I had the opportunity to be on the Hill Cumorah Pageant Work Crew last summer and it was awesome, so I applied to do it again and was selected to return as a district leader for the 2013 Work Crew. The Work Crew is in charge of constructing the stage for pageant before the cast arrives and then they help out with backstage special effects and spotlights during the run of the show. We then take the stage down after the cast leaves. It is a crazy amount of work, but totally worth it.

During the month we are there, we stay in a garage behind the hill which we call the wind tunnel because it has a garage door at each end to allow for air to move through. (It gets pretty stuffy and smelly with 26 guys living in there.) A bit of fresh air is always nice!
 We sleep in bunks. You become pretty close friends with the rest of the crew when you live together for a month...


 That's a picture of the day room where we gather for daily lessons and evening devotionals. It's pretty cozy when we're all crammed in there.
 Our food tent and our caterer, Rod. He keeps us alive while we are busy constructing the stage. Mealtimes were always a favorite of mine. I LOVE food!!! (And Rod made good food.)

 We all showed up the first day ready to work!
 Here is the stage before it starts to look like it does during performances. The facing on the side really does make it look like rock. That's stage 5 as posts and beams. They use a lift to put in a few of the beams because the posts are too tall to reach from the ground.

 The leaders put in the grand staircase while we go eat. It is much too heavy to put in without a forklift.
 We had the opportunity to visit a lot of the church history sites while we were there. This is the Joseph Smith Log Home. The first Sunday we were there, we all went to the second story of the cabin and read the account of the Angel Moroni appearing to Joseph Smith in that very room. The spirit there was incredibly strong. We then got to walk 3 miles back to the Hill Cumorah to understand the trip that Joseph had to take to get the gold plates. It was very humbling to see the work that went into restoring this great gospel to the earth.
 This is the 2013 Hill Cumorah Pageant Light Crew. We became very good friends. The harnesses kept us safe as we climbed up our towers.
 The sister missionaries who trained us and the rest of cast to interact with the audience before the show started. They were awesome as usual and always had a smile on their face no matter how early it was. (They met with us at 7 am for three days because we weren't able to make it to the afternoon cast training sessions.)