Jerry and Vernon: Christmas at the MTC in Brazil

as wonderful at the MTC in Brazil. We had 146 Elder and 27 Sisters and four missionary couples that spent the night. We had quite a range of talent. The battery on my camera died so I did not get picture of everyone of the 17 performances.
Our opening number Was Elder Jones singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" he sang it in a Frank Sanatra style and really engaged with the audience. He has a voice that is every bit a good as anything I've heard on Boardway. He was in the BYU music theater program for a year before coming on his mission.

The second number was Elder McBride telling the story of the Grinch that Stole Christmas. He told it in a wonderful deep British accent and when he quoted the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who he used wonderfully different voices. We followed his performance with several musical numbers. I had more Americans participate than Brazilians and more Elders than Sisters. I would have two American Numbers then a Brazilian number. We had seventeen performances in all and the program lasted about an hour and 45 minutes.
Everyone loved it!

This is Elder Head quoting a segment from Shakespear's King Henry the V "Saint Crispins Day Speech" He was terrific and many gave him a standing ovation

We have an Elder here from Tonga and he taught four other Elders how to do the Haka, a traditional war dance . This was a real crowd pleaser

This whole district had a chorus line and sang their own arrangement of I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas. This number was absulutely hilarious and so well done. Elder Dunn was the lead singer. You don't see him because he is on the floor and the rest of the Elders for the most part stayed on the stage as the back up singers. I had the chairs in a semi circle so the performers could interact more with the audience and no one was sitting more than four rows from the front. It worked out really well.

Elder Rhodes writes poetry and read three of his poems. The poems he shared were quite humerous and his performance was even more amazing than his writing

E. Price sang Believe from the musical "The Polar Express" I expect to see him on stage at BYU too after his mission. The tie is all embroiderd with sequens. He thought the people in Brazil would enjoy it, plus he has worn it every Christmas since his grandpa died. His grandmother gave it to him so he could to carry on the tradition.

Elder Grabnor is From a small town in Brazil and the most fabulous piano player I have ever heard. He played the "Hungarian Rapsody #2" as well as accompaning a Brazilian Sister who sang Think of Me from Phatom of the Opera. He also sang the male part of the song. If it had not been for him we would not have had any Brazilians participate. He got his whole district to sang "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus" and he accompanied the Trio of Brazilian sister who sang.

These two Brazilian Elders were from Elder Grabnor's district too. We borrowed the guitar from one of the teachers. They sang in a vary typical Brazilian style which I am coming to love.

We also had an American Elder sing a song he wrote and play the guitar. It was called "Father Father" and was about Joseph Smith and the restoration. It was very beautiful too and we all could feel the spirit very strongly as he played.

This is Elder Bumbough. He played in BYU's symphonic band and really entertained us with his makeshift drumming. he was throwing the sticks up in the air and catching them and making all different kinds of sounds with his note book on this piano bench. These sticks were some old dowels that I found along with the boxes of music stored in the mail room.

These three Brazilian Sisters harmonized beautifully together. The sister on the left also sang "Think of Me" The sister on the right lead the 50 missionary departing district preformance of Faith in Every Foot Step" on the 28th of December. Some of these Brazilian Sisters are really quite amazing