Deep
in the Heart of Texas
Youth Jubilee Celebrates
San Antonio Temple Dedication
Part 3
By
Maurine Jensen Proctor
Photography
by Scot Facer Proctor
click
photos to enlarge
Christopher
said, "As a choreographer, I probably spent 40 hours a week
with the Jubilee. I think it took as much time as a regular job
would. Yet, no matter how late we worked, it all came very easily.
I just seemed to know the right moves to put where. I wasn't
tired once after those long nights."
Still,
by February, Christopher thought it was impossible to pull together.
He said, "I like things planned out months and months ahead
of time. It came to the point that it was overwhelming and I
forgot the vision.
Christopher Fairbank, Choreographer
"One
night I was in my office late and called my wife who said, 'Don't
forget this is for the temple. The temple is the House of the
Lord. You are doing this for a purpose. It is for our Heavenly
Father.'
Christopher
said, "It totally changed my perspective. I became happy
and excited to do it. I cried all the way through the open house
because I felt so moved by the Spirit."
Gary
said, "The reason they called me was that I never did think
it was impossible. In putting together the show, we followed the
Lord's way and created it spiritually first, thinking through
every detail of the process. "We learned how to be better
thinkers, planners and communicators," he said. "We
learned everything about how to make things simpler. We learned
to manage a process."
Since
the temple district is a six-hour drive from north to south, learning
and practicing the dances was done on a ward and stake level.
Thus, videos were produced of dance moves to show to teens in
the ward and a website was created where the dances were outlined
step by step. The youth didn't come together for a rehearsal
of the 4,000 until the Saturday before the jubilee.
Janae
Judd designed the costumes and Gary said that he remembers several
times picking up full truckloads of bolts of cloth and returning
to the store again and again for more. Ward Relief Societies
had sewing nights to create costumes. One Boy Scout leader asked
all his troop members to sew their own shirts.
Kristi Chapman, Assistant Director
Kristi
Chapman said, "We became so caught up in the Jubilee, that
when a friend of me asked me who the star of the show was, I answered,
'The youth.' She said, 'No. It's the temple.'
"She
was right. I took some time off from the Jubilee and drove over
to the temple and just sat there for awhile. It put everything
in perspective."
For
the youth, the celebration was a once-in-a lifetime opportunity—their
effort and exuberance attached to the coming of a temple, their
testimony expressed, like David of old, in dance.
Photo by Ben Fettig
Koji
Kodama's story underlines the importance of these youth celebrations
that President Hinckley has initiated.
The
stake executive secretary of the Austin Texas stake, Koji grew
up in southern California and first learned of the Church from
his friends in high school. His mother was Epicopalian and his
father was a Budhist. Religion wasn't central in his home, but
Koji noticed that one of his peers, a young Latter-day Saint,
was different than his peers.
"That
prompted me to ask questions," he said. "I just naturally
longed for what he had.
Koji Kodama
"As
a nonmember, I participated with him in an LDS youth dance festival
in Pasadena. I didn't know what I was getting into, but it was
good, clean fun. As a part of that festival they had a testimony
meeting during the dress rehearsal. As all these youth streamed
to the microphone to bear their testimonies, I felt the Spirit.
I literally shook and cried. It was then I knew I wanted to join
the Church. I knew I wanted to go on a mission.
Koji and his wife, Kazuko
"I
have a personal testimony of these kind of youth events like the
Jubilee," said Koji. "President Hinckley has inspired
a great, new vision for our youth.
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