A Culture Steeped in Truth

Today I am grateful for the Temple Square Summer Concert Series. Twice a week, the church invites someone to perform in the Brigham Young Historic Park across from Temple Square. And it is such a wonderful idea! The concerts usually incorporate a spiritual message and even when they don't, it is sure to be an uplifting and clean performance. It is a fun opportunity for families to get together and enjoy positive live media, as well as a non-threatening way to share the gospel. I think next time we go, Scott and I will have to bring a non-member family with us. There's a family that lives below us with a single mom and three little kids. They might enjoy coming.

The performance we went to last night was a survey of Polynesian dance and music. The really cool thing about it was that so much of the dancing was gospel-related. They had a dance about Joseph Smith's First Prayer as well as a dance about Christ's teachings to the rich man. The really cool thing about this is that gospel stories are actually an integral part of their culture now. When the church was bran new, missionaries were sent to Hawaii. In spite of the difficult time the missionaries had learning the language, the gospel took off in Hawaii and from there spread like wildfire through the islands. There has been a vast church membership in Polynesia for more than 150 years and it is a much greater percentage of the population than almost anywhere else in the world. Those scripture stories are important to the people and so they encoded them in their dance and music. It was very inspiring to watch and listen as the pure truths of God's church where presented.

I am grateful for cultural diversity and all the different beautiful means of expression through which we can approach and convey truth.