Sunday, October 16, 2011

Southern Lights Atlanta Temple Celebration



President Thomas S. Monson has invited all the youth ages 12-18 of the Atlanta Temple District, to participate in a Cultural Celebration to commemorate the dedication of the temple. This will be a once in a lifetime opportunity to come together with youth in the area and to be a part of a powerful event that our Prophet will attend.

We invite all youth of the Georgia Atlanta Temple District (14.5 stakes) to prepare with all diligence for this incredible blessing to celebrate the re-opening of the Temple.


I am so glad Brenton was a part of this one in a lifetime event.  The youth in our ward worked so hard.  All of their youth activities for 2 months was learning their dance.  Our ward was combined with the Cumorah Spanish Branch, and Milton Ward (they both meet in our building).  They all did a great job and it looked fantastic.  Since there were over 2,700 youth performing and only seating for 5,000 in the Civic Center, each family was given 1 ticket.  I was a little unhappy when I heard this.  I understand why, but I would have loved to take the whole family.  Not only would this be a once in a lifetime opportunity to perform, but also once in a lifetime to watch.  So the plan was that Jon was going to go.  A few days before the event when Jon went to pick up his ticket during youth activity night, they gave Jon an extra ticket since they had a couple extras.  I was very excited to have a ticket.  Only one problem.  Our babysitter (Brenton) along with all the other youth from our ward were all performing in the event so who was going to watch our 5 kids.  So even though I had a ticket, I was still going to stay home with the kids.  The morning of the performance my awesome brother in law, Aaron volunteered to watch our kids so I could go watch Brenton.   I was very excited to go.  Since there were no assigned seating, the line outside before the doors opened got really long.  Luckily, I had my mom who was inside helping out with the show.  She saved us some seats because her work was done when the doors opened.  Our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson spoke a few words to the youth and then youth performed.  It was an awesome event.  Brenton had a great experience and was glad he stuck it out.  Towards the end, they had a couple Saturday rehearsals as well as their activity night practice.  The day before the show they went to the Civic Center right after school got out and were there until after midnight.  You would have thought they would have gone through the whole production a few times but no only once in all that time.  They did spend a lot of time on the opening number song and closing song since the only thing about these numbers that had been practiced and memorized were the songs.
When the show was over, the look on all the youths faces was just wonderful.  They were so happy and were sad at the same time that it was over.  They had such a great time that they didn't want it to end. 

I have tried to insert the video Jon took with our video camera of our ward's performance, but it wouldn't upload.  I am so mad at myself for not taking a picture of Brenton in his costume.  Here is a photo I found online so I can at least remember what they were wearing.


I am so glad I was able to go watch both Brenton and my sister Taylor perform. All the dances were great and fun to watch.  It was such a great night.



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