Sunday Singing

When I was in high school, I began going to "Sunday Singing" with my brother, Adam.  Sunday Singing was getting together with a bunch of kids from my high school each Sunday to sing Hymns and Primary Songs to the residents at Heritage Place Retirement Center.  It was all started by a girl named Andrea and she started small with some friends.  Friends began inviting friends until it became pretty big.  We always had a program of 5 or 6 hymns to sing, usually acapella, sometimes with the piano, sometimes we had special musical numbers.  Then we asked for requests and always ended with the beloved Hymn "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again".  After that, we'd go visit with the residents.  They were so lovely!  I grew to love and admire those neat people.  It was amazing, too what a difference having a good attitude and a faith in God in their lives had.  Their walks of life were all different, but how they approached life was all so different.  Some liked to curse and swear about their situation (Pearl! love her spit fire personality) and others were as sweet as could be though in lots of pain and heartache (Marvel, one of my favorites).  That taught me that we have a choice to make concerning our own circumstances.  But I loved them all the same!  After we visited with them, we'd go and sing to some who were bed ridden and unable to come out to the room where we'd sing.  We'd sing a few songs in the hallways or in the rooms of those who had requested us to come.  When I was a junior, I was asked to take over and make sure that Sunday Singing still went smoothly.  I enjoyed setting the tempos, giving the starting pitches, and arranging special musical numbers.  After singing, sometimes we'd go talk and flirt with our friends out in the parking lot.  A few of us had what we called "Girl Talk", ha ha!  Good times!

Last summer, an old high school friend, Scott Rushforth, e-mailed me and told me the Church heard what was going on and wanted to make a video for the Youth about Sunday Singing.  He asked me some questions to relay to the team making the video.  His brother is still in Sunday Singing and so he was able to go the day they did the taping. They were able to get in touch with Andrea, and talked to many of the kids who are carrying on Sunday Singing.  We hear so many bad things about the youth of today's world.  I think there is lots of hope, and here's just one of the reasons.  To these young ones, the world to doesn't revolve around them.  They are looking for ways to lift and serve.  They are following in the footsteps of our Savior.  They are sharing the light and testimonies they have with others.  I am thrilled to see how huge the group has grown!  Thank you, Youth of the noble birthright!

Here's a link to the video:

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-01-002-service-through-song?lang=eng

I also scanned in some of my old Sunday Singing scrapbook pages to send to the media team doing the video so they could get more of an idea of the history of Sunday Singing.  I had such fond memories as I went through them not only of the people we sang to, but also of the friends I gained at Sunday singing.  In particular, the "Bountiful Boys" and "Woods Cross Girls" would get together in the adjacent parking lot and have what we called "Girl Talk", where we'd talk about stuff that girls talk about, but the guys would get in on the action.  (I didn't send that one in, but it makes me look back with fondness and some giggles!)