good. Spiritual. I liked it.
Then it was time to prepare for the pageant. We went to the chapel, had a cast meeting (20% of the audience last night gave a referral) at which the choir assembled this morning sang, and held a district meeting. (We can get even more referrals.) We played some game involving laying down on the floor, crossing arms, and slapping the floor in sequence. I still don't know why. (Referrals are good!) Then we sang "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." (By the way, we need to get referrals.)
I actually talked to people before the pageant. And actually challenged a couple to consider people who might like receiving a copy of the pageant music (attached to a missionary, of course). But afterwards, I talked to basically zero people. Geoff had told me to meet him at the front of the stage again, which I tried to do. But it's really hard to meet someone who isn't there. By the time I had abandoned hope of the appearance of Geoff, half the people had left, and everyone else was either leaving or in the middle of a conversation with other pageant members. On the bright side, though, we did perform the highland fling for a man who promised to post it on YouTube.
It again didn't rain. It's expected to tomorrow and Saturday.
I slept in this morning, and was awakened by my siblings turning on the television and watching SpongeBob SquarePants. In a general malaise, I wasted most of the morning. My parents had previously gone to the temple, and when they returned, my father decided to take a nap. We finally actually did something around 2 PM. At least, some of us did. Others stayed at the condo and played computer games. (Cough...Jarom and Jarett) The rest of us observed a blacksmith's shop, got "prairie diamond" rings, and then went to a kitschy gift shop. And then we had to run back to get ready for the pageant.
We had another cast meeting. This one wasn't nearly as inspiring to me as last night's. They decided to emphasize referrals. And counting the number we got. And the percent of the people who attended who gave one. And how one family went and texted all their nonmember friends asking if they could refer them. They got forty referrals just from that! Shouldn't you all be more like them?
So when we got to the pageant grounds there was a considerable expectation for referral-getting. I failed miserably. I'd like to blame the climate of intense missionary pressure, but that had little to do with my failure. I simply declined nearly every opportunity I had to talk with anyone. When I did talk with someone, the conversation petered out into nothingness and I had to flee in a moment of distraction. Worse, I had Jarett with me, constantly trying to kiss me or proclaiming that he was bored. He didn't want to start conversations either. For that matter, neither did Jorgen. So my pre-pageant missionary experience count is still at exactly naught.
Oh, outside the pageant parking lot were some nice anti-mormons handing out literature clearly intended to look like it came from the Church. They didn't do too well; their graphic design was nothing like that used in our church materials. I don't think the LDS Church has ever used that font. Nor do we print things in the Watchtower magazine style. Within was some information that was briefly disturbing, but that on reflection was nothing to be concerned about. The authors hew to a literalist reading of the Bible, using out-of-context prooftexts to "disprove" LDS doctrine. They seem to expect every word a prophet utters to be scripture. And in general, they present a rather uncharitable reading of Joseph Smith and LDS beliefs.
The pageant went normally. I mentioned to Geoff (who is our district leader and plays Heber C. Kimball) that I had performed rather miserably before the show, and he offered to go with me to talk to people afterward. So we did. He is a referral machine. That's not necessarily a good thing. His basic plan seemed to be: Greet someone ("Hi! How did you enjoy the pageant?"), briefly discuss their reaction to the pageant ("Oh, it was great." "Good, I'm glad you liked it."), ask them whence they came ("Where are you from?" "We're from Utah."), and pump for referral ("So, do you have any nonmember friends you think would enjoy a copy of the music from this pageant?" "Um, sure. But we've already filled out five of these tonight. I'm starting to run out."). (Really, I'm giving it a bit of an uncharitable reading. He was more considerate than that, and the people we talked to were more enthusiastic.) I soon went to help take down the temple, escaping that world of induced missionary contact. On the way home, I learned that referrals are only supposed to be given for people who are over 18. That pretty much nullified every referral we got, since they all came from youth. Oops.
Oh, and it didn't rain.
