Remarkable Dream from the Year 2000 – Part 1

In the year 2000, I faced a serious trial of the soul and spirit. I had strayed off the path of the gospel in some parts of my life and I seriously doubted my ability to find my way back. During this period of spiritual uncertainty, the Lord chose to give me a spiritual dream that I will never forget. Even to this day, 12 years later, this dream remains vibrant and clear.

This dream was accompanied by the most wonderful spirit, and when I woke up I sobbed and sobbed, basking in the Holy Spirit with unbelief and intense gratitude. I knew that this dream was a special message from the Lord to me, and I immediately understood that this was a dream about my future.

Remarkable Dream Part 1: A White Building and a Man with Long Hair

In my dream, I saw a white building that was round and looked like it was made from white granite or maybe even marble. The building was elevated off the ground and various staircases went up the building. The building was quite large perhaps to fit 10,000 people or more. I saw hundreds of people (perhaps thousands) most of them well-dressed going up the stairs and into the building. There were many different people both young and old and from what appeared to be different nationalities as well. It looked to me that this was some sort of "performing arts center" and that people were arriving to see a performance of some sort.

It looked at the building with great curiosity. I asked myself, what is this building? And what are the people coming here to see? I walked up the long staircase leading to the building and as I got close to the building I saw a sign which said "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." I thought, how strange, the church doesn't own a building like this–at least I didn't know of a building like this owned by the church. I thought to myself, the church isn't in the "performing arts" business. I thought about the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and this appeared to me to be the nearest thing that I could think of. Perplexed and puzzled, I looked to the right and I saw an annex adjacent to the building. The annex was rectangular in shape and had large scaling glass windows as "walls" such that people could see inside the annex from the outside.

I walked over to the annex and I saw some people practicing what appeared to be a dance routine. I looked at them…some were tall and some were short, some were bigger in size and some were smaller, some were young and some were older…but there was a mix of both women and men. The people were dressed in casual clothes, including one heavier younger girl I noticed that was in shorts and tennis shoes. I looked to see if they had a leader teaching them these dance moves and I saw a man with long hair down to just beyond his shoulders trying to teach this eclectic looking group.

The man was trying to teach the people dance moves, but it was clear that these people were not professional dancers. I looked closer and I saw that some people were moving perfectly with the instructor and others were struggling with the movements. The movements involved moving left and right but also pivoting and interacting with others.

At this point, I thought to myself (in the dream), who is this person with long hair? We don't have long haired people in the church…everyone is clean cut! What are these people doing, we don't have dance lessons in the church (I guess I had seen this in youth classes, but never for the general public). I asked myself, who are these people, where do they come from, and what are they doing in this strange building which I had never seen before?

Remarkable Dream Part 1 – Being Prepared by the Lord

I also had a Part 2 of Part 3 of my dream, which I will not share here at this time. I would like to discuss how I saw the literal interpretation and fulfillment of this dream all and all it took 6 years, and it was nothing short of miraculous.

This dream meant a lot to me, it meant that I had some important future to consider, and to prepare for, and to search for. I knew that I had some important work to do, but what?

I thought to myself, am I supposed to raise money to build a "performing arts theatre?" If so who could be involved in that? I reached out to Justin Hart and asked him if he would be interested in pursuing a performing arts theatre (I can't even remember his response now). I thought that maybe I needed to raise money from investors to build a theatre and sell it to the church.

I knew this dream was a message from the Lord, but I really had no idea what it meant, but I also knew that in time I would come to understand the contents of the first part of my dream.

During that same year Justin and Heather Hart from our Stake (Ashburn Virginia) put on a play called "the Fullness of Times." We decided to join the play and Melodie and I played a small role. We enjoyed this experience a great deal. In one session, Heather testified that the Lord knew who we were, and that he had suffered every trial, and he knew the trials that we were carrying, and that he would soothe our pains, cleanse our souls, and sanctify us for our dedication to him. I remember being very touched with her words.

Participating in "The Fullness of Times" was the first "play" that I had ever been in since I was a youth. I only joined the play because my wife wanted to be in it also.

