MY SIGNATURE SONG: "I LOVE TO READ THE BOOK OF MORMON"

This is my handwritten copy of "I Love to Read the Book of Mormon" which was written in 1991 and originally entitled "Our Prophet's Song." Most of the words came from President Ezra Taft Benson, who was my favorite General Authority since I was eight years old. Later I gained permission from the Benson family to use the prophets words.
President Ezra Taft Benson, 1992

Promise, after a performance in 1997. We always sang "I Love to Read the Book of Mormon" at the beginning of each presentation. At the end, the choir members would go down into the audience and sing it again. This song became a very effective and beautiful tool for our presentations."Promise" choir in 1994-1996, after performancesPromise rehearses in 1994
Formal picture for our CD in 1995

In 1991 I wrote what has become my signature song, "I Love to Read the Book of Mormon." The following background story, which I wrote at the same time, explains its melodic structure:

I LOVE TO READ THE BOOK OF MORMON

So simple! How can I contain it! The concept is so simple, yet so profound! Here we are, God's earthly children going through so much sorrow and having so many problems. We ask God to please help us. At times we feel the heavens are made of brass and won't release their truths to us. We keep having "bad luck," and we grovel in despair.

Meanwhile, in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the pulpit from which our prophet speaks, we are told to read deeply from the Book of Mormon, another Testament of Jesus Christ. He tells us we will find our answers there.

But we forget, and the cares of the day prevent us from searching that book. We become like the children of Israel who refused to just look at the staff so they could be healed. Today, all we need to do is read the Book of Mormon with our whole soul, and we'll be healed from our despair and problems. It is our staff, and our healer.

When you hear this song, you will discover it has two melodies. I couldn't decide which one was best, so I used them both, at the same time, just like the prayer and the answer, which can "cross in the mail," or, better yet, the answer has been there all the time.

I sang it in the car to my daughter the day it was finished. She immediately recognized something about it I didn't know: it had a third melody, one that I had sung to my babies all through the years, one which I had learned from my Mama well over forty years before, and which she had learned from her mama decades before that. Anyone that knows, "I'm a Lonely Little Petunia in an Onion Patch," give it a try. This brings back the flavor of old-time melodies that I'm sure our prophet, Ezra Taft Bensen still loves to this day.

These are his words, and his song.

MY FIRST SONG

My first draft of my first song, originally titled, "Have Ye Any Sick Among You?"The same song, renamed to, "I Will Heal You," was given an introduction and more voices.
MY STORY

During the fall of 1987, I received a strong impression to write Book of Mormon music. To make my story short, let's just say I felt very inadequate; plus, I didn't have time. I was working three jobs and was dog-tired at night. However, my reading from the Book of Mormon at night kept me thinking of that powerful impression. With a sigh, I cast out my fears and figured I'd better get started and chose a scripture, if I'm going to write a song.

I chose 3 Nephi 17, my favorite chapter, and verse 7, my favorite verse. My favorite sentences in the whole Book of Mormon are stated when Christ is visiting the Nephites, and He asks, "Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither...and I will heal them,...for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy."

The melody came to me as a gift. The chordal structure, harmonies, rhythm and words came one note or measure at a time. Christ's healing influence worked within me as the song progressed. I became happier and energized with each passing day that fall of 1987.

I savor the memory of those weeks: all alone in the middle of the night, wrapped in a blandet, sitting on the best seat in the house, my piano bench. I feel closer to my Savior because I have heard just a little bit of heaven.

This is the 2003 CD cover of my program which contains "I Will Heal You," sung by George Dyer and The Kaye Starr Singers. With the help of many good artists, this song was ready to be recorded 15 years after its inception.

LIT WITH FIRE

I cried with joy when President Ezra Taft Benson called for artists to create more works from the Book of Mormon. He didn't know, but I had already begun! During the lowest, darkest time of my life, when I felt all doors had closed upon me, I began to seek refuge and comfort in reading from the Book of Mormon. Late at night, when I could finally rest my tired body and open the pages of my Book of Mormon, I entered, through reading, my Savior's presence. A "window of light" opened to my soul as I longed to capture through music, the color, intensity, pathos and joy I had often felt as I read my scriptures. Could I actually capture those beautiful moments on musicians' manuscript? I was lit with fire with the desire to try.

I prayed for melodies that might come to my mind to depict that joy. Surely Heavenly melodies come to earth! I wanted to shout to the world about the power that one can feel from reading the Book of Mormon. Drawing upon this power, and with a prayer in my heart for a specific melody, I would become aware that as I sat at my piano and placed my hands on the keys, my fingers were guided to play mature, educated cadences, and springing from the,m I discovered heavenly melodies. What joy!

I received strong impressions to write music that would use words of pure scripture taken directly from the pages of the Book of Mormon. The fire that was lit within me burned even brighter as I followed the promptings of the Holy Ghost and continued to write this music. Then, after I heard President Benson's words, "...I have a vision of artists putting into film, literature, music and painting, the great themes and characters from the Book of Mormon...," the fire within me became unquenchable.

I felt as though a heavenly conduit of pure inspiration was opened to me. There would be tunes floating in my head that would not go away until I could write them down. I could put my hands on the piano keys and make beautiful music that matched the scripture I was reading. This would work as long as I had a personal witness of that scripture and could read it as I played the piano, with my Book of Mormon opened on the music stand before me. Those precious words, pure scripture, fashioned each cadence, molded the harmonies, and gave birth to the melodies. This music flowed into my heart and my mind, but with no particular concern for my schedule, where I was, or what I was doing.

One came at dinnertime when I was stirring the gravy. I turned off the stove so I could go to the paino and write it down. I didn't want to lose it! "I Will Heal You" was born. Another time I half woke at 4:30 a.m., and in my "twilight" sleep, I became aware that a particular melodic phrase kept interrupting my rest. I rose and jotted down the tune, since I knew it could leave me in a flash if I didn't. That became "He is the Light and the Life of the World." Again, during a Sacrament service one Sunday as I scanned my worn pages of Mosiah 27 and Alma 36, I found the key to repentence, which became the heart of a new song: "Alma, Born of God." My role as woman, wife, and mother burned with clearer definition when the words, "I will go and do the thing which the Lord hath commanded" met their melody in my heart and emerged as "I Will Go!"

How can I contain it? Each scripture is a song whose message sears the soul! Each one I have composed has been inspired from my readings of THE BOOK OF MORMON, ANOTHER TESTAMENT OF JESUS CHRIST. Each has given me a spiritual experience, which I have recorded. But the most precious thing that has come to me from composing this music is my personal testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon.

I don't profess to be a Handel or a Mozart, but then, they didn't have the Book of Mormon to write from, and I do! As you listen, perhaps your pains will be eased by this music and your hopes will be lit with fire as mine have been.

May I share it with you?