“More Precious than Gold”
The Sacramento California Temple Youth Cultural Celebration, Part 3

(continued from Part 2)

We Accomplish Big Things in the Church

For this production, Scott Eckern says he wasn’t the producer — “the Lord was the producer and I was his servant. The spirit of the Lord was absolutely present and lifted us up through this production. We accomplish big things in the Church. I tried not to get in the way of the Spirit.

“I’ve had many spiritual experiences as a theater artist, but none of those experiences can compare with the one I had on Saturday with the culmination of a year of my life, working on this show.

“I saw this production in my mind’s eye from the beginning. I saw it spiritually. It was like no experience I had ever had in my life. I saw it with my heart not just with my eyes. You felt this power, confidence, and strength coming from the youth and you knew that they knew they weren’t alone in what they were doing.

“I believe this whole experience was a pattern for living the gospel. Spencer W. Kimball said we practice our way to perfection. With their months of practice, these youth had the chance to perform in a way that was excellent. As you practice living the gospel, it gets easier and you get better and then it becomes absolutely joyous.

“The youth could truly say that not only did they have fun, but they experienced joy which was a realization of the prophet,” Scott said.

“I told the youth, there’s going to be 5,000 of you out there and I can guarantee that your parents won’t be able to pick you out of the crowd, but I can guarantee that the Lord will see you. Your performance is for him, so do your best for the Lord.”

You could see that true spiritual joy in the faces of youth as they did an Irish-style Riverdance, Russian kicks, or frolicked on roller blades and skateboards to an upbeat version of “Give Said the Little Stream.”

The Story

The musical and dance elements of “More Precious than Gold” were woven around a story that pulled on California’s remarkable history. It was here in Sacramento where Latter-day Saints played such an historic role.

When the government came and asked Brigham Young for men to form the Mormon Battalion, as the pioneers were on their journey west, it was the last thing the Saints wanted to do. They were fleeing the United States, where they had been persecuted and unprotected.

However, Brigham saw what the impact of the battalion’s salary could do for an impoverished and hungry people, and the Mormon Battalion was born and began their long march west and south to California, finally ending in the San Bernardino area without having ever seen battle. They then made their way to the Sacramento area.

What they were on hand for, however, was the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in January 1848 — and it was another Mormon, Samuel Brannan, who couldn’t keep the discovery a secret and published it to the world.

This history is a background for the fictional story of Sarah, a modern teenager, who wants to find her great, great grandfather, Elijah Erastus Finnius Johnson. She takes five other teens, who can’t quite understand her passion for genealogy, on a journey of discovery.

But finding him isn’t all that easy — and she lands against one obstacle after another in her search.

A clever line from the show gives a flavor for the script. As she searches through a cemetery looking for her great great grandfather’s name, an old historian seems to know that she is a Mormon. Sarah asks, “Wait? And how did you know I was a Mormon?”

The historian answers, “You’re 17. It’s Friday night. You’re in a cemetery looking for your ancestors.” This isn’t hard to figure out.

With the help of a mysterious historian and her five friends, Sarah takes a trip through history looking for her grandfather — and also gets the chance through vignettes of Joseph Smith in the grove, missionaries preaching, and the journey west, to tell her friends why giving them the gospel would mean so much to her.

Click here to go to Part 4 of “More Precious Than Gold”