Pageant 2014

We again were able to participate in the Mormon Miracle Pageant and had a wonderful time.  The pageant is a special tradition for us as we enjoy performing in it, inviting people to come and watch or be in it, and help with the behind the scenes of setting up, scenery and chairs, feeding the masses and putting it all away.

 This year we were able to have some fun principle parts.  Isaac has been looking forward to portraying young Joseph Smith and was very pleased to have the opportunity.  I was able to portray his mother, Lucy Mack Smith.  Together we did a scene in Lucy's kitchen where Joseph explains that he knows his mother's church is not true because he has seen God the Father and His son Jesus Christ and they told him that the true church of Jesus Christ was not on the earth.

When I first married Mr. O and we were in the pageant together his mother told me of one of her favorite pageants when he had played young Joseph and she had been Lucy and what a sweet experience to share with her son.  I feel very grateful to have followed that tradition and shared this special moment with my son as he spoke the words of Joseph Smith and we both felt our testimony strengthened.

They cast 3 Joseph Smiths to be able to do all the different parts.  Isaac shared this role with Josh Peterson and Mitch Russell. Two more really great boys.

 Dane and his best friend, Mark Bishop, played the parts of Zarahemna and Captain Moroni.   There are the best parts for the boys and they all hope to get it.  These two young men are sharing July 13 for their farewells and will leave on full-time, 2 year missions in July.  They got to address a youth group that was here for pageant and Mark, as Zarahemna spoke about slothfulness and Dane, as Captain Moroni, spoke of being a man of preparedness.  They both did an amazing job.

But they still had a lot of fun playing around.

We had 3 girls from Idaho, Elizabeth, Cassidi, and Abby, stay with us for the month and participate in pageant.  

We also participated in our regular group scenes with Sim and Debbie.  They still love portraying Christ in American, handcart pioneers, and this year we did the New England scene where we are in various congregations with young Joseph wondering which church to join.

This is Jeremy.  He is legally blind but still regularly is in the pageant.  This year I got to walk with him in the first pioneer scene in case he needed any help 'crossing the plains'.  He did very well on his own but I felt a special closeness because of my own family history.  I have a grandfather, Thomas Davis Giles, who joined the church in Wales, 4 years later was a victim of a mine accident in which both of his eyes were crushed from his head.  He lived but was of course blind.  He had a hobby of playing the harp and continued to develop this talent.  Eight years after his accident he and his wife with three children left Wales to emigrate to Zion.  In Chicago their year-old daughter died.  They reached Iowa City and joined the Bunker company where Thomas pulled his handcart.  Not long after they started, his wife gave birth to another daughter who died soon after.  A few weeks later his wife died. He was left with his two sons, ages seven and nine.  The boys were sent back to some family friends in a later company (which ended up being one of the wagon companies that traveled with the Martin and Willie companies).  Thomas continued on with his hand cart and through incredible odds and trials arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and there he reared a righteous family.  The woman that cared for his sons eventually married Thomas and it is through Thomas and Hannah that I am descended.  So it was this grandfather that I imagined and thought of as we performed together over and over.  It was another sweet moment in pageant.

Grateful:
665 community hard work for a good cause
666 great families coming together and giving so much time and talent.
667 testimony building as we performed and visited in the audience
668 sweet friends and family that came to see us perform.