Happy 4th of July/Finals!!!

What an enjoyable weekend! I had the opportunity to go home and spend a few days with the family! I turned 21 on Friday, and to celebrate I got to play games and watch a movie with the family! Best birthday ever!!! Saturday I went to Kalem Franco's funeral; it was truly touching! I didn't know him, but I'm friends with his older sister. You can tell that their family truly knows the plan of salvation.

So, I have been so insane for the past three weeks that I haven't updated this at all!! So, let me sum-up; The week after the 4th of July I got ready for the Patriots and Pioneers concert! In one-word, WOW! It was so powerful! The Collegiate Singer's sang a song called "Peace" by a BYU-Idaho Alumni, Aaron Pike. There was a slide-show that was put together with it and it made me cry every time I watched it! We (the Men's/Women's Choir, Collegiate Singer's, and the BYU-Idaho Symphony), got to perform with George Dyer. He's a tenor that has performed all over the world! It was a pleasure to work with such a talented man!

During our dress rehearsal, the young man that I was sitting next to, Evan Dunn, would get so ecstatic about him singing. Apparently he use to listen to him when he was little and absolutely idolized him. At the end of the dress rehearsal, I was so impressed and slightly bothered that I would get to give him a standing ovation the next evening. I leaned over to Evan and asked if he would stand with me; we were the only two who stood up! I felt a little foolish, I was hoping to start a trend . . . I guess that's hard to do when you are sitting on the back row, huh? Well, George pointed to the two of us and gave us "two thumbs-up"; that foolishness turned into flattery very quickly!

The following week I had a Benjamin Britten concert where we sang his cantata called "Saint Nicolas". I liked it a lot! It challenged my voice in so many ways and it was an honor to work with the BYU-Idaho University Orchestra and Choir as well as Brother David Peck. He got the music Monday and we performed Wednesday (the Brother who was going to perform hurt his voice and wasn't able to do it).

The day after that I had my last performance with the Collegiate Singers; I was heart-broken. I nearly started to cry when we sang our last number, it couldn't be over already! But, alas, it was! We sang at Porter Park; there was a fair or something like that going on. They had bales of hay put into the shape of a giant rectangle. They then put a tarp over them and inside and created a giant "pond". They then put live fish inside! Children would pay 5-6 tickets to go in for a few minutes and try to catch one of these fish! If they caught one, they would take it over to a man who would take it, beat it with a hammer to kill it, and then give it back to the child in an ice bag! Morbid? Just a little bit!

The last day of Collegiate I think was the coolest thing in the world! Testimonies were shared and we sang one last time together as a Collegiate. We sang "How Will They Know?" and I couldn't stop crying the entire time! It was so powerful to sing and bare my testimony with all of these amazing people that I had grown to love and care about so much! I will truly miss that family that I had!

Thursday I had my jury and I feel like I did incredibly well! I presented the Irish Folk Melody "Danny Boy" and was asked to sing "Che fiero costume". The second one started off a little shaky, but ended strong! I was excited about the entire thing! I'm praying that I passed!!!

I am now home, in Heber, and looking for a job, trying to socialize (which I never did in Rexburg), and just live life! It will be tough sometimes, but I think that this will be one of the greatest--and busiest--off-tracks in the history of my life!!! I can't wait!

Bodies Museum!

Well, this weekend has been quite eventful! Friday morning I went in to work at my mentoring job and administer a test to the class. I was up in one of the little foyers that lead into the Snow Recital Hall; as I sat up there and person after person came through, I started to feel a little dizzy. I thought it might have to do with me constantly having to turn around, so I thought nothing of it. As the next few people came in, it slowly got worse to the point that I couldn't even stand up. I sat down and I could feel the heat in my body rise and I started to sweat profusely. A few of the students asked if I was okay, but I continually responded that I would be fine. I started feeling nauseous every time I drank water; but finally the test was done and I was having a hard time sitting up straight. Sister Blake, the teacher I mentor for, came in and was trying to help me out. But, because I didn't know what was wrong, I couldn't even help myself. I was going to try to stick it out for the day and continue to go to work and my classes. I called my friend, Nykele, and she came over and helped me walk to my next class.

