Polynesians, Roadshows and Prophets

Someone else inspired these memories to come flooding today,
so I'm running with it, because, well,
the way my memory comes and goes,
I gotta get this stuff down before
it's gone.

When I joined the LDS Church
I was introduced to what is called
a "Roadshow"--
it's an original theatrical production
put on by members of the Ward--
there's an original script
original music
dance numbers
costumes
backgrounds & stage managing
lighting
the whole she-bang!

And it's all done voluntarily...
that is,
noone is paid to be there.

Each ward produced their own,
even had a budget set aside for it,
and then on a particular weekend,
there was ROADSHOW Weekend--
for two nights,
the productions were performed
in a rotating fashion,
between the different Church buildings in the area
(if you lived in Utah/AZ/Idaho where there are many buildings)
or in the Stake Center
(if you lived anywhere else, where the miles between buildings was too many).

At the end of the performances--
there was a panel of judges who gave awards
much like the Oscars
to the entries...
Best Script (had to have a moral)
Best Music
Best Costumes
Best Scenery
and on and on it went.

The powers that be,
had to cut out the judging part
because egos got injured
and then it became a
"It's just a good experience for us all to share our talents, isn't it?" deal.
And then the fire just blew out of it
years later,
and without the competitive spirit
people lost interest
and the budget for it was put towards other,
more worthy things.

But, that was AFTER
long AFTER
my experience being
called as a Director of the Roadshow
with my husband
and another college couple.

The background on this is important--
we lived in Independence, Missouri.
I was 23 and had 3 kids...one of which was born
during the production phase.
My husband at the time,
was a full-time student at a Chiropractic college
and he worked full-time
and taught Sunday School to the 12 year olds.
I was also on the Releif Society board--
remember "Spiritual Living" teachers?
Yup. That was me.
 !!!busy busy busy!!!

So our ward was Unique
with a capital "U"--
it was 3/4's Polynesian ( Samoan/Tongan/Maori/ Hawaiian)
and the rest were
*haoles.  
I was in the haole group,
in case you're wondering.
Our Sunday meetings were unique
in that half of our meeting was in Samoan
and half was in English--
our prayers
our songs
the sacrament
the talks.
Nearly ALL of our Ward activities
were luaus...cellophane noodles, kahlua pigs, fire dances--
no kidding.
Our Bishop was American Samoan
his wife was from New Zealand.
The Sunday School President
was Brother Talimatasi--
who is actually a Bishop these days,
back there.

Polynesians are passionate people--
if they love you today
they love you forever,
if they don't
your name is "Mud".
I've never been in a ward
not before or since
where Hymns sounded so powerful.
They sang loud enough to raise the roof
off the chapel
and reach heaven's gates.
Our Polynesian ward family
was fun and friendly
and I loved them and was loved by them.


When we were there,
President Kimball was the Prophet then.
I loved him.
His raspy voice,
his twinkly eyes...
it was actually President Kimball
who had dedicated the  Independence Stake Center.

Okay, so
we happened to be a ward
where not everyone was as loved
by the Polynesians as we were...
some haoles were
"mud"...
and when it came time to put together this
Roadshow
we sorta got wind of the all the
"mud people".
There was a division in this sweet ward
that we had been ignorant of up to that point.
Turns out, some of the haoles
didn't understand or approve of some of the cultural differences--
it was a "US vs. THEM" deal.

But ya know,
Ignorance CAN be bliss sometimes.
Our Roadshow team
worked hard--
and there were more than enough like-minded souls
who were just as ignorant to the division as we were,
and before long
we had a fun script
great music
fantastic choreography (altho known for their fire dances, polynesians can really move-it, move-it!)
and the only glitch came when it was time to sew costumes.

The "known seamstress" in the ward
was a haole woman old enough to be my mother,
Sister Mud.
And she called to tell me
that it was against her "better judgement" to sew costumes
for the Roadshow
because of the cultural differences--
which she aptly named
and I can't recall for the life of me
what her beef was??
But, I do remember that I said,
"If it makes you that uncomfortable,
I'll find someone else."

I hung up from her call,
stumped.
I thought for a moment--
about the costumes
the time involved
and the friends I had.
I made up my mind
that I could pull this off
without Sister Mud
and made a few phone calls.
Within an hour
I had 6 seamstresses lined up.
But guess what, chicken-butt?
Sister Mud
called back
apologized
and said she'd do whatever she could.
I just love it when people CTR.

The production was called
"A Step In Time"--
the movie
"Back to the Future" had come out
and was a huge inspiration for us.
Basically,
the story was about music, youth and dancing styles...
going back to the days of bobby socks and cuffed t's
thru the 60s with the bell-bottoms,
70s with disco-balls,
and the 80s with break-dancing and leg warmers.

It was awesome.
We had over 90 people participate in the
dancing scenes--
all of them so dedicated to learning the choreography
and lines
all of it.
We had the highest participation
than any other ward in the Stake.
Even our Bishop played a part.

But wanna hear the BEST PART??

There's two other acts besides the main one--
one is called the Entre' Act
and the other is called the Olio Act.
Each were part of the program to give the different wards
time to change up the sets
between acts
so as not to bore the audience.
The Entre' Act was MY specific assignment.
I recruited two full-time missionaries to
sing a song called
"Spencer"
written by Joseph Grayson and Elder Holgate--
two missionaries I'd met when I was a new convert
in Colorado.
It was a lovely song about Spencer W. Kimball
and the Lord...like a conversation between them.
I'd called then-married-and-living-at-BYU Brother Grayson
and he sent me the music for the show.
The two missionaries practiced and practiced--
it was truly a beautiful song.

So ROADSHOW WEEKEND arrived
and our ward was the last ward to perform.

First up, the Entre' Act with
"Spencer"---
at first, the audience was noisy and bustling...
then
it quieted down.

The audience loved the song.

After the performances that night,
alot of people asked about the "Spencer" song.

The next night--it was a Saturday night--
our ward's production was the talk-of-the-town--
so that when our missionaries took to the stage
you could hear a pin drop.
Silence.
The Spirit was as strong as I'd ever felt it.
Lovely.

Of course, our ward won a few awards...one of which was
BEST CHOREOGRAPHY...totally rocked that.

So here we were feeling so accomplished and relieved that it was done, and was done well.

But that's not the end.

The next morning
before Church,
my phone rang--
it was a member of the Bishopric
asking if I had the sheet music for the
"Spencer" song.
I did and was asked to bring it to Church with me.

The missionaries met me at the chapel door
and I gave them the music.
They said they'd been asked to sing it in the Sacrament meeting.
I thought that was really nice, ya know, of the Bishop to ask for that.

So the meeting began,
in the way of announcements,
our dear Bishop shared with us
the news that
President Kimball had died the night before.
And our sweet Bishop invited our missionaries
to sing the song,
while we reflected on our dear Prophet.


I wish we still did Roadshows.

*The Hawaiian word for a foreigner or a very caucasian person who is not native to the Hawaiian Islands.