Did you know I live in Utah, and I was fortunate enough to have one of the perks today. Our ward was in charge of the Day time enrichment traditionally for the senior sisters. But since our ward was in charge, I volunteered to help with the lunch and setup.

so, who was the speaker you say? well, since I live in Utah, it was Janice Kapp Perry. yip, that's right I got to listen to Sis. Perry speak on the power of positive music. I am telling you. You have a right to be jealous. It was WONDERFUL!

Right now she is serving a church service mission in the spanish speaking ward. (In my same building I might add) She has gotten back from a mission in Santiago Chile. And served with Pres. and sis. Holland and talked about the rewards of bringing the hymns to the ward buildings down there. She taught them how to play the piano and conduct the music. None of the wards had piano's in the chappels. She helped them bring the music to them.

She talked about the time to teach children the songs of god are when they are little. Her personal experience is that when she has learned spanish, she had taken her 5 years to learn what a normal 19 year old going on a mission would need to learn. How much better to teach your children the primary songs NOW when they can absorb so much more.

Her daughter when asked how did music influence you? She said "well I KNOW I am a child of god, because it was song to me every night when I went to bed." Her mom laughed, because it was cute, and her daughter said "no really I do know that". I want my kids to know that also.

She is preparing a talk to speak at BYU women's conference and said, well, I guess this talk will do double duty. So, she sang a little song she wrote about being a grandmother looking back and noticing and realizing that the songs are what made a difference to her children. What inspired her to write this song was that J. Reuben Clark Jr. was quoted (now give me a break because I didn't write the quote down) "Nothing has more power to bring the spirit more quickly than prayer and music"

So, she passed out the words to the songs

A child's prayer
I love to see the temple
I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ
I'm trying to be like Jesus
The Army of Helaman
Love is Spoken Here.

She sang with a microphone and said I don't sing, I just write songs, so I will use my plain old grandma voice. We all sang, it was WONDERFUL!

I wish so much that so many of you could have been here. I think Jill and Ashtyn would have loved to have been here to hear that! Believe me I thought of you the whole time!