The Music of the Gospel

Letter written 4/18/2016

Dear friends and family,

What an awesome week! We are busy, busy, busy at the site with tours coming through every day. Yesterday I think the longest Sister Francis and I waited between tours was 15 minutes. It's a good feeling to see the place alive again!

This week we tried out our first run of a system we will use for large groups and busy summer weeks, referred to by us sisters as "Code Battleship," and it went really well! We had our largest youth conference group come through the site on Saturday, with 140 youth plus leaders. They were such an amazing, and well behaved (woohoo!!) group of kids from New Jersey. 

Sharing music with a youth conference group

 They were so well prepared, having learned about the site at Mutual activities, read Ensign articles and having planned firesides on site. I love being around the youth! We were able to kick off their beginning devotional with a song, which we all have missed doing together since everyone left for winter.

Highlight of the week: meeting Bishop Causse, the Presiding Bishop of the church. He is so nice!!  

He came here to the site for business, looking at the building, etc. but we were all able to meet him and sing for him and the other men from the Seventy and church headquarters who came with him. We sang a new song we've recently put together since the new sisters came in; it's a really pretty arrangement of "The Lord is my Shepherd" with violin. After we finished our song Bishop Causse said it was inappropriate to clap, but they wanted to so badly they asked if we had an "encore" number, so we sang them our very favorite a capella number "Abide with Me." It was so funny seeing all these men with their phones out taking a video of us for their families back home. Afterwards Bishop Causse talked to us about how the talent was there, but even more important than that, the Spirit was there. He told us if continued to use every opportunity we could to begin our tours with singing to our guests, we would convert many people.

After talking to us, Bishop Causse took a few minutes to play the piano for us, and he can really play!! He is an amazing pianist, but the spirit was there and it helped me understand what it's like for our guests to be on the receiving end. 

After Bishop Causse had finished and left the site, Elder Walker called us all together. Brother Hinckley, who was with Bishop Causse, had approached Elder Walker and told him the meeting they had was the very best he had ever had with the Bishop, and he attributed it to us starting off their afternoon with our music. And in touring the buildings, chapel, grounds and talking with Elder Walker, there will be a lot of changes happening at the PRS. Bishop Causse is seeing that grounds will be bought to make a camp site, an amphitheater will be built, picnicking areas developed, missionary housing for senior and sister missionaries on site, and a remodel of the chapel to fit a grand piano so we can sing on the rostrum (we currently drag a piano in from a different room). Bishop Causse left saying he would remember this day with the PRS sisters for the rest of his life (we will too!), and many people will be able to appreciate what came from our meeting in years to come!

I love the talk by Elder Andersen of the seventy, "The Music of the Gospel." In his talk he says, "The dance steps of the gospel are the things we do; the music of the gospel is the joyful spiritual feeling that comes from the Holy Ghost. It brings a change of heart and is the source of all righteous desires. The dance steps require discipline, but the joy of the dance will be experienced only when we come to hear the music." When we listen to the Holy Ghost and act on the promptings we receive, that is when we experience change growth. Just this Sunday, Brother Garrison, who Sister Robison and I met, blessed the Sacrament. It's amazing to see such big change in a person happen in such a short amount of time. But it only happened in him because he allowed the Spirit to touch his heart and excite him to act on the truths he was learning, and now he is blessing so many lives.

Hurrah for Israel! Until next week!

Love,
Sister Larsen