As I sat through that class, I knew that it was a bad idea for me to stay. I couldn't look at the teacher due to her spinning around along with the room, I couldn't focus, and it was just all-around bad! I ended up going home instead of pushing myself through the day (which I'm convinced would have put me in a worse state than I was currently in). I called my Dad to see what he thought it was; we came to a few conclusions, but he told me that the best thing I could do was to take the time to relax and let my body heal and calm down. I guess "relax" in my book means to watch operas and sleep, because that's exactly what I did! I watched "The Magic Flute" by Mozart and "La Boheme" by Puccini! Then, I slept for a few hours in between! I also watched bits and pieces of "Die Walkure" by Wagner, but I couldn't finish the entire thing because it was so thick I didn't even know what to do with myself! But, I spent the rest of the day sleeping and relaxing a bit.

Yesterday was quite eventful as well. I went in to work (which I didn't have to) from about 8:30-10:50am so I could get some things ready for an activity that was happening that day. I was still feeling a little dizzy, but not nearly as badly as I was the day prior. I finished up that work and went in to a practice for the Student Composer's Society. A young man, by the name of Alex, arranged "Because I Have Been Given Much" and "Love at Home" and some of the Collegiate Singers and I have the wonderful privilege to sing it in a few weeks! It's an awesome arrangement! And after that practice I went on a date to the Body Museum in Idaho Falls! First of all, it was absolutely amazing! Second of all, I'm really glad that I wasn't feeling quite so nauseous this day because it totally would have set me off! But it was a lot of fun to go through and look at what our bodies really look like! I mean, you see things in text books and you see models and such . . . but these were real bodies! Absolutely amazing!!!!!

After I got home from the Bodies Museum I went to a Collegiate Singers activity. We were at Porter Park and we ate food and played games. There was also a water fight that I don't think was planned . . . but I could be wrong! There were two little boys, that none of us knew, that were chasing after Jenna with water guns and trying to spray her! It was so funny! Well, a few of the other people got in on it too and it became a little water fight. At one point, Adam and somebody else were fighting over the water gun (at least trying to get it away from each other) and I felt like playing. So, I saw that I had a combro filled with water and a small drinking cup. I decided that I would fill the cup up and get Adam (because I believe Nykele was the one trying to get the gun away from Adam). So, I did just that and I got Adam incredibly well! However, he got the gun back and I got a little wet ha ha! It was funny! Then last night, my roommate, AJ, and I went to Little Caesar's and Twizlberry and had a nice little chat. We then came home and watched the last little bit of "Phantom of the Opera" and a little bit of "Labyrinth". I'm excited to see what happens today . . . I might start a miniature water fight, but who knows! =)

Schubert, Schumann, and Verdi

Goodness, this week has been absolutely amazing! I can't tell you how tired I am, but it's a "good" tired! I didn't really get a good rest last weekend due to performances, homework, etc. This past week was really busy as well. Part of my job included mapping out the inventory . . . and I finished! At least with rooms 203 and 215! I'm so excited, and the map looks good too!

Not only that, but I had my listening test for Music Lit. II yesterday. I was so nervous about it . . . but I got 23/24! The test consists of Sister McNiven (my teacher) playing a 30 second clip of a song/symphony/lieder (German art song) and we would have to say the title of the piece, the composer, and the genre (lieder, lieder cycle, symphony, program symphony, etc.) The last time I took a test like this, I didn't do very well! But this one went incredibly well! I just mixed up one of the String Quartets and put Beethoven instead of Mendelssohn. I was so excited, 95%!!!!

On Wednesday, I went to a faculty recital; they sang nothing but Verdi songs!! It was AWESOME!!!! The "cast" consisted of Sister Michelle Broadbent, Sister Melissa Fife (I really don't know her that well if at all), Sister Katelynd Blake, Brother David Peck, Brother Andrew Peck (my voice teacher), and Brother Linford! It was such a cool presentation! It definitely made me fall in love with Verdi even more! His music is absolutely amazing! It was cool to listen to the men's roles verses the women's roles. The women had more virtuosity in their voices and the men's didn't have as much. It was cool! Verdi wrote the women's roles so that they would be going into almost all of their registers. They would go from their head to whistle down to chest voice! It was so cool . . . I want to do a Verdi piece!!!! I am pretty sure that I don't have that kind of voice . . . but I'd like to do one nonetheless.

