“Was That Really Us Singing?”

I have loved music for as long as I can remember. However, even though I have participated in many musical selections, I did not fully understand the extent the Holy Ghost can testify through music until I was asked by my bishop to direct a song.

One Sunday I was trying to usher our young children toward the chapel for sacrament meeting when Bishop Wood stopped me. “Sister Fitzgerald,” he began, “I found this music and thought it would make an excellent special musical selection in sacrament meeting next month. I thought perhaps you could organize something.” He handed me the music and walked into the chapel.

Later that day I looked at the song. It was titled “My Testimony,” by Bettie Jones and Myriel Cluff Ashton. As soon as I hummed through the tune, I felt it would be ideal for the priesthood brethren to sing. Since few men sang in the choir, I pondered how I might enlist their help.

A few days later I recalled that the priesthood brethren sang in their opening exercises. I wondered if I might be allowed to teach the song to all of them. I made a few phone calls and was granted permission. The melody was fairly simple and the words easy to remember. I was confident the song could be ready within a few weeks.

I was wrong. The first Sunday we sang through the song once, but I couldn’t hear any parts. I asked the men to separate into rows of tenors and basses. Most of the men gave me a blank look, so I asked them to separate into rows of those who sang high and those who sang low. The response was immediate, and I realized they had little by way of musical training. My work was cut out for me.

For the next month we practiced during opening exercises. I taught them about timing, following the director, and dynamics. In fact, I did everything I knew to do to teach them to sing, and in some of the practices they sang well. But our last practice was awful, and I went home discouraged.

I prayed many times during the week that the song would go well, and each time I felt comforted that it would. Sunday came, and as I entered the chapel my nervousness was replaced by a peaceful feeling. The priesthood brethren filled the choir seats to overflowing. As they began to sing, I heard each note sung clearly, and every word carried to the back of the chapel. While their deep, male voices sang the words “I have a testimony sacred and dear to me,” a warm burning in my heart and a tingling down my back witnessed to me that the Holy Ghost was present and bearing testimony through the brethren’s singing.

After the meeting, one of the men approached me and asked, “Was that really us singing?” Later, as I thought about his question, I realized that yes, it really had been them singing—aided by the Spirit, who witnessed the truth to those in the congregation. It was a further testimony to me of the sacred power that music can have in our lives.