Sister Fisher on Temple Square!

 

Something funny I saw on a wipe board that I wanted to share.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

 

Transfer 3, Week 1:... it's only been about 24 hours but... Hi!!!

Dear family and friends,

 Surprise!!!! My P-days got changed this transfer to Wednesdays!

 SO my new home is in guest services which is where a few sisters get to serve. This was my 'on job' training, but my trainer is really nice and patient so it's been really great and the time just FLIES there. We answer the most bizarre phone calls and transfer them to the correct place they need to go....  :) haha. Another cool thing is we book all the tours and scheduling and get to see the V.I.P. tours of ambassadors and special groups of people who come and go through the Square, so it's neat to see all the many many important people who come here from all over the world.

 I was very lucky because conference was so crazy and they didn't want us to get sick, they allowed Monday and Tuesday this week to be "sleep in" days, where we could sleep or do whatever we wanted until when we had to be on the Square, and the next day. What's weird is now that I'm super rested (well... except that I woke up at 4:30am to take Sister L to the airport....) all I want to do is go work! I honestly don't know what to do with myself today on P-day number 2. I think I'll take advantage of the extra time and study (our personal study seems to always get over scheduled my Square duties). 

 Hmm.... what else? Each transfer just keeps going faster and faster and I think that's how it'll be until I "die" and go home. Some sisters leaving for home in China had to be released as a missionary yesterday (cuz they were finished) and it was the SADDEST thing. They were so traumatized by it. Our entire purpose, meaning and identity is gone, just like that. I'm still pretty numb because both of my comps just left to go home, at the same time (cuz they were finished with their 18 month mission). Luckily I still have Sister M who I love so dearly (from the MTC) here with me otherwise I think I'd really feel lost.

Hmm....maybe I'll include some fun facts about Temple Square we share with people:

 Tabernacle:

Built in 12 years and finished in 1875. The dome-shaped Tabernacle is one of the most acoustically perfect buildings in the entire world. It is a miraculous building because the study of acoustics wasn't even started until the 1900's, 25 years after this building was built. The building was built by Henry Grow, and Truman O. Angel. Brigham Young received revelation from God, that he needed to build a building that could hold 13,000 pioneers, who could all hear his voice speak---in a time of no electricity or microphones. How was he to achieve this task? 

Well, much like the Brother of Jared and Nephi building a boat, Brigham Young took to heart the scripture that says "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." And Brigham Young knew that. He knew that if he did the best he could the Lord would provide a way, much like Moses parting the Red Sea.  So he started thinking of ways he could build this building, and as he was greeting some of the new saints coming west from Europe, he met Henry Grow--- a famous bridge builder. 

President Young asked him what was the largest bridge he'd built that was unsupported, and he said 150 feet. President Young said "That's perfect." And so with the expertise of someone who developed their God-given talents, mingled with the inspiration of God, the Tabernacle in the Salt Lake City was created (one of the building marvels of the world), with the ceiling made up of 9 unsupported bridges. The acoustics were so good, that the reverb was too much, and carpet was added along with another wooden balcony. Great artists like Andrea Boccelli, and of course the Mormon Tablernacle Choir, perfect to record albums inside the Tabernacle. Today we demonstrate the acoustics of the building with a microphone so that people can believe this remarkable miraculous feat. We actually drop pins, and a small nail, and rip paper and every single person in the whole building can hear us. It's unreal. It's also a huge testimony to me that all things really are possible with the Lord. 

The Organ:

It has 11,623 pipes and is the 12th largest (by number of pipes) in the world. BUT---for example, the largest organ is in Boston and is unplayable because it has not been maintained well. The Tabernacle organ is one of the best maintained organs in the world, and paired up with the incredible acoustic space of the Tabernacle which it resides in, many organ players consider it to be the finest organ in the world. All of the big pipes in front are made out of wood (just like the pillars which are painted to look like marble) and then gold leafed on the outside. The five lucky organists who are on staff for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and who give daily organ concerts in the hall, are some of the best organ players in the world (all have PhD's from notable universities and have toured around the world). The main organ player of the choir has an amazing story he shared with us at a devotional for the sister missionaries... 

