Do you wanna be a missionary?

I love living in Manti! I love small town life, I love that there's no traffic lights, I love knowing everyone, I love being close to family, I love being so close to the Temple, I love all of the small town activities that happen on Easter, or the fourth of July, or on Memorial Day weekend, I love being a small-town, country girl! But one of my very favorite things about living in Manti is Pageant Time! I have been a participant in The Mormon Miracle Pageant since I was ten, and I've loved every minute of it, all the locals do. You can tell just by driving into Manti how happy we are to have pageant starting,we even put up signs on our light poles that say "It's Pageant Time!" haha it's great. The whole town is happy, excited, and busy.
This year is the first time in ten years that I won't get to be a part of pageant. I was actually pretty bummed, ok I still am a little bummed... but we had some awesome speakers in sacrement meeting at my student ward that made me realize that I can still be a part of it. I'd say there are two reasons that little old Manti continues to do the Pageant and why the church supports pageant.

-Reason #1, for the people involved. Not only does it help each of us gain a greater testimony of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, forever families, and the Savior, we also recieve many blessings for serving, including the blessing of happiness.

-Reason #2, because it is a great missionary tool. The last couple years we have been concentrating more on the great missionary effort that pageant it is. For the last six or seven years I had the opportunity to be a cast missionary. My job as cast missionary was to go out in the crowd before pageant and welcome them, help them know that we're glad that they came, and ask each of them if they have anyone they would like to share the gospel with aka get referrals! We would encourage them to pray and listen during the pageant to know if there's anyone that they can share this glorious gospel with. We would leave them with our testimony and hopefully thinking about sharing the gospel with someone. Last year the pageant succeeded in receiving over 1500 referrals!
To get to my point... the president over the pageant spoke in our ward today, President Barton. He not only encouraged each of us to come see the pageant or be in it if time permitted, but also to start praying now about someone we could bring with us to the pageant. He told us that this was a great opportunity to be a member missinoary! His family has already started praying about it, and he's committed one non-active member to coming to the pageant this summer. What a great example. So... it occured to me while I was playing the closing song, that I could still participate in pageant by bringing someone with me the weekend that I come... and then, because I'm addicted to blogs I think, it hit me that I coudl post about it and encourage all of you to do the same!

THE CHALLANGE: I challange each of you not only to come to pageant this year, but to start praying now that you will find someone to bring to pageant so that they can feel the glorious spirit of the Mormon Miracle, and be brought to the knowledge of this great gospel. I'm sure you will all be welcome to stay at our house if you need a place to stay, we would love to have you! Please come, and bring your friends! The church is true! Let's share it with everyone around us!

Please mark your calanders! The dates of pageant are: June 18-20 and 23-27