MTC Tour Day 5: Sabbath Day on Tour With the Choir
Sundays while touring with the Choir are… unique. For one thing, we have the BEST sacrament meetings. I had the great privilege to help pass the sacrament. There were eighteen of us serving in the deacon’s office, and nine serving as priests. Three ballrooms were combined to house our sacrament meeting of six hundred people.
After passing the sacrament, I sat next to Ryan Murphy, our associate director. I was terrified I might sing a wrong note on the unfamiliar closing hymn, and then I’d be out of the Choir! Actually, he’s a really nice guy, and I don’t think he’d kick me out of the Choir for one wrong note… (Maybe for three…)
Another unusual aspect of our sacrament meetings is that they are SILENT. There are no children to make noise. No crying babies. No toddler shouting “I’m hungry!” or “He’s touching me!” (Sounds eerily reminiscent of a family road trip…) No five year-old saying, “I can’t find my pet tarantula!” Now, don’t get me wrong. I love children. (Especially with Tabasco sauce.) I’m just saying sacrament meeting is a different experience when there are no children involved. (Now with just adults, you MIGHT get the occasional snore…)
We had two great speakers: Elder Wilson of the First Quorum of the Seventy and his wife. Both their talks were wonderful, but I especially enjoyed Sister Wilson’s address.
After sacrament meeting, we were on our own for the rest of the day. And that meant, that unless we chose to fast for the rest of the day, we had to eat out on the Sabbath day. My wife and I decided to take a walk down Broadway. We had three goals:
To eat dinner;
To find the theatre where the two of us will be attending a Broadway show later this week;
To perhaps go to the Empire State Building.
We had dinner at a Korean restaurant (which was NOT as good as Sam Hawk in Provo). We located the Nederlander Theatre with no difficulties. However, when we attempted to reach the Empire State Building, we found our way blocked by a Gay Pride parade. We eventually managed to get past that obstacle and were able to get the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building. We saw many wonderful sights from up there, but the highlight, at least for me, was seeing the “Ghostbusters building” (the building used in the climactic scene with Zule and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man). I have many, many fond memories of watching that movie, its sequel, and the Saturday morning cartoon show with my two oldest boys—and I’m pretty sure that at one time we owned every Ghostbuster toy ever made). We saw many buildings that we could identify from movies and TV shows, which was very cool.
However, I was VERY disappointed that we did not see King Kong. Perhaps we were simply there at the wrong time, but… Well, I’ll just come out and say it. I’m beginning to doubt the veracity of Peter Jackson’s documentary. Is it possible there are no hobbits either? Perish the thought!
I also ate an authentic New York hot dog. And honestly, it wasn’t all that great. My wife had an authentic New York pretzel, which actually turned out to be awful. Ah, well. We didn’t come to New York for the food—we came to sing. And when I told the guide at the Empire State Building that we were going to be singing at Carnegie Hall later this week, he got really excited. He asked if there were still tickets available. Of course, I had no idea and told him so. He said he’d try to get to the concert. He was a really nice fellow, and very helpful. Not everybody we’ve met in this city have been friendly, but there are some real gems here.
On to Saratoga Springs tomorrow!
