I'm going to live forever...

Last summer, when I was serving as a performing missionary in Nauvoo, I heard the most beautiful song I've ever heard. It wasn't the first time I had heard this particular song before...but it was like being reminded of the most beautiful memory that I'd somehow forgotten in the rush of life afterward. The Nauvoo Pageant core cast members perform a show a few times on Sunday nights in Nauvoo, and towards the end of their show, they sang this song. The first time I heard it was in a high school auditorium by a beautiful high school choir. (No, I was not in the choir...I was privilged to be in the audience.) :) Anyway...it has the most beautiful words I have ever heard. It reminds me of the incredible promises and blessings available to us from a loving Heavenly Father. Every time I hear it, it's like it stirs my soul back into remembrance of things I have known forever...but are so easy to forget in this life.

Anyway. I got back from Nauvoo, and went on a hunt for this song. I looked everywhere, and couldn't find it. I didn't know much about it...including the actual name of the song. I knew who arranged it for that particular setting in Nauvoo, but couldn't find anything about it. I finally had to stop searching and move on with my life. :) But just yesterday, I found it. TEN MONTHS into my search, I found it. :) It's called Pilgrim Song, arranged by Ryan Murphy, who I guess was a BYU student at the time...and it's on this CD by the BYU choirs. I feel like I found a long-lost friend. Yay! :) I only wish I had a way to post the actual song...maybe I'll figure that out soon. :) The music makes it all the more powerful and beautiful. I also love this quote from the May 2007 Ensign:

"Hymns play an essential role in spirituality, revelation, and conversion. [They] invite the Spirit of the Lord' (Hymns, ix). They often do this quicker than anything else we may do. President J. Reuben Clark Jr. said, 'We get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer' (in Conference Report, Oct. 1936, 111)."
(Jay E. Jensen, "The Nourishing Power of Hymns," Ensign, May 2007, 11)

PILGRIM SONG

My brethren I have found
A land that doth abound
With fruit as sweet as honey;
The more I eat I find
The more I am inclined
To shout and sing hosanna.

Chorus
My soul doth long to go
Where I may fully know
The glory of my Savior.
And as I pass along
I'll sing the Christian song;
I'm going to live forever.

Perhaps you think me wild
Or simple as a child;
I am a child of glory.
I am born from above
My soul is filled with love;
I love to tell the story.

Chorus

My soul now sits and sings
And practices its wings
And contemplates the hour
When the messenger shall say,
"Come quit this house of clay
And with bright angels tower."

Chorus

And as I pass along
I'll sing the Christian song;
I'm going to live forever.

-Author Unknown