Obedience and complete obedience

I had a very interesting experience happen on Sunday.  One of my responsibilities is to audition groups or individuals that want to participate in the Sunday devotionals as a special musical number.  Early in the week a quartet of sisters had told me they wanted to sing.  We could not find a time to audition until the very last day on Saturday before the devotional on Sunday and the only slot open was as a pre-devotional number before the meeting started.  They finally auditioned in the Joseph Smith building close to the clinic.  As we gathered one Hermana said to her companion, “Are we singing in English?”  I overheard her remark and said to all of them, “You know sisters that you have to sing in Spanish”, and so they did.   On Sunday I met them early in the auditorium and we did a mic check with them singing their song. (In Spanish)  At the appointed time President Lyons announced their number and they went up to the stand.  They sang the first few lines in Spanish and then switched to English.  I was dumbfounded.  That was blatant disobedience.  We absolutely sing in Spanish, the whole song and everyone knows it. 

I wondered if they thought they were getting away with something because they were leaving in less than 6 hours to fly off to their field of service.  I also wondered what everyone else in the congregation thought.  Everyone knows we sing in Spanish.  What a way to start you mission being disobedient. Even though it is a little thing we teach the missionaries to be “completely obedient” here.  Obedience brings the blessings of the Lord. 

This experience also made me think about my personal obedience to the things I know are true.  Disobedience only hurts ourselves and halts our progress.  Obedience helps us progress toward our goal of living with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the Celestial Kingdom.