Being a Part of the Choir

           I love to sing but was not blessed with the talent that makes others want to listen nor have not taken the time to develop my vocal ability.  I have joined a number of choirs through the years – well mostly church choirs.  I have joined for more to contribute to body count rather and overall I have enjoyed the company. I know I am not the greatest singer and so it is nice to belong to a body of those who do.

          I remember my entire family having joined the stake choir when we lived in Kearns.  We performed twice a year as I recall – once during conference and once the first Sunday in December.  The December performance was always so awesome.  There was always at least one song that would tug at my heartstrings and my eyes would moisten as the male voices would soar behind me. 

          Our choir director’s name was Diane.  She had quite a pleasant attitude and would always say things to make us smile – for we needed to smile when we preformed and not appear grumpy.  I have tried to keep that image with me whenever I have performed.

          I remember one stake conference I had gone to each practice diligently with Roland and the boys.  Though we arrived early on Sunday morning for one final practice I ended up bailing on the performance. I had just learned that I was pregnant with Jenna and was experiencing morning sickness.  I had started out sitting in the pews closest to the stand to watch my men.  After a while I went from the front to the back of the chapel and finally to the back of the cultural hall.

          Our stake president found me in the cultural hall amongst the empty chairs and joked “You need to come early to find a good seat back here.”

          I told him I had initially come to perform but was pregnant and needed to be as close to the restrooms as possible.  After that we all seemed to taper off being in the choir.  After we had moved to West Valley we would try to return to Kearns stake on the first Sunday in December to watch others perform.  We didn’t always make it because of the weather.  I don’t know why, but it seems like it always snowed that night as though testing the diligence of those involved.

          Some callings or talks are assigned by inspiration – others have come from desperation.  I don’t know what the reasoning was behind asking Jackie and I to sing something together when I lived in West Valley.  We didn’t have a choir in West Valley and I found that odd.  I’d never been in a ward that didn’t have a choir.  Perhaps if they had everyone would have known that Jackie and I couldn’t sing – each believing the other sounded worse.

          I think we might have been asked just to prove that God does have a sense of humor.  I smiled big and proud.  I thought perhaps if I had followed Diane’s advice, people wouldn’t notice how bad I (we) sounded. We sang a primary song. I think we sang “Jesus Said Love Everyone” (here)  although that does seem shorter than what I remember. Perhaps we sang it through twice.

Even though I had smiled (and maybe Jackie did too – I wasn’t looking at her) I’m sure that we were as pleasant to listen to as two wounded cows. I had posted about it on facebook.  A couple of years later I made a comment that I noticed we had never been asked to perform again.