Thursday, January 29, 2009

Eye to Eye

So I had one of the most incredible experiences of my life last night. I was asked to go to Salt Lake and do a temp. recording at the conference center for a new movie that the church is doing to explain the Joseph Smith story better to non members. There were 5 of us all together and we worked with John Garbettwho is producing the show. He also helped produce the movie "The Other Side of Heaven".

We got there and it was the first time I had been in an actual recording studio. Ya know the ones where you wear the head phones and the mic comes down in front of your face and you can see the sound guy through the little window. Ya. I was there! (and we took pictures I just don't have them yet.) Anyway. The song we were asked to do was "The Spirit of God." Now the story in the movie goes like this. The year after Joseph and Hyrum were martyred, the members of the church were having a conference in the Nauvoo temple. Lucy Mack Smith (Joseph and Hyrum's mother) asked Brigham Young if she could speak to the congregation. So she got up and spoke for 1 hour. This is the point in the movie where Lucy is going to narrate the story of her son. At the end of her talk, one man stands up in the congregation and starts singing "The Spirit of God". Gradually more and more people come into the song until the entire congregation is singing. This is where we came in. We all recorded solos. I sang the melody twice, the alto part, and then the tenor part one octave higher. After we were all done, the sound guy worked his magic and just started adding us all into the song until out of 5 of us there was a 20 something person choir. It was incredible to hear. They are making me a CD so I can have it and then they are showing the movie to the first presidency to see if it will pass. Now MY Prophet, the Prophet of God, the Prophet of the entire church is going to hear my voice. (He won't know it is me but ya know....) the point is, I may never be able to bear my testimony in front of the Prophet, but I feel like in a way I was able to do it through this and let him know how much I love my Savior.

After we were finished we went into the assembly room in the conference center (ya know the really big room that holds like 21,000 people) and Vaughn told us just some little tid bits of information about the conference center. First of all, have you ever noticed that there are not any pillars in that room? Everything is suspended from the ceiling. Well in the scriptures, it says something to the affect of that when Christ comes, we will be able to see him eye to eye. In that room, no matter where you are sitting, you can look at the speaker directly and see him or her. There is nothing in your way. You are eye to eye. The second thing is that there is a large empty "room" or "space" underneath the stage area and the podium. Well the podium, when it is not being used, can descend down into the floor. On the podium there are some hooks and in the room underneath there are a bunch of different hooks all a long the wall. They are there to hold the wiring to satellites and broadcasting equipment. They have never been used because there are satellites on top of the conference center. The reason they were put where they are is because when Christ comes, He will need to speak to the entire world. We are going to need to set up every satellite and broadcasting network possible so that the world can see him and know he has come no matter where they are at on this earth. Pretty incredible huh?

I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I KNOW that Joseph Smith was a prophet of GOD and restored the church back on this earth. I KNOW that Joseph Smith saw God and his Son in a grove a trees behind his house when he was 14. I KNOW President Thomas S. Monson is the prophet that has been called of GOD to lead and direct His church today. I KNOW that the Savior died for ME, so that I could return to live with him. I KNOW that my Savior will come again, and when he does, I will be ready to see him EYE TO EYE!