Request for assistance

[askandanswer]

Elder Christofferson will be attending our Branch next month. I have been asked to provide the music. I anticipate that the hymns for the meeting will be selected by someone else but I expect that it will be up to me to choose the prelude and postlude music. Does anyone know if Elder Christofferson has expressed any musical preferences or favourite hymns, or does anyone recall ever hearing which hymns are played more frequently in the Thursday meetings of the apostles and First Presidency?

[Vort]

Do The Wint'ry Day, Descending to Its Close. Beautiful hymn, all about Utah, and I can all but guarantee he hasn't already heard it at a dozen stake conferences before.

[askandanswer]

3 hours ago, Vort said:

Do The Wint'ry Day, Descending to Its Close. Beautiful hymn, all about Utah, and I can all but guarantee he hasn't already heard it at a dozen stake conferences before.

Thanks @Vort I play this one every now and again, and quite enjoy it, along with hymns 33 and 34 which are very Utah based. We have neither mountains nor Winter where I'm living at the moment but we don't need either to make these hymns sound lovely. 

[Vort]

18 minutes ago, askandanswer said:

Thanks @Vort I play this one every now and again, and quite enjoy it, along with hymns 33 and 34 which are very Utah based. We have neither mountains nor Winter where I'm living at the moment but we don't need either to make these hymns sound lovely. 

I was half-kidding; the hymn would almost certainly be out of left field in most Church settings at this time of year and in that part of the world. But it is a beautiful hymn.

[Just_A_Guy]

In all seriousness:  Elder C. isn’t coming to your branch to be entertained or impressed.  He’s coming to see how things are working in your branch, and to advise you accordingly.  (In Utah, apostles occasionally do drop in on random congregations with little-to-no notice; President Oaks did that to us back in 2019.)  I think the best thing you can do is just to treat this like any other meeting.  

(Unless you’ve been doing anything nakedly apostate in your meetings, in which case I would encourage your branch to knock it off.  🙂  )

Edited April 21, 2023 by Just_A_Guy

[The Folk Prophet]

8 hours ago, Just_A_Guy said:

Unless you’ve been doing anything nakedly apostate

I do all my apostasy naked.

[Vort]

2 hours ago, The Folk Prophet said:

I do all my apostasy naked.

I mean, if you're going to do apostasy, might as well go all in.

(EDIT: For the record, I don't really believe that.)

Edited April 21, 2023 by Vort

[askandanswer]

12 hours ago, Just_A_Guy said:

I think the best thing you can do is just to treat this like any other meeting.  

No, I'll definitely be putting more time and effort into my musical preparation than I do for an ordinary meeting. I've also started reading all of the General Conference talks he's given since being called as a General Authority.

It seems the church is not treating this as an ordinary meeting either - I've heard that they are sending someone out from the Area Office to see what needs to be done to the chapel itself to prepare for the visit. Members have been asking for years for certain jobs to be done at the chapel, to no avail, but I'm anticipating that some of them will be done before Elder Christofferson arrives. 

[The Folk Prophet]

3 hours ago, Vort said:

EDIT: For the record, I don't really believe that.

Really? I'm shocked. 

[Vort]

15 minutes ago, The Folk Prophet said:

Really? I'm shocked. 

I'm full of surprises. At least, my high school compatriots told me that I was full of something, and I assumed that was surprises.

[Just_A_Guy]

13 hours ago, askandanswer said:

No, I'll definitely be putting more time and effort into my musical preparation than I do for an ordinary meeting. I've also started reading all of the General Conference talks he's given since being called as a General Authority.

It seems the church is not treating this as an ordinary meeting either - I've heard that they are sending someone out from the Area Office to see what needs to be done to the chapel itself to prepare for the visit. Members have been asking for years for certain jobs to be done at the chapel, to no avail, but I'm anticipating that some of them will be done before Elder Christofferson arrives. 

I sort of get that; and I don’t want to be unsupportive or unduly critical.

On the other hand, I would want to be careful not to create a sort of “Potemkin ward”, where what is presented to the visiting authority is seriously disconnected with the reality of life in your congregation  

And the idea that your area office has been ignoring your physical facilities requests for years and is only just granting them now that an apostle is en route, frankly horrifies me.  That’s not how things are supposed to work; and I hope Elder Christofferson is made aware of the situation.  (I revere the apostles and try to sustain the seventies and area presidencies; but I give no deference whatsoever to the Church bureaucracy, who in my experience contains an unpredictable mix of amazingly good human beings as well as a disproportionate share of obsequious and superficial snots.)

