Remembering Old Friends

Bluebird troop. Darlene in the center, I'm at the end

I've had a lot of friends in my life and lately I've been thinking about what those friends have meant to me. First I'll start by saying I've moved a lot of times in my life so it's been kind of nice staying in the same place for over 8 years. My first memory of a friend was in 1st grade in Glendale, California. My friend was Darlene but I'm unsure her last name. She and I were in the same Blue Bird troop of which my mom was the leader. We were also in the same 1st grade class together. Somewhere I have a picture of our first grade class, but can't find it. I'll settle on sharing the picture on the right of our Bluebird troop. I don't remember much about 1st grade, I do remember playing together. 

With my dad being in the Navy we never really stayed in one place long enough for me to remember who my friends were or even make many friends for that matter. My next memory of a good friend was in San Diego, California where I attended 4th-6th grade at Doris Miller, Elementary school. We lived in Navy Housing in Tierresanta Hill/Murphy Canyon. My good friend was Cindy McDonough. We walked to school together every day. I remember once we got bullied by some junior high kids on our way to school. Cindy managed to run away but they threw me to the ground and took my lunch. I know we did a lot together, hung out at each other's houses and I think we even had a crush on the same boy. She is one person who I've always wondered what happened to her. There are too many Cindy and Cynthia McDonoughs on Facebook. And she could be posting by a married name if she is even on Facebook.

My next memory of a good friend you might say was my salvation and my strength through the awful evil world of Junior High School. In 7th grade I was at Royster Junior High in Chanute, Kansas. I was pretty teased and really don't remember any friends that year other than ones I went to church with. But, I think most of them went to different schools. The last half of my 7th grade year I lived in Oklahoma then returned to Kansas for 8th grade where I attended Iola and Humboldt Junior high school. Iola was OK and once again I don't remember friends, but Humboldt was pretty much the worst place I was ever teased and called names. I was glad to leave that place for Chanute again but even though some of the same people who teased me in 7th grade were still there and continued with the teasing, I found solice in a friend. I'm glad that we are still in contact with each other to this day. Her name is Mary Simmons. I sincerely don't know how I would have gotten through 9th grade without her. As the year went on less people teased me. Mary helped me feel happy when Junior High was usually a sad place for me.

Santa Rita High School in Tucson Arizona brings me to my two best friends Barbara Tech and Lisa Hubbard. I had a lot of good friends in high school leaving behind the teasing and torment in Junior high and back in Kansas. I had some struggles in high school during my parents divorce and not being accepting of my dad's new marriage to my step mom. Barbara especially helped me through that, oh and her mom! Lisa, Barbara and I were in school choir together which is how we met and became friends. I think the three of us went through quite a bit of laughter, crushing on guys and fun times together. It seems like a lifetime ago. Had our graduation party at Lisa's house. I have photos....somewhere. LOL.

I'm so glad I'm still in touch with them on Facebook as well.

I've had a lot of friends in my adult life. They have all meant a lot to me in one way or another. Hoping I won't hurt feelings for not naming everyone, but need to limit the size of this blog, I'll name a few. All who I mention and don't mention know what they mean to me and I hope I am as good as a friend to them as they are to me. Kathy Calhoun, Lanise Thompson, Colleen Moore, Tamaya Dooley, Pam Ivan, Sandy Vander Wilt, Janet Sizemore, Melissa Guezmir, Kim Meche, Holly Martin Krepps, Barbara Rode, Rebecca Bruno, Dorothy Johnson and my two sisters-in-law Kathleen Newberry and Cindy Woodbury. A recent friend is Claudia Astwood. A sweet very funny lady in my church. I adore her!

Addition August 5, 2012: I need to add a couple of people to this list. A sweet lady Reina who lives in Georgia. She has been so nice a so supportive of me, encouraging me through hard times. Along with my friend Colleen some day I hope to meet her in person. I need to give her a good and proper hug for her words of encouragement and because of how sweet she is to me.
The other is Eleonora Campana De Berardino in Italy. The same as Reina, she has lifted my spirits, given me encouragement and has been like a sister to me. I just love how Facebook and the internet can bring someone on the other side of the globe together and unite them with new friends!

