"If Ye Have Desires to Serve" Pre-Tour Kick-Off Meeting

On our way to Durham, where we gave our first fireside, we stopped at Duke University to eat lunch, admire the Gothic architecture, and hold our pre-tour kick-off meeting. Under a magnolia! It was the only meeting in memory where the entire choir could be seated under the branches of a single tree.

While we fumbled to understand the meaning of the sculpture behind him, Mr. Swenson reminded us of our true purposes on this tour.

"Therefore, if ye have desires to serve," he said, quoting D&C 4, "ye are called to the work."

We are not a proselytizing choir; we are not missionaries; we are not called and set apart. Nevertheless, we are ambassadors of the message we bring. We are representatives of a choir, of a school, of the church, and of the Savior Himself.

Accordingly, we took this moment to recommit ourselves to the habits and values that keep us strong. Standards. Curfews. Sleep. Water. Nutrition.

Then, led by Mr. Thornton, and remembering the reaching spires and luminous stained glass of the Duke Chapel, we knelt together in prayer and asked the Father to bless us to be able to serve as windows to His love and His light.