PROLOGUE:
My husband often tells me I have a fault, that I don't know how to say, "No." Example: I'm asked to play the piano for many people and I always say, "Yes." I say 'yes' because I feel that if I ever say 'no' that I am burying the talent God has given me. I have a service missionary that is a vocal music major at BYU and I asked him to sing at the graduation of the English 2 class he teaches. Of course he said, 'yes' BUT he chose the song. He chose Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me that he had previously sung for a BYU recital with a professional pianist. He asked a sister missionary to accompany him, but she said she couldn't play it, so he asked me.
"Oh, it's easy. You can play it," he said...so I agreed.
Oh, my goodness. The accompaniment was mimicking the rolling and crash of the waves all the way through. The right hand was playing s series of rolling triplets all while the bottom hand was playing a series of eighth notes, punctuated with octave crashes up and down the keyboard and accented notes that urged intensity. Then it breaks out in total 16th notes at one part. It was so beautiful that when I actually played it well, I could feel the wave action that accompanied the lyrics and I cried, but before I got there, I was near tears because it was sooooo difficult.
He sung it for both his classes, in Spanish. I was so glad when we were done. A month later, one of our students was being baptized, and she wanted him to sing it in English. He asked me again. I said yes... again. It took a bit less practice because I had played it before, but I was so glad it was over. I was ready to throw it away...and I think I did.
But, once again months later, a lady in his home ward was getting baptized and he was asked to sing. He thought he would choose another song, but last minute said he felt he should sing Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me. One day to practice and I couldn't find the music. I searched for an hour and never found it. Luckily, I had downloaded it from his text, so I copied it again. We couldn't practice until right before the baptism, so we both headed to the church 15 minutes early.
THE BAPTISM:
I walked into the stake center and it was dark inside. I hurried past a mass of unknown people, including a crippled black lady who greeted me, and hurried into the room to turn on the lights. They didn't turn on. "Why won't the lights turn on?" I asked.
"The power is is out in the whole building," the crowd of missionaries, standing around a dark table of goodies, answered in the baptismal room.
The baptismal room had every curtain open, but it wasn't very light in the room because it was cloudy outside. It turned out there had been a tornado early that morning, and many members' homes in that area, as well as the stake center were without power.
After a quick run through of our song in another room with windows, I sat down and waited for the baptism to start. There were several African-American ladies sitting up front. I saw one of the sister missionaries in white, leading the same 'black' lady who had greeted me. She had a cane, but she was being led by the missionaries. SHE WAS BLIND!
They paused in the hall, where she wept, because she was afraid. There would be steps she couldn't see or navigate with a cane. There would be water she would be in and she couldn't see and hadn't ever learned to swim. She thought she would drown. The sisters calmed her, wiped her tears, her hands. "We will be your eyes. We will carry you," they said.
The opening hymn was not typical for a baptism--Rock of Ages. (It was common for nonmembers; I didn't even know it was in our hymnbook.) There were no hymnbooks, but I don't know if I would have been able to see the words if we didn't see it on our backlit phones. But the blind lady was belting out the words, beaming with joy. What were those words?
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure.
Not the labors of my hands
Can fill all thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and thou alone.
While I draw this fleeting breath,
When mine eyes shall close in death,
When I rise to worlds unknown
And behold thee on thy throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee.
The Baptism talk was next. The lady giving the talk couldn't see her handwritten talk very well because of the darkness, so the talk included her heartfelt testimony, adding to the words she could see.
Next, was our musical number. Elder LeCheminant opened by by talking to her personally, that this hymn compares us navigating the storms or trials that come into our life, and that we can fear not, because God is at the helm. The piano was wonderful. Usually I get a loud, unresponsive, clanging piano, but the soft pedal worked. I could go from loud, crashing, to soft rolling waves. It was incredible. I particularly liked these verses.
Jesus, Savior, pilot me
Over life’s tempestuous sea;
Unknown waves before me roll,
Hiding rock and treach’rous shoal.
Chart and compass came from thee;
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.
3. When at last I near the shore,
And the fearful breakers roar
’Twixt me and the peaceful rest,
Then, while leaning on thy breast,
May I hear thee say to me,
“Fear not; I will pilot thee.”
When I heard Elder LeCheminant sing, "Fear not; I will pilot thee." I recalled her crying in the hall, saying she was afraid, and I knew Elder LeCheminant was supposed to sing this hymn.
Next was the testimony of the sister being baptized. This was the sweetest moment of the baptism. She had to be pulled up and held up by the sisters and bishop. She told of her faith, her desire to be with God, and how no one in her entire life had accepted her--and now she felt accepted and loved of the Lord and the members of the ward. At one point she was so over come by emotion she couldn't breathe. I literally thought she was going to die. She was choking as she tried to breathe. The sweet sisters, who had been holding her up were calming her and telling her to breathe, and wiping spit that had been exiting her mouth as she choked. The elders ran to get water from the bathrooms because the water fountains didn't work. People were fanning her. She recovered. At the end, she asked for a "Hallelujah, Jesus!" and she got it.
Next was her baptism. Again, she was afraid. The bishop entered the water first and waited for her, while the sisters led her on either side to the font, where the sister dressed in white was at her side to help and direct her into the water as the bishop carried her down each step. She squealed about how cold the water was...and it was...as the water heater didn't work without the electricity. As I saw them carrying her, I couldn't help but think how we all do what we can and Heavenly Father does the rest...but sometimes he does it through other people, like the bishop and the sister missionary. Again, tears ran down my face.
Unfortunately, she had to go under twice. She had faith that the sister would not let her go, but help her back up. Again, I thought of the 2nd chances we all get when we are not perfect. Those 2nd, third, and many more chances come because of Christ's atonement. Again, tears were running down my face.
After the baptismal ordinance, while the sisters dried, held her up, and dressed her, we listened to a set of missionaries give the 1st discussion. When the sisters came back, another set of missionaries gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and then she was confirmed. When they pronounced for her to receive the Holy Ghost, I knew she felt it because she again was overcome with such emotion that she couldn't breathe. When the bishop, mission president, and ward mission leader surrounded her, the mission president looked over all the elders there and called none of them up, except for Elder LeCheminant...a service missionary who was from her ward.
The closing hymn was The Lord is My Light. How ironic, that we were all in the dark and she couldn't even see, and here we were singing about light, then I read the lyrics in the 2nd verse as I sang:
The Lord is my light; tho clouds may arise,
Faith, stronger than sight, looks up thru the skies
Where Jesus forever in glory doth reign.
Then how can I ever in darkness remain?
and the 4th verse:
The Lord is my light, my all and in all.
There is in his sight no darkness at all.
He is my Redeemer, my Savior, and King.
With Saints and with angels his praises I’ll sing.
The Lord is my light;
He is my joy and my song.
By day and by night
He leads, he leads me along.
The baptized lady was singing every word. She knew the words by heart. Needless to say, I was crying again. I would have missed this sacred experience if I had not said 'yes' to accompanying Elder LeCheminant! It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life! And I truly believe the building was meant to be dark for the rest of us...just to let us know what she had been going through.
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