Also want to thank all the sweet young ladies and men in the Philippines who have become my friends and call me "Tita" Janel (like Dom, Cherry, Jaszie, Mary, Gregorie, and others). I am especially grateful to have been able to send a Book of Mormon signed by David Archuleta to Cherry Mariano in the Philippines and Lixuan Chen ("Elysion") in Taiwan. Also a BOM with my testimony to Virginia Hoblock in New York and Cinthya Mendoza in Ecuador. Wonderful young men and women seeking for answers in their lives and hopefully will accept the gospel some day.
Another new friend is my next door neighbor Kylee Zwahlen. She is my daughter Amanda's age and such a sweet young lady. She has two children, Brooklynn who is 3 and Ayden who is 1 1/2. In Relief Society we have these notes that are passed around and we can write one to friends who mean a lot to us and thank them. Just a few weeks after she moved into our ward she gave me a sweet thank you note. I adore her!! Sometimes when my granddaughter McKinley comes over she plays with Brooklynn. She also helped me to print out pictures for a certain temple scrapbook for a certain missionary who is on a certain mission in Chile. LOL
I would also like to mention a few David fan friends who have been so sweet to me. Jane Raburn, Tawna Whitney, Cathy Moriarty, Carolyn Preece Baker, Aimee Vargas, Gwen Porea, David Gonzalez and many many more.
My wonderful co-leader David Walling of whom I think is my sanity when it comes to our troop activities. He is so knowledgable in so many things and the girls adore him as a leader! He's been a true asset to our troop.

The History of a Powerful Song in my Life

Psalm 46:10: "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
"Be Still My Soul" was written by poet Katharina von Schlegel (1697- c.1768) in the German town of Leipzig through what I believe was inspired by God. Published in 1752, the poem was entitled "Stille, Meine Wille, Dein Jesus Hilft Siegen."

Equally inspired by God was the English translation by Jane L. Borthwick and published more than 100 years after it was written.

Finland composer Jean Sibelius wrote the tune that would become connected to this hymn in 1899.

The arrangement used in the LDS hymnal today was arranged by the Presbyterian  Board of Christian Education in 1900 and its copyright renewed in 1961.

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.

In 2008 a young man with an angelic voice appeared on the TV show American Idol, named David Archuleta. I was so glad that week after week he kept getting through to the next round. I wanted to hear his beautiful voice over and over again. Though he didn't win in the end (runner-up) he gained a very strong following of fans which has carried through and a lot of the fans have stuck with him plus he's gained new ones along the way.

I'm not much of a concert goer, nor did I ever used to be, but I took my daughter Alyssa to the American Idol concert in June (July?) of 2008. David sang several songs including a cover of "When You Say You Love Me" by Josh Groban. Very beautiful song. After that concert Alyssa and I became even stronger fans, but we really didn't follow him much until we learned of his self titled album tour in 2009. We attended his Idaho Falls concert in March of that year. The much stronger fandom started to slowly come, especially for Alyssa who viewed David as her teen idol. As a mom, I was just fine with that. Not a better young man to have as your idol.

I started then to slowly look up David fan sites, choosing a few as my favorites just to visit sometimes and see if David had any more upcoming events, etc. I joined Twitter in the Fall of 2009 I believe, at first only following David, then a few other stars, then slowly but surely other people/fans.
Alyssa, her friend Kaili, and I attended David's beautiful Christmas concert on Nov 24th of 2009. I was captivated the most by his song Prayer of the Children, written by Kurt Bestor. The entire concert was stunning and stirring.

Note that at no time during this did I ever contemplate returning to church. I knew David was LDS, it was all over the news here in Utah, so what happened next wasn't something I sought out.

In January of 2010 I was YT surfing as I often do and found the video of David singing Prayer of the Children. Then, what I saw in the suggested video column on the right was a time when David sang Be Still My Soul at a fireside. I felt compelled to listen and I am so glad I did. It was so beautiful I bawled and listen to it over and over a few times. The first time I met David at Deseret Books in SLC, I felt the spirit of Heavenly Father strong in him, so strong that it brought me to tears. I've felt this in other people in my life with equal reaction. The next time I met him was just a couple weeks later in Rexburg, Idaho (BYU Idaho). Alyssa and I drove up there and I'm so glad we did. David sang "Be Still My Soul" as his encore song. It was even more beautiful than the fireside performance and it moved me to tears. In the M&G afterwards I told him that his testimony in his book "Chords of Strength" and him singing "Be Still My Soul" along with his other music was bringing me back to the church. He was so sweet to tell me he thought that was awesome and thanked me for telling him.

