Choir Weekend

This last weekend I was able to travel with the Jenny Philip's choir to preform two firesides in Southern Utah. We all met up at a park in ride in Orem to carpool down to So. Utah. I volunteered to drive and was assigned four other choir members to drive with me in my car. I was given a newly married couple (8 months to be exact) who are attending BYU, and two single sister, one from South Africa and the other from somewhere in South America, I can't remember exactly where. It was a new experience for me to be the older, more mature person in the group. I have to admit I didn't like the feeling of being so much older than everyone else. But, it was a fun car ride, we talked and sang and played cards, of course I didn't play, I was driving! After 5 hours of driving we finally arrived at our first destination, Panaca Nevada! If you have never heard of Panaca, join the club, nobody had in our group. It's a very small town, 1 hour and 15 mins. West of Cedar City, Utah. It has a population of only 800! We passed the one building elementary school and knew we were in a very small town.
We arrived at the one and only church in town, were able to clean up a bit and then headed into the chapel for our sound check. After that was all complete they took us into the cultural hall where they had a yummy dinner ready for us to eat. It was soup in bread bowls and I can't complain because it was really good. After dinner it was time for the fireside to start. During the fireside, Jenny told us she felt prompted to tell a story about the time she went to Rio De Janeiro with her choir to preform. After the fireside was over one girl in the audience came up to her to tell her how touch she was with the fireside and that she was from Rio De Janeiro. She is here in Panaca right now as a foreign exchange student and is not a member of the church. Jenny asked her if she would be interested in receiving some music from her in her country's language, and the girl began to cry. She was so excited! Jenny was able to get her address and is planing on mailing her all of her CD's when she returns home.
After the fireside was over we were given a host family to spend the night with. I was nervous about this part because I have never spent the night with someone I didn't know. But I was given a great family and I also had 3 other choir members staying at the same house with me. We were all pretty tired so after staying up talking for an hour we all went to our rooms and went to bed.
The next morning our host family had a wonder breakfast waiting for us after we got ready for the day. We met back up with the rest of the choir and caravan to St. George for our next fireside. We met for lunch at one of the choir members house that lives in St. George and then attended church near her home. We made quite the scene when we walked into Sacrament Meeting 5 mins. late. There were about 30 of us all together and we were all dressed in our choir clothes. Which are long black skirts and either a white, blue or black shirt.
After church was over we headed to another church, the one that we were preforming for, and set up and had our sound check, and all the fun stuff we have to do before each preformance. Again, we had another fabulous dinner previded by the host stake. After dinner my family showed up for the fireside. The main reason I signed up to preform at this fireside was because I wanted my family to be able to come out and see it. My parents and Libby, Tom and Rachelle and even Nana Ora all came to see me that night. It's always more fun to have someone you know in the audiance!
After the fireside was over, we changed our clothes, said goodbye to the family and than headed back to Salt Lake. I have to admit, even though it was a very fun weekend, I was really ready to be home again. I guess I'm just getting too old to spend my weekend driving and staying up late.
How sad!