Edited April 22, 2023 by Just_A_Guy

[askandanswer]

I've just come home from the meeting with Elder Christofferson, who was accompanied by his wife, Elder Meurs (an Australian General Authority) his wife, and the Mission President and his wife. The District President was with his home branch at the other end of the District 1,500 kilometers away. We've had quite a few visits from people from physical facilities, several thousand kilometers away, some of home stayed for several nights. Our previous branch physical facilities rep was released and a new one called. We now finally have a chapel cleaning roster, I have no idea why we haven't had one in the 18 months I've been here. I think our sound and zoom systems have now been fixed. During our last District Conference earlier this year, the Branch at the other end of the District had to sit through some lengthy silences when the system somehow failed, and when it was the turn for someone from that Branch to speak, it was our turn to sit through silence until somebody just put their phone in front of the speaker. After the care that the facilities have received in the last few weeks, I'm not expecting that to happen again.  

This was a big moment for the locals (and for me) The long timers here say that the last time an apostle visited this area was when President HInckley dedicated some temples in Australia back in 2000, and that "meeting" was just a gathering on the airport tarmac. Before that, the previous apostle to visit here was Elder Ballard in 1988 when he was still the junior apostle. When we were living in Canberra, the national capital, and with Canberra being only a few three hours drive south of the former Area Offices in Sydney, (since relocated to New Zealand) we had much more frequent visits from General Authorities.

The congregation was small enough - my guess is between 300 - 350 - that Elder Christofferson decided that he could shake everyone's hand, which he did. I took the opportunity to ask him a question that I posted on 3rd hour a little while back about portable temples. I asked if the Brethren had ever considered having portable temples in a similar way to what Moses and the ancient Israelites had in the wilderness and I mentioned that in the early days of the church, when the church was small and struggling - which we are a bit in this area - that the Lord had permitted temples ordinances to be performed outside of temples. He saidhe didn't know if it has been considered. He said it was a creative idea and he will take it back to Salt Lake. As I think about it more this evening, my guess is that the Patron Assistance Fund which provides financial assistance for people to get to the temple is a better solution than portable temples 

He bestowed an apostolic blessing on all, saying that he blessed us that if we faithfully studied the scriptures, the Lord would bring to pass in our lives the promise contained in Moroni 7:33 

 And Christ hath said: ^aIf ye will have ^bfaith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is ^cexpedient in me.

I started this post asking if anyone knew what Elder Christofferson's favourite hymns might be. In trying to work out what music to play I read all his conference talks and found oblique references to hymn 87 and the Crusaders hymn, a version of which we have in the choir book so I played those tonight. If anyone's interested I've attached a copy of my playlist. The timing worked out well, I had just started the last item on the main list when he entered the chapel and was almost half way through it by the time he sat down. Fortunately, that piece of music has a number of cut-off points where you can end it fairly quickly without it sounding like you are ending it prematurely. I'll probably do the whole thing for the next District Conference. 

The front two rows were reserved for the choir. For the choral item, we stood in our seats, facing him. That's the first time I've sung with a choir in that direction. Having arrived early to go over things with the chorister, I was able to pick a great seat directly in front of the pulpit. Of the people sitting in front of the pulpit, no one was closer than my wife and i - probably about 6 feet away from where he stood. I find that sitting closer somehow seems to make the whole experience more real and personal.

He spoke mostly about the Saviour and repentance, with missionary work and the importance of scripture study and his role as an apostle featuring less prominently. Sister Christofferson also spoke about repentance, and the Area Authority spoke about the temple and the Saviour. It seems to me as we are hearing even more than before from our church leaders about the Saviour and repentance since President Nelson became the Prophet. I'm not really sure about this, but it seems to be as if he got to the end of what he wanted/needed to say about the Saviour and repentance, and then paused for a moment while he received inspiration about what to say specifically for our District, but that's only my impression.

The missionaries are in for a treat tomorrow. It will be just the 14 elders in this Zone, with Elder Christofferson and his wife, Elder Meurs and his wife and the Mission President and his wife. I'd love to be there for that meeting. 

Playlist for Elder Christofferson.docx

Edited May 24, 2023 by askandanswer

[Carborendum]

On 4/20/2023 at 4:33 PM, Vort said:

Do The Wint'ry Day, Descending to Its Close. Beautiful hymn, all about Utah, and I can all but guarantee he hasn't already heard it at a dozen stake conferences before.

I was the music chair in three different wards.  And I tried to put this on the schedule in each of the wards.  But it was removed for various reasons.

1) The bishop had never heard of it.
2) The organist couldn't play it.
3) No one in the ward could sing it.

[Carborendum]

On 4/21/2023 at 12:57 PM, The Folk Prophet said:

I do all my apostasy naked.

Well, that's only naturalle.