Let the Lower Lights be awesome

I think October is my third-favorite month, sandwiched between my second favorite and my favorite.

I had a few tender mercies this week. I had a midterm in my environmental bio class on Monday and a take-home midterm for my varieties of English class that was due Tuesday. I was also supposed to have a paper due on Friday, and with the tests, I hadn't even started it. But then our varieties of English professor said she felt bad having the paper due the same week as the midterm, so I get more time! I still haven't started the paper itself, but I've done a little more research for it.

The other mercy was that with my studying for the bio test, I forgot that we had a bio quiz that was due before class on Wednesday. But Wednesday happened to be the day that BYU Learning Suite was being especially unfriendly (it kept saying "Fatal error ldfoi hdiu hiuerhgwiufgiuwgehfwgrandomthingsthatdontmeananythingdifh iueht9o8yt98y"), so the professor and the TAs made it due Thursday, which meant I was able to finish it before it was due!

On Thursday, one of my favorite singers, Cherie Call, was singing at an event in the library. It was a photo exhibit by some guy who took pictures of mothers and daughters over the course of thirty days. So he had this little program with four mother writers. I had to sit through four essays (they were good essays, but still) to hear Cherie Call sing one song, "Walk You through the Night." After the program, I mustered up my courage and went and talked to Cherie. I told her that she was the reason I was there that night, and I asked her if she was recording an album anytime soon (it has been three years since she released her last album, Grace). Her answer saddened me. She said that she doesn't have a contract with a record company and she doesn't have a lot of money, so she has to get what proceeds she can from a few singles she records once in a while. In my mind, this is unacceptable! I think she is one of the best--if not the best--singers in the LDS community, yet she is a bit more obscure than, say, Mindy Gledhill or Hilary Weeks. She writes her own songs, which are all creative and tell stories. Her voice is completely unique. Some people might not like it, but I love it. I admit I haven't bought her more recent singles, but I suppose I should. I have, however, bought all seven of her albums. All but the first one are fantastic. (And for those of you who don't like religious music, her first two albums are not religious, and her album Grace has a lot of songs about family life, not necessarily religion.)

But I did get to hear more of her the next night. I had a mission reunion, but after the reunion I went with my childhood friend Hillary Ulmer (who went to the same mission, but at a different time) to see the Lower Lights, of which Cherie Call is a part. I got a Lower Lights CD for my birthday, and I was excited to see that they had a free concert in Provo. It was fun to see them live. At the show I bought their Christmas album and got an added bonus. One thing that made me sad about getting the CD for my birthday was that I saw that if you bought it online, you got free extra songs, so getting the CD for my birthday meant I didn't get the extra songs. But because I bought a different CD at the show, they gave me a code to get the extra eight songs! I like to collect hymns, especially ones that aren't by the MoTab, and now the Lower Lights have greatly contributed to my collection. Getting all that new music this week made me realize the space on my computer is getting low, so I spent some time putting my holiday music on a flash drive so that it will only take space on my computer when I use it. It was a bit of a headache, but now that it's done it will free up space.

The mission reunion was a little weird. It was the first reunion I've had with my second mission president, who got home in July. I only had him for five months, and it was three years ago. I don't think President and Sister Palmer remembered me very well. I didn't know the vast majority of people there. Strangely, one of the people I knew there did not have a connection to my mission. She was in my ward this summer--she works for catering or something (the reunion was in the Wilk, which is a ten minute walk from my apartment if I walk slow. Best location ever.). I only had two companions there, three if you count my MTC companion. But I only talked to one, Elder Betenson. My MTC companion came late and I didn't feel a great need to talk to him, and the other companion was the evil Elder LaPratt who I wish would disappear. I remember one night during my first semester at BYU in which someone was telling me 21 was a hard age because you still miss your mission. I was skeptical that I would ever stop missing it. But I have reached that point. I mean, I still miss it a little bit (especially at this time of year, since it was four years ago this week that I transferred to my favorite area), but I've moved on with life.

Conference was good. My concern with the new mission ages has to do with our Mormon culture. It seems like we try to get people out on their missions as close to nineteen as possible. I felt like there was something wrong because I didn't leave for two months after I turned nineteen. I hope that people will realize that just because they can leave at 18 doesn't necessarily mean they must or even should. I think I benefited from my six months after high school, and more would have helped as well. I'm not saying we should try to avoid going as soon as possible, but I think we need to diminish the idea of you must go now.