He told us that one day he was practicing as usual, and his right arm started to hurt and then he was in pain because one of his tendons snapped as he practiced. The doctor gave him two options: 1. Go on having a normal life, somewhat able to use his right hand, but never able again to play the organ like he used to, and avoid surgery, and 2. Have surgery which has a 50/50 chance of healing correctly and maintaining complete dexterity, or healing and being stiffer than it already was for the rest of his life. 

What a decision to make. After praying and fasting, he found peace in his decision to have surgery trusting that God's will be done. He knew that God had lead him to the organ and that serving him with his talent was his only intention, so if the Lord decided to close that one door, he would open another and he would be able to find just as much joy doing the Lord's will, without the organ, as doing the Lord's will with it. So his entire profession and career and passion on the line, he did the surgery. After surgery he had to wait a few months for his arm to fully heal. In the meantime, he exercised his faith, and still practiced the organ, but only his footwork- FOR MONTHS. By a miracle, his right arm healed completely and in a few months he was back to his original level in left/right hands, but because he could only practice his footwork on the organ, he was a much better organ player than he ever was before!!! 

There is a story that he has an incredible virtuoso arrangement of a certain hymn which showcases his incredible footwork (the name escapes me...sorry) and one day a man approached him and asked him if he had copyrighted the sheet music to the hymn. The organ player just looked at him puzzled. The man continued "So no one else will take it as their own!". The organ player just smiled and said "No need. No one else can play it!"

 The Temple:

The Salt Lake City Temple is the largest LDS Temple in the world, and also took the longest to build as well---40 years. If you started work on the Temple and you were 20 years old, it would finally be completed when you were 60!!!! Both Brigham Young and the head architect Truman O. Angel, died before it was completed-- they never saw it finished in their life time, yet they still worked persistently.  Something that amazes me, is that in the first 20 years they only built up to 10 feet of the whole temple---only up to the first window! And the rest of the 200+ feet was built in the remaining 20 years. Each block of granite took 4 days to move on an ox-driven cart from the canyon to the temple site. Then they had to hand chisel each block until it was perfectly smoothed. One stone carver Henry Moyle, worked on the Temple tirelessly. He would wake up at 3am in the morning on Monday, and walk from Alpine to Salt Lake to begin work on the Temple. He'd finish on Friday night at 6pm, just to walk back home so he could start his farm chores on the weekend. He did this for years. One weekend when he was milking a cow, she kicked him in the leg and shattered his knee cap. There was no other way to save the leg besides amputating it at the knee. They took a door and tied him down to it, and took a saw and sawed it off. As he was healing, he began to carve himself a new leg out of wood. When he was well enough, he started practicing around on it in the yard.  One morning he woke up and started buttoning up his coat. His wife asked "Where are you going John?" he replied "to the Temple". She just looked at him and said "you don't have a leg anymore, surely the Lord will call someone else!", but optimistic and faithful, he said "The Lord called me to be a stone worker on the Temple, and He hasn't released me yet!" so he walked on his wooden leg 30 miles to the Temple, and he was the one who completed the Temple to the end, (by walking there) on his wooden leg so he could carve the stone plaque  on the side of the Temple that declares "Holiness to the Lord, the House of the Lord." Many more stories of immense sacrifice and miracles tell of pioneers who helped contribute to building a Temple to their God. One woman, who didn't have any money or men to help build the temple, she found some dead buffalo along the trail, and pulled off the hair off of them. With the buffalo hair, she knitted gloves for the stone cutters to wear in the cold of winter. Everyone helped and kept working on the building because of the significance it had for them, the hope it provided, the blessings they desired and the covenants they wanted to make with God. If only each one of us as we enter into the Temple can feel that way!!!

Welp, that's just a little of the cool stuff we share with people here! It's real life faith/miracles-built buildings here! (and you would never know just how remarkable they are unless you'd heard the stories!)

Love you always,

Sister Fisher