This week is going to be awesome! It's currently 12:21 in the afternoon and I am done with homework for today through Friday!! I'm really excited!! The only thing I'm going to have to do is a group project (tomorrow evening), and then practice!! I'm so excited!!!

"How Will They Know?"

Yesterday we had devotional and it was incredible. The Collegiate Singers sang the song "How Will They Know" and it was beautiful! I could feel the spirit so strongly as we sang! Brother Kempton, at the beginning of the song, changed the words from "Mother . . . Father" to "Teacher". Every time I sang this, I would kind of direct it toward him. He didn't know that, nor did I ever tell him. Yesterday, during the presentation in devotional, I sang the line "Teacher, will you care for me?" and his smile broadened and and he nodded at me. I felt an overwhelming sense of love from him at that moment, and also from my Heavenly Father. I loved it!

Today we had our first choir concert! A-MAY-ZING!!!! We sang :"Revecy"; "Neckerein" (spelling?); "How Will They Know?"; "Ave Verum Corpus"; "Peace"; "Blow Ye The Trumpet"; and "Saints Bound for Heaven". It was absolutely exhilarating! I just love music, I'm pretty sure it's the greatest thing since sliced bread! I had the opportunity to tell my friend, Eli, about the experience I had a few weeks ago with the young lady in my ward. Eli was a little taken aback about the things she had said to me and I continued to tell him that it was all okay. When I finished my story I, for some odd reason, bore my testimony to him about music. I told him about how I was a mentor for Basic Musicianship and how excited I get when people get it! I also realized that I don't think I ever fully understood how much I love music, until now--this semester! I am so grateful for music and the influence it is in my life! I love everything about it, when it's used correctly! I can't even put into words how much I love everything right now!

Something I didn't tell Eli, but I wish I had, was that a lot of this had to do with him! All because of his faith in me and his support I continued in music. I think I've told him before, but it really is true. I've officially been accepted as a music major, and I couldn't have done it without his, or any of my other friends' support! Tomorrow evening, I have the opportunity to sing in a recital. I'm incredibly nervous . . . but I'm also incredibly excited about sharing my talent and developing it more.

Decisions, decisions . . .

This past weekend was a blast! It was a three day weekend, but I went home a day earlier. I went home Thursday evening for a funeral Friday morning. It was a beautiful funeral; somebody referred to it as a "home coming"! I thought that that was the coolest thought ever! For most people, it's the end when someone leaves this world; but just to have that reminder that he's home now was so comforting. I absolutely loved it!

The rest of the weekend was pretty chill! I got to spend a lot of time with my sister-in-law, Nini, and it was great. Dairy Keen got these incredible new machines with 106 different drink options! Crazy? Absolutely! But they sure are spiffy! We also played this game, as a family, called "Boggle". It's a spelling/word game; you shake up this cube with a lot of random letters in it. Then, from that you try to find as many words as you can within a certain amount of time. Nini destroyed all of us! But I feel that I did fairly well; I wasn't doing well at first . . . then I started getting a hold of the game. It was a blast!

I also had the opportunity to see a few of my friends at Dairy Keen; Matt and Michael Clegg. I didn't know that Michael was home . . . but he is! He made our ice cream cones I believe; at least he was out when we went up to get them. I spoke with him for several minutes, it was a lot of fun! Later, I was sitting with Ben and Anna at a booth and I saw Matt come out and look around for somebody. I wanted to go over and say hello, but I didn't because I was sure he was looking for Kim or Jan. He went back into the back and then came back out, still looking for someone. We made eye contact and he enthusiastically waved to me! I waved back and he walked away. Apparently, Deborah had told Matt and Michael that I was there; so they came out and said hello. It was awesome!

