Kansas City Temple Cultural Celebration

Today the Kansas City, MO temple was dedicated. I've never lived in an area where the temple being dedicated was going to be my new temple. The whole thing has been an incredible experience. Thankfully we were able to go as a family to the open house before Cory deployed. 

For the last several months I was asked to help be a dance instructor for the youth cultural celebration. I have heard about the events when other temples were dedicated but I was really excited to be able to help with one. They had originally planned for 1,500 youth to participate but they were completely overwhelmed when over 3,100 volunteered from the temple district. We were responsible for teaching them a dance that they would participate in with three other stakes and then three shorter ones that they would perform with all the youth at the end. 

 

The performance was held last night in the Kansas City Municipal auditorium. It seats 10,000 and was full almost to the rafters! (You can see the missionaries from the mission in the center section up at the top in the middle.) The excitement in the auditorium was amazing! They youth had been there from 6 am preparing for the performance and a lot of the audience had traveled a long distance to be there to see it. 

I was lucky to get tickets this week. The bishop asked if I was interested in going with Jeffrey since I had been helping the youth. I was so excited. We decided to stay last night in a hotel close so I wouldn't have to drive home late at night. 

 

 Our dancers were part of the "Willing Hearts" section of the performance, they were pioneers who represented the early saints. The song they performed to was written by some of the LDS families in Branson, MO who (I think) came to perform live last night at the show (someone was singing live there last night). I was very proud of our little dance. Jeffrey danced along in my lap happy that he knew the song already.

Kenneth Cope was there as well and performed during the section from the Joplin, MO stake which just suffered a horrible tornado earlier in the year. I don't know that there were many dry eyes in the audience at the end. It was a very powerful and compelling. I LOVE dance and love to see it as a way of communicating emotion and causing the viewer to experience something during the performance. The group of amateur youth from Joplin were incredible portraying a disaster and the recovery from it and I was very moved. There were also touching tributes to the military and the missionaries even got in on the action. In true islander fashion the dancers (who were mostly Polynesian) brought down the house during their Samoan dance. (Though they had the loudest supporters!)

The funnest part for Jeffrey was when 3,100 you danced to Popcorn Popping and he could do the dance along with them. He came with me to the last three weeks' practices and enjoyed dancing along with the kids when they were rehearsing.

 My friend also arrived super early and saved us a couple of seats in the section directly below and next to where the VIPs would sit. Jeffrey was very excited to see President Monson and he gave our performance two thumbs up and wiggled his ears for the kids. I guess he approved. It was an amazing weekend and an incredible experience for us!