I stayed up far too late last night, and woke up tired. Our district had been assigned to help clean up the school, so we went over there around noon. Our assignment was to pick up trash in the gym, hallways, and some of the bathrooms, sweep the halls, and do some basic maintenance of the bathrooms. So of course we cleaned all the bathrooms, swept the gym, beat out the floor mats, swept the hallways, and did someone's hair. Well, the last one my mom did, but we had to wait for her. Someone in blue cast was trying to do her own hair, and my mother volunteered to help.
We actually patronized one of the fine business establishments in Nauvoo for lunch. Then we learned how to make shoes. On the way back to the condo, we again patronized a business establishment, this time to buy some frozen custard. It was delicious. And we got ready to go pageant.
We first met as a cast at the chapel for a brief but touching fireside. As we left, we noted that the sky had become ominously gray and the wind was picking up. A few minutes after we got to the pageant site, the rain began. It rained fairly steadily until a few minutes before the pageant ended. It's hard to visit with people before the pageant when most of them are running for shelter. Also if you have no idea how to hold a conversation. Which I don't. Anyways, the pageant thankfully started, although a bit late, and we did it. Strangely, my vest's coloring somehow ran through to my white shirt, leaving a greenish-black stain all over the back. And I got mud on my pants. Both pairs. (My costume includes two pairs of pants. We change clothes to become progressively lighter throughout the show. At least, some people do. I really only become lighter right before the finale, when I change from dark pants, a coat, and a black vest into light pants and no vest.)
Afterwards we were supposed to talk to audience members and convince them to give us referrals. I didn't do so well at that. I only struck up a conversation with one family, and it petered out. Then when I left, nearly everyone was being talked to. (Rain seems to have a restricting effect on the size of the audience.) So my tally of missionary experiences rests at exactly nil. I guess there's always tomorrow. It had better not rain.
Not a lot notable has happened the last three days, and I've been too lazy to chronicle it anyway. So here goes.
Saturday: Rehearsal. But not much. It rained a good deal, and in the morning we met in the high school to run through some dances with the YPMs (No, I'm not telling you what the acronym means. You'll have to figure it out yourself.). Afterward, we sat at the feet of our directors and heard the story of old: the history of the Nauvoo pageant. We also learned about the music thereof—there are only three original themes in the music; all the others are hymn melodies. They listed a number of hymns used in the score, many of which I had noticed, but others of which I had not. Then we had copious free time, which was mostly wasted. And then a runthrough of the pageant, in light rainfall. Thereafter we lit sparklers and watched fireworks from across the Mississippi. It was foggy, which made the fireworks look really cool.
Sunday: Church. Their YSA class is actually somewhat functional, even though pageant members probably tripled its size. Elders quorum has a tradition of having each attendee introduce the person next to him, apparently at every meeting. I'd imagine that would get somewhat annoying at times when there aren't three zillion people in town for the pageant. In the evening we went to see the core cast perform "Our Story Goes On," which is a kind of cheesy musical revue with a story and a moral. I was less impressed with it this time than I was two years ago. But it was still enjoyable and at times touching. They did take many songs completely out of context, e.g., "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables as a father's plea for his prodigal son, but they still fit.
Monday: We had a normal-type rehearsal in the morning and then had the day off until 7, when we were to meet for our final dress rehearsal. Have I explained the different casts? Here goes: The core cast consists of the people with speaking lines. They stay for the length of the pageant. There are five family casts, identified by colors, that rotate through, each performing in the pageant for a week. We're in the red cast, and on Monday the blue cast arrived. The blue cast will participate in the finale of the pageant and do a few stagecrew-like things for us while they learn the pageant. Then the yellow cast will come, followed by the green and gold casts. So we met the people in the blue cast who are in our district on Monday. So, dress rehearsal went just fine. Although the blue cast wasn't very good at following the conductor during The Spirit of God. How hard is it to follow a bouncing flashlight? We finally had actual houses on the sides of the stage, which was a nice change. Afterward I was unsure of whether I should go visit with people in the audience, so I kind of wandered around until some nice blue cast members offered me referral cards. I went with them to help convince others that they were in the cast, as they had not received their costumes yet. We talked with an LDS family from Georgia. They couldn't think of anyone to refer, since they had just moved there and only knew the people they had met in their ward. Then I went home, read the 17th Police Beat Roundtable, ate scrambled eggs, and wrote this.
