More LONG Days

Friday was opening night here at the Pageant!!  We had an approximate attendance of 6500...not too shabby!  All of us are having a lot of fun making friends with members of the cast; people have come from as far as Japan, Nova Scotia, and the United Arab Emirates to be in it.  Performances end at about 10:30 then we have to change out of costumes, having a closing devotional, and drive 20 minutes back to our hotel (usually with an ice cream stop on the way :). So it makes for late nights.  Thankfully because we have no rehearsals the second week, we can sleep in a little later.  The toughest part of most nights though is hearing the protestors while we walk to our car.  They have no shortage of bad things to say about our church and what we believe, but I often think of the scripture that says that there must needs be opposition in all things.  It's also fulfillment of the prophecy that Joseph Smith's name will be had for good and evil among all nations.  Sometimes I actually feel gratitude for the protestors, for helping me realize how deep my testimony really is.  I love being here and sharing the message of the pageant.  Really it's about Christ.  We are here to invite people to come unto him and to teach that he's our Savior.  This year is the 75th anniversary of the Hill Cumorah Pageant and it's amazing to think the grandeur of the things were doing here, the people we're reaching, and the events that happened on this hill. 

Hill Cumorah Pageant 2012

We are in New York now and will be for the next to weeks as part of the cast of the Hill Cumorah Pageant, an outdoor theatrical production put on by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  This year there is a cast of 760 people! You can go back and read my posts from pageant last year if you want to know more about it :) We got here Friday night and they cast all 760 people in about 3 hours.  If you want the run-down, here it is: I am a "spoil of war slave woman" in King Noah's court and a destruction victim, Neil and Tanner are Noah citizens, my Dad is a speaking wicked priest (it's crazy that all 4 of us are in the same scene, but it's a big one), Grant is Laman's third son, and Mom is in the restoration congregation with Joseph Smith as well as the mob that chases Lehi out of Jerusalem.  I know that if you aren't familiar with the Book of Mormon that probably makes little to no sense, but nonetheless it's an amazing show!! Some of the coolest parts are the fire and water effects and the over 1,000 costumes used.  The days are SO long here and by the end I'm exhausted and usually crabby.  Today we had church and lots of meetings and devotionals so by the time we got to the hotel the boys were so squirrely.  I will share one good quote from a talk given..."Happiness isn't external; it's a core belief.  You wake up in the morning and flip that switch and chose to be happy."
-Olivia

High Adventure

High Adventure was a little while back but it was so fun!  All the girls 14-18 in my branch (church group) went for three days to Turkey Run State Park here in Indiana.  The first day we went on a 10 mile kayaking trip...wow! I don't think you'll find anyone who thought that was easy.  The water was really low so we had to get out a bjillion times and push our kayaks, plus some people (my Dad, who went with us as a chaperone :) had their kayaks fill with water from leaks and they had to be emptied a bjillion times.  We were in swim suits so our legs were totally exposed and just waiting to get sunburned.  And they did.  Two weeks later, my legs are still peeling.  Some of us could hardly walk that night our thighs were so burnt - and of course it was the one time that I actually put sunscreen on my legs.  Right after we finished there was a giant storm so we had to set up our tents in the rain - NOT something I recommend trying.  But by that night it was clear and we slept well...except that we had a few little critter friends.  They told us a thousand time to take ALL our food out of our tents and put it in the cars, but one of my friends forgot that her leftover lunch was in her backpack.  A raccoon got into their tent, into her backpack, and ate all the food.  And just before I went to bed, a leader and I saw a skunk just about a yard away from us.  This was much more of an adventure than I thought it would be!  The second day we went hiking and it was beautiful!!  We had fun climbing all kinds of rock formations and bridges and stuff.  It was so funny, all the men that chaperoned had to point out all the ways girl camping was different from boy camping.  For example, all the girls showered regularly, all the food was organized in tubs by day, at nights we just sat around and talked for hours, and we started fires with tampons.  We know all the men had a good time, even when they mocked us about our laminated meal list ;)  The third day we went horseback riding...which was more like just a chill ride on horses through the woods.  The excitement level wasn't too high but we still had a good time :)