mə/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[kahr-muh] -When, in your fantastically adventurous youth, you took full advantage of the prank and sneak-out-of-bed potential that such events as Youth Conference and Girls Camp provided and gave your leaders more than one sleepless night. Then, a few short years later, you are called to serve in the YW program and get to chaperon Youth Conference in Big Bear Easter weekend, and the bouncing flashlights, emphatic leaf crunching footsteps, mumbling voices peppered with annoyance, panic and cold in the distance are not behind you but are your own.
Insanity /ɪnˈsæn
ɪti/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[in-san-i-tee] -after not sleeping most of the previous night by spending it traipsing up and down mountainsides after restless Young Women in the arresting cold you proceed to get up at 3 am to meet 4:45 am call with the Southern California Mormon Choir, going into a cemetery in the hills, essentially in the middle of the night, to warm up outside, in the dark, singing by flashlight, keeping your voice from seizing up with tea and a homemade scarf, in prep for a 6 am Sunrise Service when "sunrise" isn't supposed to happen till 6:52 am. And who comes to 6 am services outside in the mountains where thousands of dead people are buried? About a 1000 people, thats who.
Token Da-dee-ta-dee /ˈtoʊ
kən/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[toh-kuhn da-dee-ta-dee] -When during said warm ups for such event and in between episodes of nodding off you realize that you had only been supplied with one version of costume for performances in the form of a black skirt and a black boat neck top but those around you are in a lovely Wedgewood blue with pearls. So being the singular choir member that isn't dressed properly you try to sit out but Mr. Director-man won't hear of it so you stand next to the men and hope that no one will see the tall girl, back row, center in the wrong color. In such states of sleep deprivation you decide to be the deliberate flaw in the Amish quilt and leave it at that.
Hysterical /hɪˈstɛr
ɪkəl/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[hi-ster-i-kuhl] -Driving home from said event such being inspired by the doves being released at dawn while singing the Hallelujah chorus, the ridiculous costume antics, all coupled with the effect of sleep deprivation and the relief that the performance is over, you proceed to have a slumber party worthy laugh fit that fills the entire ride home with your car pool buddy and her hilarious daughter consisting of, but not limited to, SNL sketches relating to Pepper ("peppaaah") and the term "Bellaisma!!!!"
Murphy's Law [mûr'fēz law] -
Your Young Women's President has been preparing and looking forward to Easter for weeks because she has planned a lesson consisting of a table set close to the floor with a complete and accurate spread of what the Last Supper would have looked like and had a tape that was the Last Supper, conversation wise, that she wanted to play for the kids, having the spread right there and letting them have that fly-on-the-wall experience via the performance of the tape. She asked you to teach the rest of the lesson, and by listening to the testimonies at Youth Conference of your kids you have come to realize that when they say "I don't really have a testimony of Jesus Christ but I like it here" that they need some serious and intimate experiences with The Spirit and Easter is a perfect opportunity and you really really want to make it a good lesson and a powerful experience. So, for preparation your Young Women's president gave the tape weeks ago and when you get home after Youth Conference schnanagans and Forest Lawn Services you go to look for the tape and it isn't to be found. A N Y W H E R E
Game Face /geɪm/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[geym /feɪs/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciationfeys] -
so while totally reworking your lesson in your head absent of the tape and imagining how you are going to tell your Young Women's president and shoving down the panic that both concepts ignite, you are still committed to sing in part of the Easter program during Sacrament meeting and manage to sit on the stand and sing your solo without coming unhinged.
Tender Mercies /ˈtɛn
dər/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ten-der mur-sees] -After manically looking for said YW Pres while trying to be polite to a steady stream of congratulatory congregation members you find her and it turns out she has an extra tape and all is well. You set up and give said lesson on the power of Christ and the invitation to "come to the table" and every single kid is quiet, uncharacteristically not-squirrelly, attentive and sweet. You're praying as loudly as you can in your heart for the Spirit to be there and that the kids might understand, even just a modicum more, their relationship to the Savior. Your half an hour is up and at the end of the lesson you invite the kids to come to the table set with place cards with the Apostles' names on them and with grape juice filled crystal goblets, but at Christ's place, at the head of the table you set and filled a special silver goblet. After the kids had literally eaten every morsel of food on the table and drained every goblet of grape juice and had all cleared out you do what every Youth leader does so well, you start cleaning up . During that process you realize that in the midst of the ravished table they left the Savior's cup full and untouched and you weep because you know that they heard you, and more importantly, they understood.
