The Power of Good Music

To my son,

I want you to know that music can have great power for good, and I hope that you will always seek to fill your life with uplifting music that brings the Spirit. The Lord said this about music: “For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me” (Doctrine and Covenants 25:12). I especially learned this on my mission as we often sang hymns, even though I am not the best singer. When I was in the MTC, we sometimes practiced teaching people who came in from the community and let us teach them a lesson. One time I was put with Elder Munns who I did not normally teach with and we quickly tried to figure out how to teach together for a particular lesson. I recorded in my mission journal about our attempt to teach an older lady: “We sang a song for her at the beginning and, well, it didn’t sound so great….  It was all I could do to keep from laughing because Elder Munns kind of forgot the melody and I can’t sing as it is.  The best part was in the feedback that she gave us—she told us it’s really not appropriate to sing unless we practiced beforehand.” Well that was certainly embarrassing!

So that was in the MTC—now fast forward a year later and I was made companions with this same missionary. In fact, we were together for almost six months, which is unusual for missionaries. Despite this not very good start in the MTC, Elder Munns didn’t let that deter us and we actually ended up using music all the time in our lessons as we sang hymns to bring the Spirit of the Lord. One time, for example, we were teaching a young man named Eric who was progressing well and had even accepted to be baptized. Something happened, though, and he suddenly acted very differently towards us. I recorded this in my mission journal about the last time we went to try to see him: “But then he came out, and he definitely had a different attitude than the last time. He tried to give us back the [Book of Mormon] and told us he’d be moving the next day to Paris. You could just see in his face the influence Satan had had on him. We talked to him for a second, and then pulled out our cantiques and we sang to him ‘Dieu soit avec toi jusqu’au revoir’ [God Be With You ‘Till We Meet Again] right there on the street. It really brought the Spirit back, and his countenance totally changed. He agreed to keep the book after that and to try and contact the missionaries in Paris. It was sad to see him go like that, but we were glad to at least end it on a good note. It was amazing to see how real the influence of Satan is—but that the power of God really is stronger.” I do not know what happened to him, but I know that the power of the Spirit that came through the hymn we sang did soften his heart towards us.

When the Brother of Jared and his family and friends made their great voyage across the sea, they too used music to guide them on. Moroni recorded, “And they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he did thank and praise the Lord all the day long; and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord. And thus they were driven forth; and no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them; and they did have light continually” (Ether 6:9-10). I believe that their singing helped protect them and guided them as they spent almost an entire year on the ocean voyaging to the promised land. I hope you will always use good music to guide you and give you light as you cross the oceans of this life.