December of freshman year at BYU, I heard that President Hinckley and many of the apostles were going to be gathering at the MOA for a special preview of the latest exhibit. One of my friends had been invited and extended the invitation to include me. Unfortunately, I had some kind of PE final on the other end of campus. Once class ended, I changed clothes and booked it to the museum.
I arrived five minutes too late, they had already locked the doors from the public.
Walking back to my dorm, I was pretty down. I sat on my bed and prepared to get to work on the many finals and pre-finals projects I had coming due. The whole thing just didn't feel right. I wasn't supposed to be working on finals, I was supposed to be feeding my soul.
Suddenly a brilliant idea struck me and I ran to my door. I must have stood there for a least several seconds, because Jessica who lived across the hall (and whose door was always propped open) asked me what was wrong.
"I have a crazy plan. Are you in?" I asked. She jumped up and we both bundled up before heading out to the museum. I explained my plan as we went. It was simple: if the prophet and apostles had gone *in* the building, sooner or later they would be coming out. And I planned on waiting out there till they did. My plan was to sing Christmas carols to them as they left the building. (Good thing Jessica came.)
As we waited outside, snow began to fall. We did all kinds of climbing up stairs and statues to keep warm. As we were out there, a handful of other freshmen came by and asked what we were up to. We told them and they asked if they could join in. We were delighted to have more singers join us.
I'm not sure how long we waited out there, but eventually we saw President and Sister Hinckley coming out the front doors accompanied by their bodyguard. We began singing "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." The bodyguard came down and stood as a barrier between us and the prophet. President Hinckley helped his wife into the car and then he turned to us and joined in on the second verse, tears in his eyes. He thanked us and told us he wished he could shake our hands. We thanked him for being the Lord's prophet. Then he climbed in his car and they drove away.
Soon after we saw just about every other apostle at that time come out. We continued to sing. A few of them, including President Monson, came and shook our hands.
The handshakes were nice, but that wasn't why we were out there. It was fulfilling just to sing these joyous Christmas songs to brothers and sisters we loved.
Looking back, I'm sure they wondered how their "groupies" had found them. Still, silly as we may have appeared, this experience really lifted my spirits and impacted my life.
It still makes me happy to think back on that night.
4 comments:
That is so much better than being a groupie! You actually made the prophet's night more spiritual and did him a service! Much more valuable than a groupie! That is an awesome story!
Did you ever know what a service you did for Jes? As her roommate, I witnessed it first-hand. She was GLOWING when i saw her that evening. And from the dark place that she spent most of her minutes during that time in her life, any amount of glowing was indeed a significant blessing. You gave her an opportunity to create a memory that fueled her through a struggling year. If she didn't express that to you then, I thought you should know.
I love this story :) You are awesome.
@Elisa - Jes is awesome! I remember her really taking an interest in me and my struggles that year as well. I remember her coming and playing cards with me one evening and us having a blast.
Post a Comment