Hill Cumorah!

This summer, our big trip was to the Hill Cumorah Pageant in Manchester, New York.  We applied to the pageant last fall and got accepted in December.  We weren't sure if we were up for it but finally decided to go somewhere around February.  The Hill Cumorah Pageant is all about the Book of Mormon, which is one of our four scriptures, also including the Bible and two other books.

On June 29, we backed out of our driveway and arrived in Manchester 2000 miles later, on Friday, July 1st around 1pm.  It was a LOT of driving.

We are witnesses:  The USA grows a lot of corn.

We set up our camp that afternoon and then spent the evening auditioning for parts.  Auditioning is not really the right word.  Mostly they just handed out the parts and you got whatever they thought you fit.  If I had been younger and/or better at dancing, I might have gotten a dancing part...but I'm not and I didn't.  And that was fine.  Although I was remarkably sore for a couple of days from the dancing part of the audition.

We got to see Everett on his birthday:  July 1st.  He arrived about 10 days before.  We brought him a few muffins with candles and sang to him.

It was really fun to see Everett being a part of the Work Crew and sort of share the experience with him.  I recommend work crew for any young man that age. 

We all enjoyed being in the pageant.  I was a Believer and a Destruction Victim, as well as being part of the New Multitude crowd. Mindy was in all my same scenes.  My youngest, Camille, was only in the scene where Christ visits (the New Multitude scene) but she got to touch his hand as he walked down the steps. He mostly interacts with the younger children in that scene.

Here is the actor who played Christ practicing his scene where he comes down on the lift.  The director of the pageant is at the bottom of the picture.

Here is Camille with the young woman who took her onstage every night.  Her name was also Camille.  The other two children also went with them.

Camille really enjoyed going to her Primary cast team.  They had lots of fun activities for the kids.

The Work Crew helped entertain the Primary kids on several different occasions.  The kids were a little bit rough on these teenage boys.

Here is Talmage at rehearsal with his half-staff.  He was a Nephite Battleman. I think he enjoyed learning onstage battle techniques, which taught him how to look like he was fighting without actually hurting anyone.

Here's Talmage hanging out in his cast team tent.  He made some good friends in his cast team.

Susanna was a Harvest Dancer.  She made a good friend named Kate during pageant.

Susanna also made some good friends in her cast team.  Here they are playing a very popular game.

Mindy also enjoyed the girls in her cast team.  As a bonus, she gained a lot of weight eating all the snacks that the cast team leaders gave her...tons of chips, her favorite.

Scott had a couple of parts.  First he was a "Vision Apostle" which involved a very cool beard which took about 20 minutes to put on every night.  He was part of the scene where Nephi is shown a vision of Christ and His 12 Apostles.  Then he took off the beard and put on a different costume so he could be an Unbeliever in my same scene, followed by Destruction Victim and then part of the New World Multitude.  His wig and beard totally changed how he looked and I never got used to it.  I kept looking at him thinking, "Is that really my husband of 27 years?"

Here's Scott holding his torch with his fellow Unbelievers.

Here I am practicing my Believer scene with Mindy on the side.  We are running away from the Unbelievers who are behind us.

Sleep was in short supply that first week, so my talented husband fell asleep in the study shelter on the concrete during a meeting.

We learned our parts in just a few days--they have really figured out how to get 750 people to put together a 75-minute pageant in exactly one week.  The first run-through was Monday night without costumes.  All the scenes were not there that night but most of them were.  I actually missed my scene that night because I got distracted watching--I didn't make that mistake again.  Wednesday and Thursday were dress rehearsals and then Friday, July 8, was the first performance.  We performed 8 times plus lots of rehearsals but the pageant didn't get old for me.

Everett was there on work crew and he was working in one of the light towers operating a spotlight.  It was fun to be there with him and share that experience with him.

Being in the pageant was both challenging and a great experience.  It is physically demanding with long hours, being outside (think hot) almost all the time.  But it is a powerful pageant and worth the sacrifice.

We got to see different friends who came to see the pageant.  Here I am with my friend from high school, Annette Cleveland. 

My brother and SIL brought their children across the country to see the pageant.

This is Everett and Camille with Battle Nephi (several people played Nephi at different times).

After we learned the pageant, we were able to do some sightseeing in the area.

This is the famous Erie Canal that brought so many people to Palmyra in the early 1800's because they were helping to build it. 

We enjoyed going to the temple one day.  Scott and the kids did baptisms while I did an endowment session later. 

Scott and Everett had a lot of fun launching water balloons on the Water Day.

Everett getting ready to go up in his light tower.  They did this about 8:30 every night of the pageant.

Everett up in his light tower.

Here we are with our friends, the Borrowmans.  The last time we saw them was at the Nauvoo Pageant!

Scott with his fellow Vision Apostles.  Most of them had real beards.

Here is Susanna with her good friend Jeanette who actually came to see her aunt and uncle from Switzerland who were in the pageant.