A few years later (or maybe even one year later), the Stake President's wife, Susie Chapman and her theatrical friend formed a "performing arts company." They convinced the Stake to help support a Stake production of the musical Scrooge! I had some desire to try out for a part as long as the whole family wanted to be involved. Both Melodie and I agreed that this could be a great family experience. To my surprise, I tried out and won a leading role as "Bob Cratchit" — Ebenezer Scrooge's hard working clerk. All of the family also had roles in the play.

I never, ever thought in a million years, that I would be in a play, learning theatre lines, and singing in front of people. To me this was a completely new thing, and something that was not in my plans or even an idea in my head in the year 2000. Anyways, the play Scrooge (A Christmas Carol) was a huge success. There were many, many performances, and hundreds (if not thousands) of people came to the performances. In fact, for a few years after this, I was not known as Brother Morgan around the Stake (group of congregations) but rather as Bob Cratchit…people would say "Hello Bob" or "Hey There's Bob Cratchit."

Remarkable Dream Part 1 – the Literal Fulfillment of the Dream

During the following summer, we went to Nauvoo and saw the Nauvoo pageant. It was a wonderful time and we enjoyed being there with our little family. When we were there we saw Heather Hart, our good friend, who was also in the pageant. I asked her how she came to be in the pageant, and she said that her mother was a musical director but that she applied online.

Later that year, we saw the listing on www.lds.org for Nauvoo pageant participants and we decided that we would submit our application. We had no idea what to say or what to write, but we included information about all of our kids, and a picture, taken at home (not professionally done), because that was the only recent picture we had.

We received a letter back from the pageant committee that said "we were accepted" and that we were in the BLUE cast. Our commitment would be 2 ½ weeks in the summer.

Before we left for the pageant we were set apart by our bishop as "special representatives of Jesus Christ." Every one of my children was also set apart as "pageant missionaries" including Caden who was a 1 year old at the time. This is a profoundly moving experience.

Before long we arrived at the pageant. We had a wonderful time. I saw my dream come to a literal fulfillment. While at the pageant I saw the man with long hair from my dream, he was actually Jesus. He also played Jesus in the Manti Temple pageant as well. I also saw people young and old who part of the pageant learning dance steps and dance moves…just like my dream some were smooth and others were clumsy while attempting to learn the steps. Everyone wore casual clothes while practicing the pageant dances and many people were in shorts. We were an eclectic mix just like my dream some young, some older, some bigger, some smaller, some taller, and some shorter.

At the pageant there is a large open stage, where the restored gospel is taught through words, music, and acting. The stage is a very sacred place…where literally hundreds of thousands of people watch the pageant and feel the power of the Holy Spirit. I realized that the building that I saw in my dream was symbolic of a sacred place where people would go to see a performance. I realized that the Nauvoo Pageant stage was symbolic of the performing arts center that I saw in my dream…it was the place owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that I saw in my dream. I realized that 50,000 – 100,000 people will flow into this place over 5 week period to see the performances.

The fulfillment of my dream has had a big impact in my life. I knew that God knew who I was and that he had a plan for me. When we were at the pageant, Apostle Richard G. Scott came and addressed the pageant members. Elder Scott gave everyone a prophetic blessing…he said that because we have been in this pageant that we will be able to dig deep and get through the trials of life and always remain faithful members in the church. I thought this was a remarkable prophesy, he said it applied to everyone there including children. This gave me great comfort that no matter what happens in this life, my children will remain faithful and true and in the midst of their trials, they will always come back to the Lord, his church, and his gospel.

As the pageant ended and within the few weeks thereafter, I saw another small miracle…EVERYONE of our children bore their testimony at church without being asked. I cannot remember all the dates or times now, but it was marvelous that each of them wanted to share how much their testimony had grown. The last to do so was Jalen, who lumbered up to the front at the end of a testimony meeting.

I cannot accurately describe the joy and happiness that we had while being in Nauvoo at the pageant. It was one of the best times of our lives….a time we will cherish and remember for all eternity. We experienced many, many miracles and spiritual experiences at the pageant.

Even Caden, our 1 year old had his own testimony….Caden was blessed with a clear and beautiful singing voice and at age 1, he could sing the entire hymn: "The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning" he would sign it in an "ah" without words. It was so cute…I marvel that the first song that our son Caden learned was not "Mary Had a Little Lamb" or some other nursery rhyme, but rather the closing song of the pageant which we rehearsed over and over again. Morgan Family Nauvoo Pageant 2006