Mesa Temple Easter Pageant

See Hailey with the children?  She is the one with her hand to her face with the blue headdress.

The Last Supper.  It was such a powerful spirit to re-enact that sacred event.  We would meet few just a few moments before the scene backstage and say a prayer to put us in the correct spirit.  The sacrament has new meaning for me since the pageant.

Ahh....my starring moment...throwing the nets out while fishing before we were called to the apostleship.  There was always a stress of getting the nets caught in the many hooks on the side of the stage.

I love this photo with the lighting and the temple in the background.

The Lord appears to the apostles in the upper room.

This is the calling and setting apart of Peter.

This was moments before the Savior appears in the upper room to the apostles.  We are very excited to hear about Him being risen from the dead.

The morning after the pageant was completed, I was able to shave my beard.  I did it in stages taking photos of myself as it was removed.  This is the Hitler phase of what is left of the facial hair.  The final strip was removed and I was back to my old self again!

Hoedown and Pageant Rehearsals

Look at these two cute cowgirls as we prepare to go to the Quartz Hill Hoedown.  Tamara choreographed and directed the show.  The had about 150 kids learn 5 different dances.  She also called the square dance.  

I feel so rough and tumble with my new beard.  Some days I even kinda liked it.  

In October of 2014, our children, especially Kelsey, encouraged us to audition for the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant.  We hesitated as the commitment is great and would be a huge sacrifice of our time to participate.  But thinking of all the blessings and experiences our entire family would be able to have, we decided to give it a try.  So, we applied online and then were asked to attend a group audition.  We drove up to a chapel in Mesa and in another audition group of about 50 people, we filed into the RS room where we met a panel of all the Easter Pageant Directors.  Jenee Prince is the Director, along with 3 other assistant directors.  One of them is Joe Tenney, who is a dear friend of ours.  He and Tom have sung together for several years now and we just adore him and his family.  (Joe has been asking us for years to come and be in the pageant)  The directors asked us to pretend that the Savior is walking by, healing children and performing miracles----how would we react?  We then had to act that scenario out.  Then, they told us to imagine the Savior being whipped and scorned---how would we react to that scene?  It was an interesting audition and the kids chuckled a bit at themselves getting out of their "comfort zone" but all in all it was a pretty easy audition.  They gave our family a number, took photos of us all, then sent us on our way.  It was smooth and organized.  I could tell they have done this so many years that they have it all down to a system now.

So, for several months, we waited to hear whether or not we would be chosen to participate.  Then, in December, we received an email that told us our family was chosen to be in the Pageant.  We were thrilled!  There were over 900 people who auditioned and they could only choose about 500, so we felt extremely blessed.

Super Saturday fun.  We had our EZ up tent out and chilled out on the Temple grounds.  It was such a beautiful day!  

I don't think the Jewish ladies looked that good 2000 years ago...nor did they take selfies!  

Hailey's newfound friends.  

Hailey and her friends would make a fort in the backstage area.  They loved it.  It was kinda like sleeping outdoors...at the temple...with funny costumes.