TCATS #483 - Of Hope & Outcomes

This will be my last blog post for the month since the next three Sundays the Choir won't be doing a live broadcast. Next week we're not having one so that Choir members can have a little more time to rest before traveling; the week after that we'll be in the Philippines; and the week after that we will have just arrived back home and will be using that weekend to adjust back to Mountain time zone. An interesting thing to note about us coming back home... We fly back the late afternoon of the 29th (leap day) and we actually arrive the same day before we even left! It's like having not only a leap day, but an extra leap day (February 30th, anyone?). Haha. 

This coming Thursday the Choir will run through the entire concert that we're presenting to the people in the Philippines. If you happen to be in the Salt Lake City area that night, you're more than welcome to attend (it will be in the Tabernacle). It'll start right at 7pm and will last a little past 9pm. We're performing a wide variety of songs so I'm sure there will be something for everyone. If you can't make it, be sure and tune into the live stream of our concert from Manila on Wednesday, February 28th. Click HERE for more details.

It's hard not to get wrapped up in all of the outward excitement of this tour. And rightfully so. The people in the Philippines are thrilled to have us. The music will touch a lot of lives. All of the concerts are sold out and the live stream will surely be watched by hundreds of thousands. The Choir members get to personally greet audience members after the concerts to let them know how grateful we are for them and to make that personal connection. So yes, it's exciting.

Behind all of that, though, there are 500+ individuals who are bringing with them to Manila not only their preparation, dedication, and hopes that all will go well, but also their struggles, their concerns, their fears, and all of the hard things going on in their lives. We do our best to have those harder things take a temporary backseat in our minds and hearts, but it takes a lot of emotional energy to do that. My personal hope is that this experience, as much as it's for the Filipinos, will be a time of individual healing, of increased hope, and of feeling a lot of love from our Savior Jesus Christ. 

My hopes sometimes waver in believing that those outcomes will happen. In fact, I've been praying a lot less for outcomes and just for more personal understanding and acceptance of God's will, whatever that turns out to be. But I'll do my best to maintain that hope because all of those going on this tour will certainly come back to varying degrees of hard things and will be needing the fruits of that hope as they tackle anew whatever they're going through.

Much grace to each of you.
Until next time, God be with you.

TCATS #482 - The Ryan Murphy Show

Every once in awhile, Mack Wilberg hands the entire Music & the Spoken Word  program over to the associate director, Ryan Murphy. And today was one of those days.

Ryan is an extremely gifted music director. His passion for making the music sound as good as possible is evident every time he steps up to the podium for a rehearsal or performance. He can hear the smallest imperfection and works hard to help us overcome those imperfections. He's gifted in being able to explain exactly what he wants from us in a way that we can understand and adjust to. It's amazing that when something doesn't sound quite right, he can pinpoint it, can articulate what we need to do to fix it, and then will rehearse it with us until it's either fixed, or he runs out of time :) 

Unfortunately, I never feel like I'm doing enough. And because I feel that way in general (thanks to my personality and habits of toxic self-criticism), I usually come away from these experiences feeling there's just one more reason why I'm not enough.  Honestly, I wish I didn't. But I do. And it's something I'm going to have to continue to work on.

Anyway, I think my favorite song from today's lineup was PILGRIM SONG. Some of the lyrics from this song seem to resonate with my hopes: "When the messenger shall say, come quit this house of clay, and with bright angels tower."

Where can I sign up?

Switching gears, any new news on the Philippines tour you might ask? 

Not really. But, this week we have a pre-tour meeting from 6-7:15 Tuesday night where we should get all of the nitty-gritty details. And then the next day, we'll each get our flight information--whether we're on flight 1 or flight 2 and what our actual seating assignment will be. I'm sure I'll be sending a text to my closest choir buddies after we get that info, just to see if the odds of sitting next to one of them was actually in my favor. . . or not. 

Today the choir men added their charcoal suit pants and their black suit pants to the wardrobe boxes that will be loaded onto the plane in a couple of weeks. Fortunately we are leaving behind all of our ties and suit coats and instead will dress like this:

Apparently, when dressing up for special occasions in the Philippines, the men wear what's called a "barong". And I for one am excited that it will probably feel a lot cooler wearing a barong than wearing a suit coat!

Other than that, everyone just continues to prepare with whatever they feel like they need to do. One of those to-do items for my friend (and tour roommate, Willy) was to better learn the clapping that is part of the Ah El Novio song--since he's never been on tour yet and we only perform that song while on tour. So I went over on Monday night to help him with that and we now feel very confident he will clap in all of the places he needs to. 

Speaking of Willy, kudos to him and the 50+ other men in the choir who just completed auditions for a solo part in the song The Spirit of God. I was amazed at not only how many wanted the part, but how amazing everyone sounded (it's rare that we get to hear each other sing a solo). Willy was one of the six or so men who were asked to come for a final round of auditions Thursday night before rehearsal (woohoo!).  In the end, Mack just decided to take all six with the instructions that each of them learn each of the three parts and come up with a rotation schedule for who would perform when. Guess that works. 

Well, that's about it for the week. I hope you feel extra loved and appreciated as you go through the next seven days and hope that you'll give yourself an extra helping of grace.

Until next time, God be with you.