November 19-23

Gosh, I hate it when life moves too fast.  This week was so busy it is just a blur now.  Another example of why writing in one's journal or blog as the case may be must be done every day.

Tuesday the 27th stands out as I had set it as our first institute choir practice.  We had been asked by Sister Klinger to have YSAs prepared to sing two songs at the Mission Christmas Devotional.  The President is bringing all the missionaries into Suva (save 4 who are so far away it takes days to get here) for training, and Christmas celebrations.  So I show up at 5 for the 5:30 practice.  At 5:30 no one is here, including the pianist.  GULP!  By six I had four sopranos, one alto, and five tenors. GULP!  GULP!

We practiced Oh Come all Ye Faithful and Joy to the World which were the songs Sister Klinger said she needed.  Does not sound to hard, I know, except in Fiji most congregations sing without accompaniment as few play the piano.  When one sings without a piano one can just sing parts that sound good which are not necessarily the parts played by the piano.  Everyone except the sopranos were singing parts that were not correct.  We worked a whole hour learning the parts for these two songs.

I set another practice on Thursday and asked everyone to bring a friend.  Thursday we had 15 singers and most of them had not attended on Tuesday.  UGH!  We practiced the two songs again, and then I added two songs for the Christmas program we were to do on the 23rd (explanation in next paragraph)  One out of the children's song book which they did well (unison) and another one which no one could sing as the accompaniment did not play the parts.

Both President Seru and President Sefeti had asked me if I would start an Institute Choir.  They want that choir to sing at stake conferences in April.  OK, I can do this----maybe. Many of the seniors had noted that last year at Christmas, Christmas was never mentioned in Sacrament Meeting in any of the wards they attended.  I decided that preparing a Christmas program would be a good way to get this new choir started.  Bishop Farpapau agreed to let us sing on the 23rd.

Thank goodness we have three weeks to prepare.