Light to My Eyes

The top three takeaways from tour, as named in our closing sharing and testimony meeting, were (1) the things we learned from our nation's historic sights, (2) the incredible spirit we felt when we sang to share our love for the Savior, and (3) the rich friendships we made as we laughed and learned together.

You can see how these things have brought light to our eyes, a light that will shine for a good, long time.

*** Home now, I am taking advantage of a stable Internet collection to upload the last of the photos submitted to the blog. Please enjoy the smiles you see below and take another minute to look back through the earlier entries, as they have been updated with new submissions. ***

Go Team Chaperone!

They bump. They set. They spike. And they keep 100 choir bodies healthy and happy, well tuned and well fed. Here's to our hard-working staff and chaperones!

Remembering at the Atlanta Temple

As service is an important focus of our tour, we spent Saturday morning in Atlanta, Georgia (the city "too busy to hate") at the temple.

In devotional on the bus, Caleb Kohn, a tenor and a graduating senior, and Bonnie McMillan, a hardworking chaperone, shared perspectives on the meaning of the temple.

Caleb, drawing from the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple offered by Joseph Smith, reminded us that when we leave the temple, we come out armed with the power of Christ and we give His angels charge over us:

We ask thee, Holy Father, that they servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory round about them, and thine angels have charge over them. (D&C 109:22)

Bonnie urged us to remember, pointing out that the gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of repetition. As we partake of the sacrament every week, we remember our covenants. The more we repeat the temple ordinances, the better we remember them. Spencer W. Kimball said it this way:

When you look in the dictionary for the most important word, do you know what it is? It could be "remember." Because all of [us] have made covenants . . . our greatest need is to remember. That is why everyone goes to sacrament meeting every Sabbath day -- to take the sacrament and listen to the priests pray that [we] . . . "may always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given [us]." . . . "Remember" is the word. [Circles of Exaltation [address to religious educators, Brigham Young University, 28 June 1968]

Our fondest hope is that the memories made, the people served, and the covenants renewed this day and on this tour will not soon be forgotten.

Chimney Rock, Hickory Nut Falls, and Lake Lure

As with all of life's achievements, we had to work for this one, but the rewards were well worth the effort. A 400-foot vertical climb up 500 stairs and a mile-and-a-half hike through hardwood forests took us to spectacular vistas and a 404-foot waterfall.

Chimney Rock is a 315-foot granite monolith just 535 million years young, an iconic sight in North Carolina. At 2280 feet above sea level, it offers 75-mile panoramic views of Hickory Nut Gorge and Lake Lure, where we spent the night.

Hickory Nut Falls is the second highest waterfall east of the Mississippi. Its dramatic height, its ancient forests, and its cliff-side paths served as a memorable backdrop to The Last of the Mohicans (1992, Daniel Day Lewis), which was filmed here.

Seen in the distance is beautiful Lake Lure, created when the Broad River was dammed in 1927 to produce hydroelectric energy. The movie Dirty Dancing (1987, Patrick Swayze) was filmed here, and we stayed and played at the historic Lake Inn and Spa, est. 1927, across the street.