Lessons

Stake conference was this weekend, which is always good, probably even if you don't have a Primary calling. One of the talks that stood out to me the most was given by a man who has worked in LDS theatre and shared lessons he had learned. The first lesson is that we need to submit ourselves and our work to the will of the Lord. He gave the example of an apostle watching a rehearsal and then telling a group of artists that it would be nice if their production had a hymn of Zion in it. The artists who had created and worked on this production agreed and moved on, doing nothing about it because it would have changed their production plans too much. When he came back, the apostle asked why they hadn’t followed his counsel. Much embarrassed, the artists re-wrote, re-composed, and crammed extra rehearsals into producing a new finale with the hymn, “Jesus Once of Humble Birth.” At that moment, Brother Robinson said, “My testimony was made sure of following the counsel we get from our leaders. We can’t let even one word of counsel just slip by us unnoticed.” He said their very good production became something they couldn't have envisioned--something much better--because they followed the counsel they were given. The second lesson is that in the activities we do and plan we need to begin with a testimony of the gospel and a view to how the things we plan will accomplish the Lord’s work, rather than layering the gospel on top of really fun ideas we’ve already slated. Ask for the Lord’s help first in His work, rather than try to fit the gospel into our plans. The third lesson he stated was that the worth of souls is great, and the Lord’s plan for nurturing, loving and teaching these great souls is through families. He gave some great examples of using families in the cast at the Nauvoo Pageant and how using the Lord’s framework built individuals and families. He talked about a toddler who came and sat on the casket in the middle of the stage as the actor portraying Joseph Smith was eulogizing King Follet. The producers had white knuckles as they tried to guess what this kid was going to do--climb in the casket? jump off it? fall off of it? What happened next touched them in a big way. The child's father came and sat next to him, putting an arm around his son and using the other hand to point to the prophet. Then, he gathered his son up and backed slowly to the side of the stage, teaching his child to listen as the prophet continued his speech. It made me want our family to have a similar experience. We hope it is still available in the summer of 2008.