In August of 2010 I went to a David Osmond concert (outside Deseret Book in Orem). I had never met him but remembered him opening for David A. at BYU Idaho. His opener was Alex Boye. Very talented man and funny too. He sang some beautiful songs but then nothing prepared me for David Osmond. He sang my all time favorite hymn Nearer My God to Thee. I was in front and bawled like a baby. It was so beautiful. He came up to me and asked me why I was crying. I briefly told him everything to that point. He gave me a hug and bore his testimony to me saying that the messages were true and encouraged me to go to church and to let him know when I did. He was the extra nudge I needed to make my decision to return to church. While standing in line to get his and Alex Boye's autograph, I grabbed one of each of their CD's, not really paying attention to what I grabbed. David once more urged me to go to church and I promised I would.

On my way home, while at a stop light I grabbed David Osmond's CD and listened to it. Beautiful! I then looked at Alex's CD cover and the title was "Be Still My Soul". Tears began to flow as I listened to him sing it. Once again God using that song as a beacon to let me know I'm on the right path.
I didn't go to church that Sunday because I was sick. Probably made myself sick because of the nerves. I ended up going the following Sunday but not to my own ward. I instead attended my sister-in-law's ward in West Jordan. The prelude music was Be Still My Soul. I was shaking and crying as the spirit was whispering to me, "this was for you."

The following Sunday I went to my own ward and one of my friends Shawna, whose daughter was once in my Girl Scout troop said she felt like she needed to talk to me. She was getting ready to get married (her second marriage) and working on getting her real estate license at the same time. Twice she tried to have a lunch date with me and both times she had to cancel.

In Nov of 2010 I bore my testimony in Relief Society for the first time. It was a simple testimony and I didn't mention David or the BSMS story, in fact it was a couple years after that when I finally did tell it, also in Relief Society. Shawna came up to me and said once again she still felt so strongly that she needed to talk to me. She called me after church to come to her house. We sat in her family room and she listened to my story and was straight faced with no reaction. I thought it odd since she invited me over. She then said she had to go to her fiance's house because his home teachers were coming over and she wanted to be there, however, she had something she wanted to show me.

She brought over her laptop and sat next to me. She briefly told me the story of her divorce and why it happened (I'll keep that private) and how she became depressed. Shortly after she went to the Women's General Broadcast of the church at her stake center. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir started singing a song she had never heard before. The close caption was going across the screen "Be still my soul the Lord is on thy side....". I of course bawled and she bawled. She then showed me on her laptop she had 25 renditions of BSMS, but not David's which she promptly added. She said "I think we're kindred spirits." "Yeah, ya think?" I asked, with laughter from both of us, more tears and hugs, then we both had to go. 

I have heard so many other stories of how this song has touched other people's lives, even causing some of them to seek out the church and be baptized. A friend recently told me this was the song of her baptism 13 years ago, and to add to her own strong connection to it, this amazing young man sang it and strengthened her testimony and love for the song.

God has used this song, I feel, as a reminder that I can be still in hard times and remember that He is with me, but also as a reminder to stay faithful in the church and to Him. The reminders pop up everywhere and friendships with other fans have been forged because of this song. I am eternally grateful to God for bringing this song to my life and to David Archuleta for singing it.
"Be Still My Soul, the Lord is on thy side..."

I bet that Katharina Von Schlegel never knew when her poem was first published in 1752 that 258 years later a talented, beautiful young man would sing the hymn written to her poem and touch the lives of so many. God set this chain of events in motion so long ago!
Me singing "Be Still My Soul" :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL_fJdgapLQ

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“I want to sing a song that has helped me in my life, especially during American Idol. Just to know that, ummm, I owe so much to God, and what He’s done, and how his hand’s been in my life. And I know that I’m supposed to be-be doing music because of, because of Him and-and for Him, because he’s let me have a wonderful gift of-of being able to take in music and see how it touches other people’s lives. And, so I’d love to sing one of my favorite hymns for you, of, which is about, um, you know, despite the craziness and the chaos that might be going on in your life, just to know that you can be still….It’s called Be Still My Soul.” ~David Archuleta 19 June, 2010; BYU Idaho, Rexburg, Idaho.

