MTC #174 - In With the New

There's a parable found in the Book of Jacob, from the Book of Mormon, that talks about tame and wild olive trees. In the parable, the Lord of the vineyard, along with his servants, are working hard to make sure the olive trees grow well and produce good fruit. Near the end of the story, despite all of the hard work, the Lord of the vineyard laments that the trees have become wild and are producing bitter fruit. His servants convince him, though, that they should graft in branches from a tree producing good fruit, and see if that graft has a positive effect on the ailing tree. 

I thought about this parable at Thursday night's rehearsal as Mack Wilberg officially welcomed all of the new choir members. He made it very clear that the rest of the choir really NEEDED these new members. We needed their enthusiasm, their excitement, and we needed their freshly learned musical skills and best practices. In short, we would be a much better choir because of them.

In going back to the actual parable, I took the liberty of adding a few applicable word substitutions: 

And there began to be [new members] again in the [choir]; and the [existing and new choir members] began to grow and thrive exceedingly; and the [bad singing habits & practices] began to be plucked off and to be cast away; and they did keep the [technical singing aspects] and the [spiritual focus] thereof equal, according to the strength thereof.

And thus they labored, with all diligence, according to the [direction of the leaders and directors] of the [choir], even until the [bad singing habits & practices] had been cast away out of the [choir], and the [directors] had preserved unto [themselves] that the [choir members] had become again [to reach their potential]; and they became like unto one body; and the fruits were equal. . . 

After the broadcast was over today, I turned around in my seat to look at two of the new choir members who happened to be sitting directly behind me. They were all smiles, and as I looked into their eyes, I could almost hear the words "Look! We did it! We stood up at the right time, we brought our folders up and down correctly, we remembered the words, and we used our Choir School knowledge to sing our best. Most importantly, we were able to bear testimony through our singing."

Yes, it's good to have them here. And yes, it's good to be influenced by them and become better because of them.

A few other tidbits I wanted to mention:
--I just loved all of the songs today. Particularly "All People That on Earth Do

Dwell" and "Happy and Blest Are They". 
--A new CD is coming out soon. Check out the details here and if you're interested, you can purchase here.
--We're starting work on a new recording which won't be released until next year. I don't think this project has been given an official press release so I should probably wait until that happens to talk about it further. But fans of the choir should be quite happy about it!

Until next time, God be with you.