Mesa, AZ Easter Pageant

I'd never been to the Mesa, AZ temple before.
It's very imposing, and in the evening, the light was gorgeous.
And the grounds were full of flowers.
Warm weather, pools, reflections, palm trees--
it felt like paradise.
(Mom and Dad are at the far end of the reflecting pool.)

We went to the temple visitor center grounds
for the Easter pageant.
April 13 was its opening night.
Dad's cousins Joy and Carol Ann had come very early,
and had saved us terrific seats.
(They say there are about 8,000 chairs set up on the grass!)
The pageant was very impressive-- a cast of over 400--
and with great sound, costumes, effects,
telling the life of Christ.
It was a great uplift, but for me the nicest thing
was the pre-performance mingling.
The actors came through the audience,
all dressed up in their costumes
(which were really well done)
and visited with people.
Since we were on the front row of the second section,
we got to see a lot of the actors and talk to them.

My absolute favorite 'actor' was the baby lamb--
yes, they did use him in the pageant,
along with several other live sheep,
plus a donkey colt on Palm Sunday and two miniature ponies,
in the Garden of Eden and Nativity scenes.
This darling lamb had been well scrubbed,
his fleece combed,
and possibly tranquilized, as he behaved very, very well.
All the children wanted to pet him too.
Dad kindly photographed me in between crowds of eager kids.

The whole atmosphere of the pageant was just delightful.
It was great to visit with Dad's cousins,
be part of the crowd energy,
and best of all, think more deeply about the meaning of Easter.