A Bit About the Best 2 Weeks of My Life, Thus Far

Most of my pictures are on my parent's computer, so here are a few I have! I will post more about the pageant later :)

Hokay everyone! I am finally back home and it feels great but super sad at the same time. July 1-18 I was in Palmyra, New York participating in the Hill Cumorah Pageant, and all I can say is, is it was one of  the neatest, best, fantastic, spiritual, fun, life changing, attitude changing, excellent, sweaty experiences I will ever have in my entire life. 

So for those of you who have never heard of it before I will go over a few things. 

The Pageant is basically a theatrical performance, and everything is pre-recorded and we (the cast) act out different scenes from the Book of Mormon leading up to the restoration of the gospel. It ends with Joseph Smith bearing his testimony to the audience ( my favorite part). Some of the scenes acted out are, Nephi and his family going to the promise land, Abinadi (Abinidi?) and King Noah (yes it really does look like they burn him, sweet!). A battle scene between the Nephites and Lamanites.

There is also a descending Christ scene (when he comes back after his resurrection) which brought me to tears every night! It was so amazing. The boy cast as Christ was  only 18! But he did a fantastic job.

Okay so more about the scenes later..

The first night (July 2) everyone gets to the hill and is cast. They cast 700 people with in 2 hours! It was bascially a madhouse, but it was done very efficiently I must say. Most of the directors are professionals, like they have done Broadway and a lot of them are on staff at BYU in the theater dept. 

July 3 was when rehearsals start and they were GRUELING. You had 3 or 4 hours of rehearsals a day in 95 degree weather with 80 % humidity. I have never sweat so much in my life, I was sweating like a man! After 4 days of rehearsal we had the official dress rehearsal, in costume. After that we had a media day performance, then opening night! During the day of opening night, it RAINED so hard, it was basically a flash flood, but we played in it, and it felt marvelous after being so hot and sweaty all the time.

After opening night we performed seven more times!! And I loved it every time!

The show started around 9:15 every night, but we had a devotional at 6:30 and then started PROSELYTING to the audience at 7. When I heard the word proselyte I almost fell over. How could I teach people about the gospel in costume for two hours straight?

Honestly...

I LOVED IT!!!  I didn't think anyone would be able to take us seriously since we were in costume, but it wasn't like that at all. It was so fun to talk to people and see how far people had come to see the pageant. Most of the people Kirsten and I talked to were already LDS so we would give them a referral card and ask them to fill it out for any of their friends that maybe wanted to hear the message the missionaires have to offer.

Besides proselyting during that time, a lot of people want to take pictures with you, some even want your autograph!! Surprisingly, that was the first time anyone has ever asked for my autograph. Haha jokes. Seriously thought, that was the first time.

At about 9:10 we would line up for the processional, we walk up on the stage, so some arm movements, and then the show began!

Besides just participating in the show, we had quite a bit of down time with our cast teams, and I LOVED my cast team! They were all so great and I really feel like I made some life long friends during the pageant.  Everyone there is so friendly, and so well rounded! I was very impressed by how talented everyone was.

And I know now, more than ever that the church really is true and it is the greatest. I feel so lucky that I got to be part of the pageant, it strengthened my testimony so much and I needed that experience! It hit me one of the nights we were proselyting that I am trying to teach people about the gospel in the very spot that the restoration began, and we are putting on a performance about the Book of Mormon, where Joseph Smith recovered it!  How crazy is that? I am so grateful for the church and for the great leaders that keep all of us hopeful, and make the pageant possible :)

So now I am going to post a few pictures from the pageant.

 (I lost my camera the second week, so I lost a lot of my good pictures, but luckily I was able to take more with my mom's camera!)

This is Christ talking to the little children during the descension scene

9,000 chairs!

Holding up the Nephites battle banner at the end of the battle scene

My grandma and cousins!

Hayley, me, and Kelsey! I love these girls so much! Hayley just got married :) Cute, cute.

Cast team skit

Grandma, mom, me before the show!