Celebrity "Mormons"

On New Year's Eve, my daughters and son attended a dance held at one of our church buildings. Stake or area dances are a regular occurrence for our youth, ages 14-18. The atmosphere is fun and uplifting with contemporary songs, line dances, couple dances, and many chaperons. Shortly after they arrived at the dance, my daughter sent me a picture with my other daughter and a tall man in the middle who looked older than 18. My daughter had a huge grin on her face. I was a bit wary of the older man and texted back to ask his identity. "He's from Studio C," she wrote back. My husband and I looked him up. Jason Gray is a Mormon celebrity because he's on a comedy show on BYU-TV called Studio C. My children love to watch the clean and funny skits. It turns out that Jason Gray's parents live in the area where the dance was held and he showed up to take pictures with the youth. What a great memory for them. If he'd showed up at my front door, I wouldn't have recognized him, but he had hundreds of fans at the LDS New Year's Eve dance. Then while talking to one of my friends about the celebrity siting, I found out that he is the son of one of my friends. I'd met her older children but not Jason. Funny. The Mormon world is small.

Within the Mormon culture, there are two different kinds of celebrities--those the public may know about and those that are celebrities to just us. It's kind of like if you are a Boise State football fan, you would recognize Coach Pete and his players, but if you're not, then seeing them in public would not produce feelings of euphoria and hero-worship from you.

Here are a few that you may know. There are rumors about other celebrities that are Mormon, but I'm just going to name a few of my favorites. Jason Gray. Oh!  Except for the story above, you've never heard of him. Watch Studio C. Then you'll be a fan. Donny and Marie Osmond--singers, performers. I watched the Donny and Marie show when I was little. I had a huge crush on Donny and loved his purple socks. Dan Reynolds and Wayne Sermon of Imagine Dragons who perform "Radioactive" and "Demons." They now live in Las Vegas but are originally from Utah. My teenagers like their music and I do too. Lindsey Stirling--Hip-hop violinist. She plays her violin with Pentatonix in a remake of "Radioactive." Again, small world although the members of  Pentatonix are not Mormon. Shannon Hale--author and screenwriter. She wrote Goose Girl, Princess Academy, Austenland, and many more books. She's my favorite author. Recently Austenland was made into a movie and produced by Stephenie Meyer (yes of Twilight fame who is also a Mormon) and directed by Jerusha Hess (co-director with her husband, Jared of Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre--yep, also Mormon). Last spring we were at Lagoon--an amusement park in Utah--when I saw Shannon Hale at the kiddie boat ride with her twins. I freaked out, kind of like my daughter did when she saw Jason Gray. Only I wasn't as brave as my daughter. My son was on the same ride as her children, so I took a picture of her while taking a picture of the ride. My husband took a picture of me taking a picture of Shannon Hale. In my defense, it's possible she might remember me since I've been to more than one of her book signings at the BYU bookstore. At one I introduced myself and she remembered me from previously--probably because I have a unique name--and then we discussed that we were both pregnant--kind of a Mary and Elizabeth moment. But at Lagoon I didn't want to disturb her outing with her children by being a creeper fan. But Shannon if you read this, since I'm your friend on facebook, and if you're not freaked out by my fawning, I'd love for you to come to Boise and participate in our annual Children's Writing Conference at Boise State University sometime.

Then there are the celebrity Mormons who we recognize and revere because of the words they teach, their examples, and their callings in our church. Thomas S. Monson--the current President and Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was called by the Lord to preach what we need to know in our day so that we keep the commandments and can return to our Heavenly Father. Plus he tells great stories. He attended our Cultural Celebration to celebrate the Re-dedication of the Boise Temple in November of 2012. All of the other apostles in our church are also well known to us. We get to hear them speak in General Conferences twice a year, in October and April. We do not worship them but we have a great love for them and sustain them as prophets and apostles--men who speak with God and testify of Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. When I was about nine years old, I sang in a children's choir for a stake conference--a meeting for our area. Elder David B. Haight spoke and I got to shake his hand. I remember that moment and the feeling of respect and love I had for him. Later when I was a teenager I wrote him a letter and he wrote me back. He has since died, but you can view his testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ.
I love being a Mormon. I love that Mormons are creating music, books, comic skits, and movies. And I love that President Monson and the other apostles and prophets guide our church and speak words that touch my heart and increase my testimony of Jesus Christ.