Sunday was quite enjoyable as well! I went and sang with my family wards' choir. We sang "A Marvelous Work", it was quite fun! I was sight reading the alto part, but I feel that I did fairly well with that. Then I went over to the singles' ward and that was quite fun as well. After Sunday school my friend Jenny and I spoke for several minutes. I saw Devin walking around behind Jenny quite aimlessly. Then he came over and he put his arm around me. I was slightly taken aback because, well, he'd never done that before. We exchanged hello's and he proceeded to ask "Did I ever thank you for the hymn book you gave me before my mission?" I told him that I couldn't remember (after all, it had been about two and half years ago). He continued, "Well, I wanted to thank you for it. I used it every day on my mission! It's all yellow and marked up . . . so, thank you." I was truly touched! It was so exciting to me to hear that he used it. I remember when I gave it to him, I pictured him chucking it onto his bed and leaving it in Utah whilst he was in Argentina. But he used it! Not only that, but he marked it up!!!! Oh my goodness, the power of music is awesome! I love it!

So, I've made a huge decision . . . despite that fact that I really want to, I'm not going to stay in the fall. I didn't account for how burned-out I would feel after this semester. I'm so tired and slightly stress (although I feel better now). I got a blessing from my dad while I was home this weekend. I was feeling very stressed, overwhelmed, and slightly frustrated (okay, the frustrated part is an understatement). In the blessing, I was told that the decision I was trying to make was a decision between two "good's". Both of the decisions (to stay in the fall or to go home) were good decisions. I really just needed to choose what would be best for me. Because of how important next semester will be (it'll be my pre-recital semester) I will need to have as much energy as possible, and I am already feeling burned-out.  It isn't a huge deal, but it is something that I've been thinking and praying about a lot; and I feel good about this decision. I'm grateful that I was able to feel the spirit strongly comfort me when I made this decision. I truly feel a peace about it that I hadn't before! Life is good! =)

Come Thou Fount

Wow, today was really cool! Yesterday I was asked to sing in church today with a young lady in my ward. Yesterday we met for the first time and she wanted to sing "Come Thou Fount"; but she wanted to do an improv alto part. I don't have a lot of experience doing improv on the voice, but I told her I'd try it anyway. It was a very difficult rehearsal; in the end she decided that I would do better on the piano. I felt bad because I had come to the rehearsal with the intent to bare my testimony and accompany her testimony with mine. She asked me to write an arrangement before tomorrow. I was so bummed that she didn't feel that I was good enough to sing with her and that she thought I could write an arrangement in less than 24 hours. (Writing the arrangement in less than 24 hours, I was actually a little more flattered; but I was still panicked.)

Sunday morning came and I couldn't write the arrangement. I asked her if it would be alright if I tried singing with her again. I had figured out an alto part in case I couldn't write an arrangement and ended up singing with her. We tried it again, and right as we started I forgot the alto part I had written! I was devastated! I knew that if I didn't sing this well, she wouldn't let me sing with her and would put me back on the piano. We finished singing through it the first time and she replied "It was okay; I'll see what I can do with it." I felt a slight sigh of relief, but I was still bummed that she wasn't encouraging me to share my testimony. Anyway, we ended up practicing for a little bit and she told me at the end that if I "just thought up I would sound good." My testimony wasn't ever good enough for her no matter how hard I tried! It hurt me more and more that she was critiquing my testimony when my intent was to share it with the congregation. After we actually sang I looked at her and told her that she did a great job. She kind of rolled her eyes at me and moved on.

I called home, both Saturday and Sunday night, and cried to my parents about what had happened. Sunday night, I sat on the kitchen floor with a few of my roommates and my friend Devin and cried for about an hour. Monday was when I realized how wrong she was. Monday morning, when I woke up, I was thinking about not going to classes (especially my music classes). But, I knew my conscience would eat at my heart forever if I didn't. So, I went and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The class I really didn't want to go to was Collegiate; but I did go, and I am grateful I did. We're singing a song called "How Will They Know" from the children's songbook (arranged by Brother Kempton). As I sang, I felt the spirit so strongly that I couldn't help but cry. There was on particular section that truly touched me. The words go like this: "And with the Savior as our guide, I'll share the light I feel inside. And you will feel His love for you . . . And when I do not understand the Lord's command, I'll take your hand. And He will lead us safely home. I need your love, I need your light to show me how to be like Jesus. The Savior's love will light the path; and lead us safely home." It was so powerful!

