I've Waited Years For This!

To start at the beginning, eight years ago when I was ten, my brother auditioned and became a YPM and he made it in. It was the first time that I had heard of the YPMs and later we went and visited him in Nauvoo. The wonderful experience I had going to Nauvoo, visiting the places from the Doctrine & Covenants, and being around the great sisters and elders influenced my life very much. From then on I wanted to try out when I was older, I also grew to love music and dancing.

I am positive that God has helped for a long time to accomplish my Nauvoo YPM goal. About 6 years ago my grandma decided to give her guitar to one of her grandchildren if they wrote an essay saying how they would use it, why they wanted it, etc. Well time went by and weeks later, thinking I was too late, I wrote the essay and ended up getting the guitar. That started me out on the guitar which has led me to the banjo, which I never thought I would play.

My banjo is another miracle that helped me with Nauvoo. I really wanted to get a banjo so I could play it for my YPM audition. However, banjos can be very expensive even if they are used or broken and being in slight financial hardships I could not find one anywhere that would work. Then after some days of looking for a good affordable banjo, a sale came up where Amazon was selling a brand new banjo including the picks for the perfect price. I was able to get it in time to learn some stuff for the auditions.

Even now that I have made it in to the YPMs I can still see Gods hand helping me with my struggles. For example, I have been able to sing in a barbershop group and one of the members ended up being LDS as well and he came up to me and offered to help me with expenses that I might have with the YPM and my full time mission. This came as a blessing to me because I was talking with my parents a few nights before about how we might be able to afford all of the expenses and still be able to have them come and visit Nauvoo.

After auditioning for the YPMs I felt that I did the best that I could do. I also felt satisfied with the experience of the auditions that I was already okay if I did not make it in. After the audition I felt very calm and did not end up worrying about it the whole drive home to Washington from Utah. I know that God was helping me because I have usually worried about things like that from choir and other singing festivals.

After I received the call that I made it in, I was so happy! I also found that I started thinking about all the things that I should do to prepare for Nauvoo, or my lacking in different areas that I need to improve. I cannot, however, sum up all of the emotions that I felt, because I was just flooded with so many I was just…full! I am still excited for Nauvoo and I am so ready for this school quarter to end so that I can put all of my time and effort into getting ready to share the wonders of Nauvoo with the people that come.