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| Manti Temple |
There are some things about being in Utah that we have wanted to make a point of doing. These are things that people will travel for days to come and see and we live nearby. Oddly, it takes finding an excuse to do it. This week we decided to hit up one of those and went down to Manti, Utah to see the Mormon Miracle Pageant.
I remember going when I was younger, but we were excited to go as a family. It is the 50th year the pageant has run, making it the longest running outdoor pageant. We were happy we chose to go on a weekday because we could park closer and find a good seat. The pageant is set on the hillside under the shadow of the historical Manti LDS temple. We wandered around to see all of the cast members who were all decked out in costume. Several youth participate in the pageant and at one point a boy about 10 came by and Tau'aho pointed at him and said, (rather loudly, sadly he, like me, does not know what it means to talk softly), "LOOK! It is a pretend little man!" He was right! It was a pretend little man.
There was an outdoor concert by Paul Cardall before the pageant (waiting until the sun went down) and then the lights went out and the pageant unfolded.
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| Paul Cardall Concert |
The premise of the pageant is to walk the audience through the history of the LDS Church starting with Joseph Smith and eventually going through some iconic stories of the Book of Mormon and ending with the Pioneers arriving in Manti with Brigham Young.
Tau'aho, even with it being late, was so excited to see all the changes in lights, the fires and the fighting (the Book of Mormon stories of war). At one point they portray the Savior coming to the Americas and Tau'aho wanted to know how Jesus was there. Then when the children all went up to Christ for blessings he jumped off his chair and wanted to go "see Jesus too!" He grabbed my hand and said, "Daddy, let's go! Jesus said to come!" I hold him that Jesus was blessing the children right then and he said, "But I want to go see Jesus and I want you to come with me!" I could not help but to think about how hopefully he always wants to follow the Savior and wants me to come with him.
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| Portrayal of the First Vision |
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| Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith |
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| Moroni Visiting Joseph Smith |
It was a beautiful evening and fun to see a Utah tradition. There clearly is a whole bunch of work that goes into the production and we were able to enjoy it.
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| Moroni and the Title of Liberty |
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| Christ Arriving the in Americas |
