Face Your Fears

A few years ago I had the privileged of hearing Julie De Azevedo speak and sing at a women's Relief Society meeting as if that wasn't enough to fulfill my LDS celebrity artist dreams, they got Janice Kapp Perry to speak to us this last Saturday!! This is the lady who has written many of my favorite songs including:

• I Love To See The Temple
• I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus
• As Sisters In Zion
• Love is Spoken Here
• AChild's Prayer
• I Belong To The Church Of Jesus Christ

• and one of my very, very, very favorite musical programs, From Cumorah's Hill!

sorry, I fan -girled a little bit there. :)    Her music was pretty much the foundation of my youth and much of my adult life.
And not only did she speak, but she sang too!!  I was not expecting that.  I mean of course you would expect JDA to sing, but a 70+ plus year old composer? Sure, she might sing, but would you expect her too?  Well, I didn't. She told the story of how she began singing her songs in front of people because for years she did not.  Some time ago, a member lady in Hawaii gave her a hard time about not singing her own music and said that she was being too prideful.  The lady told JKP that she was afraid that someone in the audience would be a better singer than she was and Sister Perry said, "Why yes, that's exactly what I'm afraid of." :)  And that is exactly the type of speaker/person we got to experience on Saturday.   Janice Kapp Perry is a down to earth, sweet, matter of fact, humble, fun and inspirational lady.

Someone buy this for me. kthanksbai

Her husband spoke first for about 15 minutes.  Brother Janice Kapp Perry he jokingly said his name was now and that he couldn't remember his real name anymore. He is a charmer and loved getting a laughing response from the room full of women.  He talked about the importance of listening to music with good lyrics to keep the spirit in your life. Later on, after a little family song they sang together he surprised her with a kiss on the lips.  She was blushing and we loved it. :D

When he was done turned the rest of the hour and 15 minutes over to his wife.   I have to say it did not feel like she gave a 75-minute talk. The time flew!  I didn't even get antsy until the end and it was not any fault of hers, I just had to leave right as she was ending so I could take Danielle to her basketball game.  So I was watching the clock and thinking ,"oh my heck, I have to go, but I so do.not. want. to!" (Plus, they still had to have a luncheon which I knew I was going to miss. *sniffle*) Luckily, she ended only a few minutes after the time I said I was going to leave.  I walked out after she said, "Amen." and right before the prayer.  Felt like a schmultz, but I had already stayed too long.

I wish I could've recorded her talk.  Maybe it's out there somewhere on cd to buy, idk...But she had so many wonderful stories about:

• Her journey to becoming a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir even though she isn't a singer and was SO nervous. (She said, sometimes they take people who can sight-read well, can blend well and that won't hurt the choir  HAHA! Good to know.)
• The process of writing her family song-she encouraged all of us to write or convert an already known song into our very own family song.  I love that my mom is an example of this one already.  She wrote a song with her good friend, Jo An Washburn. ("Oh I'm a McCleve and you can believe"...haha all you  Mclevers are singing it now. *mwah*  you are welcome.)  I really really want to do this for my family now. Like REALLY!  The kids have already been helping me with ideas. :)
• Some other stories about composing a few of her 1300+ (!!!!) songs
• How she came about to composing 100 hymns
• Her and her husbands recovery from a serious car accident and other health problems. Like how repeating the lyrics to the second part of "A Child's Prayer" were the only thing to get her through a  painful medical scan after the accident.

 She also had us all sing together a medley of 6 of her primary songs.  This was one of the most tender parts of the morning with her. To be singing such beautiful, sweet  songs with such straight forward Gospel messages WITH the very person inspired to compose them for us was an experience I will never forget.

  Sister and Brother Perry rely a lot on the spirit to guide them and help guide each other to accomplishing their goals. This was a good reminder for me.  Another thing that I took away from her talk was because it was one of the points she was trying to make (imagine that ;)) and something she has had to develop over the years, was to "Face Your Fears".  Take one step at a time in developing our talents and abilities and to celebrate the small victories in the process. I don't care who you are, this is something we can all work on. Never being too cushy comfortable in our lives and always be stretching ourselves to accomplish new goals.

What a fabulously inspirational Saturday morning for me.


To hear much of her music buy my father-in-law's video of Mormon Temples Across America
It features mostly her music and there are 59 songs on the 2 disc dvd.
or go to an LDS church.... ;-)