Sunday, July 20, 2008

The day we took over the nursing home...


A man from my ward, Roelf, works at a nursing home nearby the church and asked the missionaries if they'd like to sing there. They readily agreed and quickly recruited a few other voices to join... including mine.

After figuring out which songs we'd be singing (along with deciding which songs would be in which language) we did a run through practice and were off. My friend Mathea and I arrived at the nursing home first and helped Roelf set up the seating. He spoke of the priest who comes to the nursing home every Sunday and wondered how the priest would react when he found out we were singing there. He then smiled and asked, "How about a little Mormon Tabernacle Choir to get things started?" Next thing I knew the entire building was filled with the voices of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir streaming through the loud speakers.

When the men and women were being helped to their seat, Mathea and I started talking to them. One of the ladies looked at my stilettos with wide eyes and said, "You'd better be careful near the tram tracks, otherwise you may get stuck." I smiled and thought, 'well, if they did get caught, I wouldn't have as far of a fall as I had the last time.'

Once everyone arrived and all the elderly were in their seats we performed a few songs for them. One lady had told us before we began that she used to sing in a choir, and while we were singing she was tapping her feet and waving her hands in the air as if she were conducting. There were also a few people singing along to the hymns that they recognized. I couldn't help but smile as I looked at all of them. It was great to be able to provide them with a little bit of enjoyment... along with practicing my ever growing language skills.

--- Oh, the priest came in half way through our performance. It looked as though he enjoyed it.

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