We had an awesome dress rehearsal today. But first this morning we had a normal-type rehearsal. It was hot. And we're definitely getting better. Then they gave us the whole afternoon off. We had like 7 hours before we had to be back for our dress rehearsal. Sadly, I squandered most of that reading Mormon blogs online. (Seriously, the Niblet nominations are awesome. As is Keepapitchinin.)
So then I got dressed. I must say I look rather dashing in my costume. (NB: after I looked around to find those links, I got about 15 more posts to read, and thus stayed up an extra two hours reading them and other posts linked to from them. You'd better enjoy them.) Anyway, we sang, danced, and acted in the rain. Because it rained while we were performing. It was cool. Yeah. Then we went back to the condo.
We ran straight through the pageant twice today. I wanted to do it again, but no one agreed with me. I don't know why. I mean, it was only 9:15 PM!
At 7 AM we learned to build the onstage temple, which is a complicated process almost, but not quite, entirely unlike building an actual temple. This temple is essentially two-dimensional, with a façade consisting of a quilt. Basically, a connected series of six posts is rotated up through the stage to stand vertically as a backdrop. Upon this foundation three tall frame-chunks are added, locked in place with two pins. A separate tower with the tower part of the temple is rotated up as the façade is lifted. Then about five minutes after it's finally finished we just drop the whole thing back down behind the stage. I get to do my part to make the stage unsafe by removing the rear restraining rails before the temple is raised or lowered.
Then we ran through the pageant. It went reasonably well, and we were even 8 hours ahead of schedule. Woohoo!
After lunch (and a nap) we went to the high school gym and carefully reviewed the blocking of the show on a powerpoint. This was a good idea. Then the costume people came and told us some things to do and some things not to do. For instance, your waist is not right above your hips. It is where you bend. So wear your pants around your waist. Yeah. Also, our stage is not solid. Indeed, there are many work crew member who have to be under the stage. And the stage has holes in it that they need to look up through. So you need to make sure that they don't see anything you wouldn't want them to see, if you get my drift. (Apparently, a couple of years ago, the young women decided not to wear petticoats or bloomers, and the young men in the work crew got around to keeping a count of red panties versus blue panties. Yeah.)
Then we did the whole pageant thing again. It was cool. Yeah.
I can't even remember what we did this morning. Oh, we laid sod. Story: so there's this big field where they hold games and activities before the pageant, and it happens to have flooded recently and be rather muddy and hard to use, not to mention barren of grass. So they got some local member to volunteer his lawn, cut it up into chunks and drove it over to the field, where whenever a trailer arrived we ran off and unloaded it onto the ground. He must have had a huge yard, because there were at least 5 large trailer loads of sod.
We were out on the stage this morning, went over the first half of the pageant, had district meetings, and, I think, learned a bit of what followed. Lunch. Then music practice at the high school. Got our actual costumes. I wasn't assigned a hat, even though one of the sisters distributing costumes swears that everyone is supposed to have a hat. Did I mention I get to wear a cravat? It's blue. And awesome.
Dinner. Again we rushed to inhale enough calories for the rest of the night. This was because (a) we had to wait for Jorgen to be fitted for a pallbearer costume (NB: I had an urge to spell that "paulbare" for some reason.), (b) we went shopping, and (c) we happened to lock ourselves out of the condo. We got back in with assistance from the administration.
Back to the stage. We learned the rest of the show. The second half is really kind of boring. Lots of standing around and acting sad and/or working hard. Joseph goes to Carthage, dies, and then Brigham Young's in charge and makes us build the temple. Then we get kicked out. (Sorry I spoiled the ending for you.) It really is a very powerful story, despite the way I've trivialized it here. I do wish it had included a bit more historical detail, but I'm kind of a stickler for that. Anywho, that ended the day.
I really ought to be more friendly and conversant with the other cast members. Why does it have to be so difficult? And why do the young men have to act like...young men?
