Post Postscript

Dear Robert,

I want to thank you, and all those who are responsible, for bringing that wonderful, inspiring musical presentation to Lacey last night.  It was one of the most reverent, worshipful programs I have seen, and its testimony of the Book of Mormon was especially powerful.  Every aspect was beautiful; the musical numbers, the narration -- we could clearly hear every word, and every word was important.  The manner in which the youth conducted themselves spoke of their goodness, both during the program, and in the homes of the host families, including mine.  

More than just praise these wonderful young folks, I want to thank them for the effect they had on our Lacey youth, as exemplified by the attached Facebook post, from one of our 16-year-old Laurels.  If this young woman expressed it, I am confident that many more felt the very same way. One of our high councilors expressed the desire to follow them down to Oregon, just to hear it all again. We didn't have as good a crowd as we could have wished, but every soul was touched, not least my own. I love the Book of Mormon with all my heart, and I've never seen it treated better. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Please consider us again, if you are ever in our area.

--

President Eric P. Coppin

Lacey Washington Stake

Postscript

Dear Youth Chorus,

Well, I'm already missing you like crazy. I absolutely love riding on the bus and I feel so incomplete not finishing the journey with you. I know you are probably missing me too and wishing I was on the microphone right talking at you (my favorite pastime) so I devised a way to do it through proxy. :)

I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that I already lost the Book of Mormon you gave me. No, it's not because I lose everything (by the way, has anyone seen my sunglasses?) there is actually a story behind this one. Which brings me to the good news...

When I got in the cab, I was completely exhausted and ready to nap all the way to the airport. There was a woman driving with her 17-year-old son in the passenger seat. She began asking me questions about our tour and what we were doing. I told her about us and, naturally, this led to a discussion about the gospel. She said she has a friend in Washington who is a member and that once she attended a church service with her. She said, "I have never experienced a feeling quite like that before. It was an intense feeling of love and welcoming." (Later in the conversation I had a chance to explain what that feelingreally was.) 

She asked about our belief in the afterlife and our purpose for being here. I told her how we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father and that he has a plan for us to be happy and, ultimately, become like him. She got somewhat emotional talking about how she's felt like she has been missing something in her life but hasn't been able to put her finger on what it is. (At this point, I was sure I was being punked.) I told her about how much I love being a member of the Church and how it has been the source of every good thing in my life (the truth.)

When she dropped me off at the airport, I had an intense desire to share more with her, but I knew all I had in my bag was the Book of Mormon that you had just given me. During the meeting, I had thumbed through it, seeing your testimonies and the scriptures that you had carefully highlighted. I knew that it was going to be one of my greatest treasures. I know now that those testimonies and scriptures were never meant for me. I wrote my name and contact info in the front and gave it to her. She emotionally thanked me and promised to stay in touch.

What are the odds that this woman would be picking me up in Hermiston, Oregon to go to the airport? God is real and he works in mysterious ways. 

I am so grateful for the incredible experience that I've been able to have with all of you these past ten days. The whole experience has been so sacred and I will never forget it. God bless you for your goodness, humility, and faith. I will anxiously await our first rehearsal in September.

Much love,

Mr. Swenson

Good Friends and Good Times

"Is any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of Christian friends by a good fire?"

C.S. Lewis

Here is a final miscellany of memories made over the miles.

This post is retroactive -- we had no Internet on our last day of travel, and I spent my first day home at a funeral -- but these memories are still worth sharing. I sorted through my remaining photos and used many of them to update earlier posts, so you may wish to look back through the blog to see who you can spot there.

Photos that don't fall under any other heading have been collected here, under the happy tags of #goodfriends and #goodtimes.

Photo credits: Many outstanding photographers, but especially Jackson Graham

Mt. St. Helens: Beauty for Ashes

Our chaperone, Heather Kunz, will never forget May 18, 1980, the day Mt. St. Helens erupted. It happened at 8:32 a.m. Sunday morning as she was getting ready for church, and she witnessed it from her home.

She told us how an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 caused the immediate collapse of the mountain side and triggered a landslide that swept through 230 miles in ten minutes -- the largest landslide in recorded history. Ash clouds from the blast generated static electricity, which in turn generated lightning bolts as long as two miles, igniting forest fires throughout the region. In total, the volcano released 24 megatons of thermal energy, a force equivalent to 1600 times that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

The air was thick with ash. People wore surgical masks to avoid breathing it in. It clogged engines and grounded air and automobile traffic.

As the ash settled, the devastation was revealed. On city streets, ash was plowed like snow to the side of the road, but there it stayed, never to melt. In the wild, trees were laid back like fur on a frightened animal, stripped bare, pointing the direction of the blast like compass needles. Miles of magnificent, old-growth forests were washed into Spirit Lake at the base of the mountain. Where once stood a perfectly conical, snow-capped peak, there was now a mile-wide crater.

And yet, where humans see devastation, nature finds opportunity. Ice-covered mountain lakes shielded underwater communities, and other animal species were able to survive in sheltered underground pockets. Throughout the blast zone, scorched land created new habitat.

As the ranger later told us, changes began taking place almost immediately that marked the eruption as only a brief moment in the eternal cycle of renewal. The mountain's web of life today, he said, is more diverse, complex, and productive than it was before the 1980 eruption.

As we pondered these things, we couldn't help thinking how life is so often like that: Many of our greatest blessings and strongest life lessons arise from our darkest moments.

Isaiah 61: The Lord hath . . . sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound . . . to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes.

Photo credits: Heidi Rodeback, Andrew Furner, Laurie Patterson

Service with a Smile

Little known fact: We don't call these fireside tours; we call them service tours. We sing to share the gospel, and we look for opportunities to help out in the communities we visit. On Wednesday, our service emphasis led us to the small town of Retsil, Washington, where we cleaned graves at the veterans cemetery and sang in the Washington Veterans Home.

On Friday, our service emphasis took us to the Seattle temple, where we performed baptisms for the dead.

Little-known facts about the Seattle Temple:

• The Seattle Moroni, seen above, is one of only five who holds a Book of Mormon in his hands.
• Dedicated by Spencer W. Kimball in 1980, this temple became the nineteenth operating temple and the first to have been built in the Pacific Northwest.
• Because it is situated near the Bellevue Airfield, the proposed height of the spire was reduced, and a red strobe warning light was installed at the base of the angel Moroni statue. When the airfield closed in 1983, the light was permanently shut off.
• The construction of the Seattle Washington Temple was opposed by various anti-Mormon groups. During the temple dedication, one group of women even chained themselves to the front gates as a demonstration of their opposition to the Church's position on the Equal Rights Amendment.
• The angel Moroni was shipped to Seattle in two halves on large semi-trucks. One of the halves was detained in one of Seattle's legendary traffic snarls, and the next day the papers ran pictures under the headline, "Angel delayed in traffic."

Photo credits: Laurie Patterson, Jackson Graham, Andy Griffith