It's Finally Over...

The Primary Program that is. Yesterday was the long awaited for (by the congregation not me) Primary Program. I don't think there has ever been a time where I wished they did not have one of these until now...well yesterday anyway. I am not a person who likes to stand in front of people, especially for a whole hour. I was terrified, but for the most part they only saw my back, until that embarrassing moment when I had to turn around and direct the congregation. Anyway, I will give you a little history on why I was dreading this event.

The kids in primary are oh so special. We had been working so hard to learn these songs and since they had no chorister for the first 3 months of the year, we had to cram in some songs and really try to help all the kids remember them. They finally had all the songs almost perfect. Not Mo Tab worthy but it sounded great to me. AND THEN I was gone the whole month of October and the Primary President said she would just review the songs with them and I thought that it was going to great because she was the chorister before me, and she loves music and sings wonderfully so I was excited and thought when I got back...holy cow they would probably be singing like angels. So the Sunday before the program, which was my first day back, we were to practice in the chapel for the whole 2 hours and just go over the program. Well lets just say it was not angels they sounded like. Half the time the sunbeams were running up to the podium and meowing and screaming in the microphone as we were practicing the songs. Not to mention the kids putting their feet up on the wall or kicking the wall trying to make the sound go with the beat of the piano. They didn't know the words to one whole song and when they would sing some of them wouldn't even stand up. And then the most horrible thing happened. The primary president pulls out this thermometer thing that would measure their singing volume. (I eternally hate the thermometer) She would slowly raise it as they got louder and louder and at the thermometers highest point the kids would be shouting the song as loud as possible. NOT SINGING BUT SHOUTING. I couldn't even think of the words because they were shouting so loud. Not to mention after a couple of songs like this the bishop came in and sat down to watch. It was chaos and only left me having nightmares for the rest of the week on how bad the program was going to be.

So, Yesterday. Well they didn't shout, which I am sure all of you were wondering. For the most part it went really smoothly. They didn't sing loud at all actually and at one point I think the primary president was the only person singing the song besides myself. It was a short one though. The violin solo went beautifully and so did the piano solo. I have to give these kids some credit they have some real talent. But there was that one sunbeam, who actually during primary told me "I don't like you". Well I just bit my tongue holding back some words, but he was so terrible during the whole program. He was being a spider and insisted that he bother all four people he was around by putting his hands all over their faces causing the kids to start saying loudly, "Dylan, STOP IT"and arguing with him. After many attempts of being nice and just telling him to fold his arms and keep his hands to himself, which always followed with many evil scowls from the sweet little creature, and his repeated phrase of "I don't want to" I had to pull out the threats, which created even more dramatic scowls but now the whole congregation has seen this sweet little creatures true side. EVIL! But all the other kids I am so proud of. They all tried very hard and don't worry they were rewarded greatly.

Pictures from Vacation

We are back and it feels good to be home. I did not realize how much I could miss some things. Such as water...I was permanently thirsty in Europe because they only serve you bottled water and it was always a very small bottle, there were no drinking fountains and when you did order a drink they were in a cup similar to a sacrament cup, and guess what...no free refills. It's also nice to have toilet seats instead of just the bowl. AND the best of all...FRESH AIR. No smoke! Besides that we had a great time!