Another crazy week in Nauvoo!!!

Hello everyone!! It's been another crazy week in Nauvoo!!! It's been surprisingly chilly here actually until this week. It's started getting pretty hot and it's only going to get hotter. Working out in rehearsal dresses over our sweats is definitely, well, sweaty. Thankfully it isn't too humid yet so I can adjust to it. But we will be in our real costumes on Wednesday! I'm so excited. But also nervous because we have less than a week until we open our shows for the public, ahhhh!!! We still have so much to do but somehow it'll all work out. Or at least it has to. We started rehearsing an extra hour every day so its been pretty tiring. We go from 8 am to 9:30 pm every day with an hour for lunch and for dinner. The first week we got here was the longest week of my life but now it's already started to go a lot faster. I thought it was still Wednesday when Friday came. When it did come though, we were kind of a mess. This Sunday has been really good for us because we can finally take a break from dancing. A lot of us got shin splints from clogging so much and half of us look kinda broken, haha. We have people with legs, ankles, and knees in raps and everyone ices their shins when every they have the chance. Thankfully I have been very blessed and I have been holding up health wise very well! It is really cool to see the blessing from Heavenly Father strengthening and healing us though. The power of the priesthood is real. I mostly struggle with memorization. I notice when the Lord helps me though. Normally it is very hard for me to find my part unless I have practiced on my own for awhile. But I am definitely learning much faster than I normally would. Still slower than probably everyone else, but I think I'll be ok. I should be able to fake it good enough for the first bit, haha.

This is my favorite story of the week. The stage missionaries were really struggling on Friday. A past YPM from years ago choreographed a lot of our dances and she comes to teach them for a few days along with our regular dance teacher. Because she has limited time, we have been dancing for at least 6 hours a day. AND THESE ARE NOT EASY DANCES. That's why people were getting swollen ankles and stuff. But this is the cool part. The band missionaries watched us a little bit after their practice one day, and they heard how down we were on Friday. There were definitely a couple mental breakdowns. I probably was one of them but I don't really remember which days I cried since it happens pretty often haha. It's normal though, don't worry. Anyway, the band is already pretty much perfect at all of their songs so they have a little more extra time. They felt bad that we had extended practices and that we were struggling so much on Friday so they took time to write a ton of uplifting messages on heart papers. They wouldn't even take credit for it but we knew it was them. We even found out that that they are fasting for us. Since we are not aloud to fast from meals because we need our strength, (last fast Sunday we just skipped breakfast and still drank water) they are fasting from sugar for us. And they have some yummy dessert for us every day at lunch. When I heard this, I couldn't help but cry. They are so supportive of us and it was so wonderful to see such Christ-like love from our fellow missionaries. It makes me sad that we aren't as close with them because we mainly only see them at lunch. I am just so grateful for the examples of others and the sacrifices that so many people make in my life. I am so blessed to be here, and even though it is hard, I am learning so much. It is amazing to see how much the Lord is helping us do something seemingly impossible. This way we have more faith and trust in Him than we ever would. I'll let you know how opening day goes by my next email!!

Love,

Sister Higginson