WARNING: THIS IS LENGTHY!!
I'm shocked it's taken me this long to do a post about LDC!! I've had the incredible opportunity to sing in UVU's auditioned choir called Latter Day Celebration!! I can honestly say, auditioning for LDC has literally been the best decision I have yet to make thus far in my life! I almost didn't audition because of my ridiculous fear of try-outs, but I knew I had to audition. I heard about LDC 2 Christmas ago and ever since then I just knew I had to audition. I remember last summer I was debating whether or not I should try-out and I was trying to justify my reasons for not trying out. I remember I was standing in my kitchen one morning before work last summer making breakfast and it's almost like I heard a voice saying, "Audition, you're going to be in that choir." From then on I put my selfish worries aside and I auditioned! I think there were about 250 people that auditioned and there were 40 spots open, total guys and girls. So 20 girls, 20 guys. Break that into the 4 part choir, 10 people for each part. I still am so shocked I made it because the calliber of talent in LDC is unlike anything I have ever experienced. I have never felt so intimidated to sing before in my life than I was the first few weeks of LDC. Every person in the choir is beyone phenominal. But like I said, I knew I was going to make it way before I auditioned. I don't mean that in a conceeded way, I just had an undeniable feeling that I knew I would make it. LDC has literally changed my life. I'm not the same girl I was a year ago because of LDC. I feel like one of the main reasons I was supposed to be in LDC was to learn from all of my friends and to learn from our incredible director, Brother Eggett. I accredit all of my spiritual growth to my Savior, but I owe so much to the lessons I have learned from Brother Eggett. Anyone who knows him can attest to this! I have had the most incredible opportunites and experiences from being in LDC. In fact, 2 of the most amazing and best experiences I have ever had in my life have been with LDC; singing in General Conference and going on choir tour! General Conference was so amazing that it deserves a post of its own. I'll just say that it changed my life. Literally. The whole conference experience touched me enough to the point that I've kicked previous habbitts and attitudes that I once had and I will never go back because of the impact Conference had on me.
I do, however, want to talk about choir tour!!!!!! We had an LDC Family Home Evening the night before we left to kick off tour that ended up lasting til about 1:30, then we met at the institute at 7:00 the next morning and started our tour! Our tour consisted of Grand Junction, Colorado, Green River Utah, Price Utah, and Payson Utah..... you're probably thinking "wow, lamest tour I've ever heard of!" right? WRONG! One of the many many lessons I learned while on tour was that the Savior didn't seek out to teach the most noble, prettiest, popular or well known people... he taught the meek, the poor, the humble, the lowly of heart, and the people who would actually appreciate His message. We feel the same way! These people needed to see our show and feel the Saviors love for them through beautiful music. The people we sang for were so open and receptive to the spirit and that's why I feel like tour was such a success, because we were actually able to bear our testimonies to so many people.
SO this is the basic outline of how tour went. Wake up at 5:00 am for morning sides at the seminary. Do a morning side at 6:00 am. After, we would go to the seminaries and do mini EFY's with them all day! We would split up in groups and do group cheers with the kids and then play a game and then "de-brief," the game and ask the kids questions on how it partains to the Gospel. We'd then meet up together after and Brother Eggett would do a devotional and we would sing for them. INCREDIBLE. Bro. Eggett wants us working 24/7, so we didn't waste anytime and in the hour we had to spare before our show, we would go find either a rest home, jr. high, or we would even just go door to door and sing for people! Even more incredible. After that, we would head to the stake center and immediately start setting up our immaculate stage! (We built the whole thing from scratch by hand fyi.... and we had 2 trailers that came with us that held the stage so we set it up and took it down every single night!) After that, we would SHOVEL dinner into our mouths and then we had about 15 minutes to get ourselves ready for our show, and then we would perform our show and then take down the stage! After that, we would go home with our host families! This was so cool to me.... we would stay with 2-4 people each night with completely random families that voulenteered to open up their homes to us for the night! That's one reason why I love this church! We would get home at about 10:30 ish every night, shower, get ready for bed and get up at 5:00 am the next day:) Yes, it was beyond exhausting. But beyone worth it!
I've been singing since I was 5 years old and I've had a lot of great experiences because I sing. However, performing our show and singing on tour was hands down the greatest experience I have ever had because I sing. Especially singing for the seminaries! We would have a kid walk in who you could tell was "too cool," to care about the Gospel. By the end of the period, they were in tears. Tour was the closest I've felt to being a missionary and I loved it!
OH one of the best parts of tour was this!!! Remember how I said I knew I would make LDC? Well in the beginning of April, I had the same experience and I knew I was going to get a big calling in the choir next year. I knew I was going to be called into the presidency. The last day of tour, there was SO much talk of who was going to be called into the presidency next year! Brother Eggett had pulled me aside several times to discuss the matter with me, and I knew he was considering me for the presidency, I just didn't know what position it was for. By the time we got on the bus to go home Friday night, everyone had narrowed it down to 3 people for who was going to be next years president; Lauren, Teddy and me. On the bus ride home,Lauren and a bunch of us were sitting on the very back row and Bro. Eggett was at the very front. All the sudden he comes back and sits next to both of us, and just sits there!! He talked to us for like 2 minutes and then walked back up... we were FREAKING out haha! Not even a second after he left, I got a text from him saying "will you be secretary next year?" I squealed out loud haha! My very first feeling back in April was that I was going to be secretary next year and I could not be happier with that calling! After I got that text he called me and told me to come talk to him so I went up there and he said "how do you feel about Lauren for president and David Smith for vice?" and I said, "That's exactly who I would have chosen anyways!" After that, he announced it to everyone and we are THRILLED! Next year is going to be phenominal and we are already hard at work starting to plan and organize next year.
Moral of the story is I'm in love with LDC! Best decision I have ever made and I can't believe I'm so blessed to be part of something so much greater than me. Here are a few pics from tour and mine and Lauren's reactions to being called into the presidency for next year and pics of the 2010-2011 presidency!! I LOVE LDC!!!