Addendum: On August 7th, 2012 David's new CD Begin. was released. On it, was Be Still My Soul. I can never listen to it enough. It makes me cry every time. David recorded the CD before he left on his mission with Kurt Bestor's orchestra. Breathtaking, every note. My heart swells with how my life has come full circle for me because of this song. Thank you David!

Addendum: 1 April 2013, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir released a video of David singing Be Still My Soul to them in March of 2009. It is beautiful and it is the most beautiful performance of him singing it I've seen. Close ups of the emotion on his face, a little humbleness at the beginning when he tells the choir he's nervous and to forgive him in advance. It was stunning, and he received a standing ovation from the choir. Judge for yourself!

Addendum March 2013: In the LDS women's choir I belong to The Chauntentettes, we sang Be Still My Soul at our sacred fireside. Very pretty rendition. I sing contra-alto. I loved our part in the song. My niece Maggie attended the fireside and took the video.

Addendum 14 Sept 2014 my niece Samantha sang Be Still My Soul with her Young Adult choir at the CES devotional at BYU. It was pretty cool to see her there and that they chose BSMS. Elder Christofferson was the speaker. She's the girl toward the bottom of the screen cap blonde long hair, glasses.

Here's a link to the devotional: https://www.lds.org/church/events/elder-christofferson-to-speak-at-september-ces-devotional?lang=eng&query=ces+devotional+byu+2014

Addendum March 2015. I auditioned in my choir for the one and only special number in our sacred devotional and my choir director Margaret chose me. There isn't a video of me singing that day, but this is me practicing. Pretty much how it sounded.

Addendum 15 April 2015 Religious Symposium at UVU, David spoke and sang a few songs including Be Still My Soul. I couldn't contain my tears. It was as beautiful if not more so than hearing him sing it in person the first time in 2010. As you can see 5 years later, this song is still touching my heart and soul.

Addendum 15 April 2016 (1 year after the UVU symposium) David sang Be Still My Soul in Orlando, Florida at the Time Out For Women convention. He is scheduled to sing and speak at more of these across the country this year. I am still humbled and in awe of this young man especially when he sings Be Still My Soul. Every performance is different yet the same. The same song of course, but also the same in the beauty of the performance and the strong spirit he exudes when he sings it. Different in that every performance seems to have different emphasis on words and phrases when it strikes him to do so, making him emotional at times. Another difference is every time he sings it, it's more powerful each time.
For me it brings back the memory of when I first saw a video of him singing it and that was the pivot point for me to my journey back to the gospel I love. It's crazy that I first did this blog post 5 years ago. Each and every performance has a special meaning to me. I've only heard him sing this in person twice, but it was twice the spiritual experience both times. Every time it seems as a reminder to me that I'm where I'm supposed to be. David may never read this because of being busy to read everything fans write, but I'll just say it anyways...God Bless you David and thanks to God and you for your voice, and your performances of Be Still My Soul. Forever grateful.

Image of Jesus comforting the young girl from http://www.eons.com/photos/group/catholics-50-3/photo/260205-Jesus-comforting/jesus---preachinghealingcasting-out-demons
Information on the hymn "Be Still My Soul" gathered from Wikipedia

Starting New

I've never done a blog before so this is all new to me. So, I guess I'll start by saying why I picked one Golden Eagle as my blog spot name. First off, ever since I can remember the Golden Eagle has been my favorite bird. Birds of prey of all kinds fascinate me, but the Golden Eagle is such a breathtaking creature and in my mind soars above all others and should be our National Bird, but I guess that isn't my decision.

As a 12+ year Girl Scout leader I know a lot of Girl Scout history and trivia. The Golden Eaglet was at one point the highest award a girl could earn. Now it's just known as the Gold Award. At a recent visit to the Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City, my girls learned all about birds and I was thrilled to see a Golden Eagle there.

I've recently had new found freedom in my life including courage to sing and and bringing my faith back into my life. I give part of that credit to the testimony and faith of two amazing young men and talented singers, namely David Archuleta and David Osmond. To me the very thought of this is golden, and precious to me. I have met both of these young men on several occasions and have been given the opportunity to tell them both what they mean to me in my life and to thank them for their testimonies.

Here is me singing a cover of Adele; Make You Feel My Love
http://www.box.net/shared/gxkcr8eecxtac9nx3cag