Latter-day Blog » Music

BYU Mens Chorus Closing Hymn in April 2007 Priesthood Session

Dustin — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:23:53 +0000

Brandon mentioned how wonderful the closing hymn was in the recent priesthood session of general conference this year. That made want to listen to it again. (If you don’t remember it, they sang a song to the tune of Be Still My Soul, but the lyrics where words from Nephi’s Psalm.) But since the church doesn’t upload the musical numbers in mp3 and they don’t even upload the priesthood session in mp3, you would think I would settle on waiting for the CDs or DVDs to be available at www.ldscatalog.com. Well, sometime I get determined, and such was the case today that led me to find a way.

The church did upload an mp4 file of the priesthood session for ASL (American Sign Language). I downloaded the enormous file and found that the audio is all there as well – and it is the whole session! Now, I hope I didn’t do anything wrong here, but I did a search for a mp4 to mp3 converter and downloaded the first one that looked interesting. After converting the audio to mp3 format, I imported it to Audacity and extracted the closing hymn so I could listen to it over and over again.

Now, if you don’t want to go to all that trouble to hear this masterpiece. You can just download it here.

* UPDATE *

I did a search for the lyrics and found them, plus some additional information about the song. The song is titled “I Love The Lord”. The arrangement is by Ronald Staheli. The lyrics are a paraphrase of 2 Nephi 4 by John Tanner.

I Love the Lord
I love the Lord, in Him my soul delights.
Upon His word, I ponder day and night.
He’s heard my cry, brought visions to my sleep,
And kept me safe o’er deserts and the deep.
He’s filled my heart with His consuming love,
And borne me high on wings of His great dove.

Yet oft I groan, “O wretched man am I”
My flesh is weak and I’m encompassed by
A world of sin, which holds me in it’s thrall,
If I give in and to temptations fall.
Then strength grows slack, I waste in sorrow’s vale;
My peace destroyed, my enemies prevail.

Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin.
Rejoice, my heart! And let me praise again,
The Lord my God, who is my rock and stay
To keep me strict upon His straight, plain way.
Oh let me shake at the first sight of sin
And thus escape my foes without and in.

Primary Songs for 2006

Dustin — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 23:21:54 +0000

My daughter just started Primary this year. She is really enjoying it. After he first day she came home singing “Scripture Power.” It’s quite the catchy tune!

My wife asked me to help her find the words & actual song if possible on LDS.org. I came across all the songs that the kids will be singing in Primary for 2006 and made a CD for my daughter to listen to to help her learn.

You can find all the words to the songs and download MP3s here:
http://www.lds.org/pa/display/0,17884,6413-1,00.html

Or, to make it easier on you, I’ve downloaded each of the songs and put them in a zip file which you can download here.

Did You Think To Sing

Dustin — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 18:42:26 +0000

Before I tell this story, let me preface by saying I’m a terrible singer. I don’t feel bad about that, because I’ve never really liked to sing. I don’t listen to music often for that matter. When I was a teenager, we were asked to volunteer to sing as a stake youth choir for an upcoming Stake Conference. I fulfilled my duty by going. During practice they moved me to new seats a few times probably hoping to minimize the sounds that were coming from my direction. When the the first practice was over I asked what time the next practice was, and was told they had enough people and I really didn’t need to come back if I didn’t want to. They continued to ask for volunteers the following weeks. Don’t worry, I wasn’t offended in the slightest!

Now, to a mission experience. I had learned in MTC and Missionairy Training Manual that hymns were a great method of inviting the spirit. Some time within my first few months of my mission, were were visiting and investigator – Emily. She was visibly upset when we arrived. She had decided to be baptized but was not able to quit smoking. She said she wanted to give up and asked us not to come back anymore. We had dealt with previous episodes and went throught the usual routine of comforting here and giving her encouragement. This time, nothing we could say seemed to be of any use.

Feeling frustrated and exhausted and sat back on the couch. I thought for a moment, then said a quick prayer in my heart.

“Heavenly Father, I’ve said all I can think of. I don’t know what else to do now. Please help me know what to say or do.”

I then looked over at my scripture case which was sitting on the floor. I saw my mini hymnal sliding out of the front pocket. I picked it up and said another quick prayer.

“Okay Father, please let me know what song you would like us to sing.”

I just opened the hymn book and took the first song I saw: #140 Did You Think To Pray.

I nudged my companion who was ready to go blue in the face trying to pursuade Emily to let us continue to visit and teach her and to not give up on us or her baptismal goal. He turned and looked at me and I asked Emily if we could sing a hymn for her. Never before and never since have I had such a singing voice. My companion was an excellent singer. I was right in harmony with him the whole time.

Emily was in tears. She said it was exactly what she needed. Now I know that not all such stories have a happy ending, but Emily did quit smoking and I was able to baptize her before leaving that area. She was loved by all the missionaries that served in that area.