No One Died During Stake Conference

Well, just to report, everything went ok for my first performance in the stake choir. No one died! No mad dash to leave because of my presence in the choir! (A few weeks ago, there was a young boy in China who screamed. Evidently his screaming caused some chickens to go crazy, a stampede resulted, and several hundred chickens died. And the boy's dad was fined!)

Seriously though, the choir sounded wonderful and I don't think anyone noticed my not so great singing voice. At least I think my heart, mind and spirit appreciated the songs and their message, even though my voice isn't the best representation of those feelings. To join the choir for a good seat is one of the smartest things I've ever done. One of my ward sisters had jokingly suggested people could sleep over at the building after the Saturday night session to get a good seat. Well, since that was not an option, the joining the choir method worked.

We sang "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" for the opening hymn. Then after the opening prayer, the announcements and the sustainings (basically we raise our arms to affirm our support for various church leaders), we sang the second song, "the Lord is My Shepherd". At this time our job as a choir ended, and I enjoyed the great view, the comfortable padded seat and most of all the wonderful messages that were shared. I don't know why I never thought of this strategy before.

One of the things I learned is that they do reserve the first row for the elderly of our stake. I didn't know this was done, and I am happy they do this. So until I become old enough to get a reserved spot on the row for the elderly, I am seriously thinking about singing in the choir every stake conference.

PS: here is a cut and paste of the story I mentionned about the screaming boy! I prefer to include it via cut and paste format, as a link article might diappear into the abyss of archives. Enjoy! And support the Australian newspaper, as the entire article (in italics) is from "The Australian": maybe get a subscription to it!!!

from The Australian
January 26, 2007
BEIJING: Hundreds of chickens have been found dead in east China - and a court has ruled that the cause of death was the screaming of a four-year-old boy who in turn had been scared by a barking dog.
The bizarre sequence events began when the boy arrived at a village home in the eastern province of Jiangsu in the summer with his father who was delivering bottles of gas, the Nanjing Morning Post reported.

A villager was quoted as saying the little boy bent over the henhouse window, screaming for a long time, after being scared by the dog.

"One neighbor told police that he had heard the boy's crying that afternoon and another villager confirmed the boy screaming by the henhouse window," the newspaper said.

A court ruled the boy's screaming was "the only unexpected abnormal sound" and that 443 chickens trampled each other to death in fear.

The boy's father was ordered to pay 1,800 yuan ($300) in compensation to the owner of the chickens