Monday, May 4, 2009

True to the what?

I don't mean to be totally irreverent, but sometimes there are hymns that make me laugh. Okay, not the hymns per se, but the events surrounding them. (usually, In Our Lovely Deseret anyone?)
A few years back, one of our favorite 73rd ward members was conducting the closing hymn for RS, True to the Faith. You know the pattern for the hymn is No! No! Yes! Yes! right before the chorus? Well, right after the second verse, all of a sudden, there was this loud Yes! from the front of the room:
While we know the pow'rs of darkness
Seek to thwart the work of God,
Shall the children of the promise
Cease to grasp the iron rod? Yes!

I lost it, I could not regain control of my laughter thru the rest of the hymn. Heather, near the end of the final chorus, tried desperately to get me to behave and calm down. But there was no doing. I shook with laughter thru the prayer.
It's a good thing that I can laugh silently.
(Do you think that this story could go into that someone's book someday?)

It's like this hymn stalks me. At my seminary graduation, the organist pulled out all of the stops and blasted the chord for the NO! and scared us all to death.


Speaking of making people laugh during RS, a few years back, when Bepa was the Relief Society Princess, her birthday fell on a Sunday, so we took a present to church. I told her that she had to pass it around with the roll. The problem was that she also had to teach the lesson that day and had suffer thru watching every girl looking quizzically at the pen, shrug her shoulders, sign her name, and pass along the pen.
I was at the back of the room that day--again laughing silently. Good thing Bepa's a good sport.


And, really, it's all about the youtube videos for this post:


7 comments:

Marie said...

My grandma got a little insane her last years and so today I almost couldn't stop laughing as we sang, "Who's on the Lord side, who?" That phrase was one of her favorites to shout out at random times.

Heather said...

If I ever write a book you'd better believe that story's making it in.

FoxyJ said...

There's a hymn with a line about "no mortal care shall seize my breast" and I can't sing it without giggling. Because I'm juvenile like that.

nateandrebecca said...

I can hardly make it though "In Our Lovely Deseret without laughing either. I also have a hard time with "Who's on the Lord Side, Who?" because I had a friend once who always sang that song like a pirate tune. Now that is the only way I can think of it...

rantipoler said...

Oh, I love Johnny Lingo. JC sings with the zeta in all the wrong places and makes me laugh. My dad likes to "jazz up" the hymns on the piano at home, or play them in an ominous-sounding minor key, and it makes my mom mad. I think she sees it as sacrilegious. He also likes to point out that "I Saw a Mighty Angel Fly" proves that insects go to Heaven. Personally, I can never get over singing about avoiding tea and coffee in "Our Lovely Deseret." The lyrics aren't too different in the Spanish version, as I discovered a couple weeks ago.

Erika said...

I also remember being dared to give a royal wave while conducting Relief Society. Maybe this was all training on how to keep a straight face in front of a crowd (like when Marquel starts singing "Don't You Wish Your Girlfriend Was Hot Like Me" during the middle of a reading test).

Larissa said...

Venom - I swear I was there for that incident, if it wasn't in 73rd ward (which it in all likelihood was), then it is happening all over P-town! I will cry "YES" to the powers of darkness! J/k. I love your laugh - I miss you!
Did you know I've been choir director for almost a year now? WOW...how did THAT happen? Never make fun of other choir directors and refuse to join the choir I guess... ;-) Thanks for the laugh mid-day - I needed it. "YES!"