What an interesting system the Church is: it sends youth from the core to the struggling branches so the members there can help the youth mature and discover the wonders of others — and gain a convert’s faith. It sends youth from the struggling branches to the core to see the (more-)fully developed Church so they have the vision of it when they return.

Kristine and Mark B, the referral to Sacrament prayers, said with errors or hesitations, is very touching. Indeed, we pay more attention when it has to be repeated, or when the words do not come easily. The right spirit leads us to sustain every word.

Left Field, you ask about what became of that Hammond organ. I don’t know, the story happened many years ago, and a new chapel has been built since then. I presume, if the instrument is still usable, that it ended up in another small unit, where perhaps a beginner is now playing it. Your story about the sacrament vessels is amazing. Such items also have so much historic value as witnesses of creativity and dedication. Invitation to all readers: go look in closets, basements, attics of your church buildings before precious memories are thrown away on a thorough cleaning project.

Kevin, I agree, old church buildings have indeed a charm that our correlated buildings-with-cultural-hall sometimes miss. Many of the memories I write about took place in a rowhouse that was not even a “church building”. But it had a charm and uniqueness, and “classrooms” which we accessed through a stairway I could still use, eyes closed, now after three decades.

Thanks, Brian, for sharing that experience in Washington. It comes very close to the memory I was telling about.

Sunday my wife and I attended the services of the Camano Island Ward in Washington. Being Easter Sunday, the congregation was comprised of many visitors, filling in the seats left vacant by vacationing ward members.

When my wife and I walked in, I noted a teenager playing the organ. She had obviously never played the organ, at least the halting manner in which she played the notes suggested as much.

Anyhow, as the singing commenced, the voices of the congregation made the organ sound less halting and more congruous. The music was beautiful and the spirit was strong.

When I was seven (in 1965) my family moved to DeKalb, Illinois, which is where I grew up. We had lived in Utah and Colorado before that, so this was our first experience attending a small branch. They had bought a building already: a beautiful old stone church with stained glass windows. When I was a teenager, how I longed for a regulation LDS building with a basketball court in it. But in retrospect I am very glad that I got to grow up attending church in that magnificent old building. It had charm and character–and even a sort of spiritual power–that more than made up for the lack of a place to play basketball.

Attending church in a branch really was wonderful in so many ways. My first memory of attending church there is of everyone sitting together at a long table. I don’t recall what we were doing, whether it was a class or we were sharing a meal after church. But the whole group sitting together at the same table seemed very communal, very familial to me.

It was a wonderful way to grow up in the church.

Your story reminded me of sacrament trays. Forty years ago, I was six years old living in New Mexico with my family and attending the Socorro Branch. The branch met in a rented hall above the drugstore by the main plaza. I remember my parents making a set of sacrament trays for the branch. They cut plexiglass sheets with a handsaw, heated them in our kitchen oven, and shaped them with wooden molds they constructed for that purpose. I distinctly remember long strips of hot flexible plexigass being placed with oven mitts in the mold that shaped them into the gracefully curved handles for the trays. I helped in such manner as I could at that age. We drilled holes for the cups and smoothed them with a round file and sandpaper.

I don’t really know why the branch commisioned us to make the sacrament vessels. I’m sure standard issue sacrament trays could have been purchased from Salt Lake. Perhaps the branch thought they could save a little money. Perhaps they thought we could make better trays than what could be purchased. Perhaps they just wanted to get members involved. Maybe my parents saw a need and volunteered to make some trays.

The Socorro Branch is now a ward with their own building. I wonder what became of the trays. I don’t imagine they are used any more. The ward probably needs more trays than we made, and they would want a full matching set. Perhaps they are sitting unused under the sink in the sacrament preparation room. More likely they were discarded a few decades ago, perhaps when they moved into the new building. I still think of those trays occasionally when the sacrament is administered. The sacrament is more than the vessels that carry it, but seeing the work that went into their construction, I think I have a better appreciation for the ordinance.