To Cumorah and Beyond! - Written 8/2/09

I'm super excited that my first official post gets to be about my Hill Cumorah Pageant experience, because it truly was live changing, and is up there competing as two of the greatest weeks of my life! I had so many neat experiences and met so many wonderful people, it was spectacular.


For anyone who ISN'T familiar with this wonderful show, it depicts various stories from the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is an ancient record of people in the Americas thousands of years ago. This book testifies of our Savior, Jesus Christ, just like the Bible. The location of the pageant, on the Hill Cumorah, was the exact hill where Joseph Smith, by divine inspiration, uncovered and received the plates that were translated into the Book of Mormon! The show itself depicts only a few of the stories contained within this sacred record.


The entire show was cast (all 729 case members), blocked, and rehearsed in less than a week. Insane? Yes. I had the privilege of portraying a Harvest Dancer, and an "Unbeliever". The Harvest Dance celebrates the prosperous times that Lehi and his family experienced upon their arrival and righteous doings in the Americas. I was then an unbeliever who sought to kill the followers of Nephi the Disciple who had prophesied a sign marking the birth of the Savior. When the sign DID come, a wee bit of repentance was in order.

So when we weren't required to be at our billion hours of rehearsals, we were in our "cast teams", or a big group of people your age you got to play with. My cast team was great. :D

My absolute favorite part of pageant was the opportunity I had each night to go out before the show and talk to members of the audience. We were able to share with others our knowledge of the Gospel, and our testimonies of our Savior and the love He has for His brothers and sisters on the earth today. Even though it was incredibly intimidating, and difficult a times, my companions and I met and spoke with some AMAZING people, and it was great. It made me so happy, and want to serve a mission...so I may just have to do that. :)

MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY CAME TO SEE ME!!! And it was super!! I got to sneak away from my cast team and tour a few of the sites with them, and it was GREAT!!


Another highlight of Pageant--WEGMANS!!! Oh my goodness, if you have not yet experienced this family grocery land of magic, get off the couch, drive to New York, and indulge. If Heaven were located within the confines of a Grocery store...it would reside in Wegmans. Hot Bliss.

All in all, I love Cumorah. I love this Gospel. It's the greatest.