I came out of that class feeling slightly foolish, but so much better about why I am studying music. My testimony has grown so much over this past week! I know that the Lord loves us and that He will lead us safely home. I know that some people will try to get you to hold your testimony inside and not share it. But I will never do that again! I regretted holding it in when we sang in sacrament meeting; NEVER again! I love the Lord with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength! I'm grateful for my trials that test my testimony. I come out a stronger person when that happens! I love BYU Idaho! The spirit and experiences I have here are wonderful! Hard sometimes, but wonderful!

Tender Mercies

Oh my goodness, this week has been full of tender mercies! My job in the office has gotten a little stressful sometimes because people aren't scheduling things when they should. It should be at least 2 weeks in advance, but they continue to bring it to me the day before. It frustrates me and puts me behind my own schedule. So, I was a little stressed this past week. I felt like I was failing my job because I couldn't get everything that I wanted to get done, done. Well, the other day I was working and one of the managers (Nathan) asked me how I was. I told him I was doing well and he replied, "Good. By the way, I don't know if I've told you this, but you're doing a great job!" Tender mercy!!!! I was feeling so bad about my job and yet I'm doing a great job.

Later that day, I was in my office (well, the place where I typically work) doing some inventory stuff. Fran (another one of the people I work with) came in and complimented how clean the room was. He said that it was one of the hardest rooms to keep clean because it was where all the inventory was--he had that position before I got there. He told me I was doing a great job and to keep it up! Another tender mercy! Goodness, it made me feel so incredible to know that I was doing better than I thought I was. And even now, as I type this, I realize that "I'm doing better than I think I'm doing, but I could do better." Neat! But I did get a lot done with the inventory this week! The entire food storage in my office is done! I had to count everything. One of the things in there was mayo packets . . . 4, 139 packets!!! Fortunately, most of them were already in boxes of about 200 so I didn't have to count those. But I spent several days counting mayo, ketchup, and mustard packets. It was a lot of fun though! I listened to Schubert, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. as I worked. It helped me to stay focused and enjoy counting all of those packets!

I just got a new computer, MacBook, and that was a huge tender mercy. My other computer is practically dead. The battery thing is broken, the plug is a little iffy, it always kicks me off the internet, and I was really frustrated with it. This computer came at just the right time! Tender mercy, my parents helping me get it (in fact, they paid for it!). I'm realizing more and more the great things in my life, even amidst all of the turmoil in the world I'm recognizing my blessings even more. Something this past week that has made me think a lot about tender mercies is my roommates. Last semester we were all, for the most part, so positive. This semester is almost completely different. There's a lot of negativity in the apartment, and I do it sometimes too, in fact just the other day I was recalling something that had happened to me that day. I was a little bothered by it, and when I realized how negative I was being, I immediately stated something I could learn from it. But it really effects the mood of the apartment. The spirit isn't as strong as it use to be, and it makes me sad. So, my roommates and I, after we have prayer in the evenings, are going to start doing tender mercies. We each go around and say something that happened that day that was a tender mercy. Showing that the Lord's hand is in our life and that good things do happen to us in the day. It's something we do in the office all the time and I absolutely love it! It brings such a powerful spirit.

Speaking of being positive about something though, yesterday I had to do something in my Choral Practicum class. I only have that class twice a week (Wednesday and Friday), and my teacher missed last Friday. So, he sent out an e-mail saying the things that we needed to do for this coming Friday (he mentioned he wouldn't be here on Wednesday). We were to type up a lesson plan on how we would teach an "obscure" hymn to the class in three minutes. So, I picked my hymn and then went to work. My lesson plan wasn't very good and I was extremely nervous. Well, I got to go first (thanks for having the last name Anderson Dad!). I got up there and had them open to the hymn "Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy". I was only going to focus on the chorus only the melody; the first thing I had them do was "ta" the rhythm. After we did that I told them "Good job!" Brother Brower stopped me and said "What was good?" We went back and forth for a minute and I realized that I made a mistake . . . I didn't ask them specifically to do the melody's rhythm. This happened several times, and yet it was a truly "deep" and humbling experience. I went into a realm of deeper learning and had to be truly humbled. Brother Brower, after those couple of minutes (which we didn't make it through what I wanted to do by the way) commended me for my humility. I wasn't cowering away from his suggestions or anything; I stood there and accepted it and applied it yesterday. He also commented on my speaking voice . . . apparently I have that "conductors voice" that you need. I may or may not have been extremely excited about that.