Pioneer Day At The Parley P. Pratt Memorial With Pizza

As someone pointed out that is a lot of Ps for one activity.  For Institute on Tuesday, we met at the Memorial and had dinner together and then a short program at the Memorial.  Although the weather was hot and humid, it was slightly less so than several days previously and a breeze and good shade made it a warm but pleasant evening.

They have a couple of picnic tables where we could gather and eat our pizza....

The fenced in Memorial GArden

James, Evan, Kevin and Christ

Jena posing by the marker

After dinner, we had a short devotional by the marker itself--

Jena led our opening hymn--The Morning Breaks    which was written by Parley P. Pratt and the words are actually included on the marker.

These are from Gary's phone which I took off our YSA Chat group.....

Evan, who is the EQ president, and who suggested this idea, presented a brief history of Parley P. Pratt and this area.  Then he sang "An Angel From On High," another beautiful hymn by Parley Pratt.  Even has a beautiful voice and it was a sweet moment as the hymn talks about the restoration of the Book of Mormon.

So we tried to get a group shot, but the sun was not in the right spot and the back side of the marker is blank which ruled that out as an option.

Front:  Sister Wassmer, Sister Cowley, Kevin, Esther, Jena, Julie Carter
Back:  Liz, James Chris, Evan-seated, President Carter, Tyler, Logan

We had sixteen people there (not shown are Gary and I and Sister Jean Davidson who is Easter's mom.)

And our night was just getting started.  After our devotional, most of us headed down to the Ft. Smith Stake Center to be a "practice" audience for the Workman Family.  Tim Workman is a member of the branch presidency of the YSA branch and also teaches music at the local university.  His family was going to perform some numbers at a barbershop convention in New Orleans so they wanted to practice before an audience together.

Tim Workman

Taft, their youngest son, who isn't perform yet with them
but sang a couple of songs with them at the beginning

the four kids--Tanner, Taft, Abby, and Anna

Sister Sara Workman, mom, sings with them as well

There were about 15 of us coming from the Institute activity and joined also by Gary Morris and Brooklyn plus the Workmans had posted on their Facebook page that people were invited to come.  They only expected 15 or so people and had over 30 so it was a good practice for them.  It was a fun evening being together and sharing their music.

Gary M. and Brooklyn had car problems so they ate their pizza in the kitchen before the concert...

(from Gary's camera)

Sister Cowley photo bombing....

Sister Wassmer staying out of the photo bombing....

So lucky that our lives have crossed paths with these sweet sisters, the young adults, and the people of Ft. Smith stake.