Sociable

Here in Nauvoo a fireside or devotional is called a sociable. Every year the YPM's are called upon to prepare and deliver a sociable usually in July. This can be on any subject and is usually an hour long. It is another item on the checklist of things we don't have time for. For example the Young Single Sister Missionaries or YSM's plan and rehearse almost every night for two months in preparation for their sociable. Its a big deal out here.

This year we were assigned the 25th of July and Sister Camp was, as usual, all over it. She spent 2 weeks prayerfully preparing the script. This was after discussions with the YPM's on what they thought was the most important thing they had learned here so far. Unanimously the YPM's selected the theme of what it meant to be part of a Zion community. They had great thoughts and Ideas as to what it was to create and maintain a community of one. It was truly wonderful to hear their perspectives. S/Camp put together a terrific program utilizing all aspects of a the YPM's call mixing choral, solo, instrumental and the spoken word all together into a very spiritual message. Because of the heat we made the decision to move the program from the outdoor stage which seats 850 to the West Theater which only seats 240. This may seem like a trivial thing but at last year's YPM sociable we had over a 1000 people attend. With this in mind we scheduled 2 shows hoping that would suffice.

We had a whole 4 hours to block and rehearse before the performance on Sunday night, there was no other time to do it. The YPM's came prepared with most everything memorized and ready to work. In 5 hours (they sacrificed part of their dinner time) we blocked, rehearsed and set lights for the show then we turned over to the Lord.

I will just say this. The Lord blessed us. I have never been to anything more spiritual in my life. The Spirit was so strong and not once but twice. The Spirit stayed for both presentations as the YPM's bore the purest of testimonies.

Once again Nauvoo is showing itself as the best place on earth. What a privilege and honor it is to be serving here in this sacred and holy place.

E/Camp