Music in the church

Hi family--I will write just a short note since Spencer was pretty complete in his report. I have been fascinated to observe the music in the church. Most wards/branches don't have anyone to play the piano. The person conducting stands up--sings the first line so you can hear the pitch and the tune and then leads the song. In one branch we visited the "chorister" didn't know how to lead music so she sang the first line, then tapped on the hymn book while saying "uno, dos, tres" and everyone started singing. I wonder if they even have boom boxes to use the cd's the church puts out with the music. I haven't ever seen one used yet. I also wonder what they do when new music comes out each year in Primary for the Sacrament Meeting presentation. You have to have a lot of confidence to lead the music here! I'm impressed. One thing Spencer didn't talk about was the number of charlas (lessons) we taught on Saturday. He started out in the morning with a group of 30 new members and/or investigators to teach them about the temple. We also taught three kids classes. Then in the afternoon we taught together another class to adult women about the temple. When Spencer went to help with baptisms, I had another 30 women to teach about the temple. We took them to the temple waiting room to see the film "Mountain of the Lord" after our class. But in between we spent the entire day visiting and teaching the many, many sister who were here who didn't have recommends. We were teaching all day long and we were exhausted at night. All of the missionaries were exhausted that night. We performed more ordinances on Saturday than any other day since the temple opened (except on the anniversary Saturday where they had 11 sessions). Many missionaries worked a double shift and were in the temple going non-stop for about 12 hours. It fills your heart with joy to see the temple and the annex filled with people who love the Lord and want to be either in or near His House.

We love you all and miss you very much! Thank you for keeping touch via emails or phone calls!