The reason was that Keith Davis, my high school classmate, went on a mission to Argentina.  He told me at our 45th class reunion last summer that his mission consisted of playing in a band and traveling all around the mission for a year.   I was fascinated by this little known fact.  So when I read the blurb about this documentary on the LDS Film Festival website—I wondered if it was the same band he was in—and sure enough it was!  

Here's the deal.  The President of the mission decided that he wanted a band made up of missionaries to travel around the mission and do some PR for the church and help the proselyting missionaries get into more doors.   So he asked who could play instruments and found 12 guys.  Keith played the piano in the group.  They had a couple of trumpets, trombones, saxes,   guitars, and a drum. 

 

The documentary showed still photos and had their music—from a radio performance--throughout.  Then they took the 12 boys—now 63 year old men—and interviewed them.   There was good old Keith, and he came on about 6 or 7 times with his comments.  He was the funniest one of the bunch!

 

They traveled all over their mission about 4 times and played for—I think they said—several million people?  That doesn't seem right—I'm not exactly sure of the number.   They played 5 or 6 concerts some days and everyone knew who they were and mobbed them sometimes.   They played for hospitals, in the streets, in stadiums, etc.  They would play and sing in Spanish and do all kinds of things—dance—tell jokes—etc.   Then they would say—"If the missionaries come to your house—let them come in."—and I guess after that year of touring—the mission baptisms tripled!

 

One story was that they went into this  place called San Raphael and put all their things in a church until after the concert because they planned to sleep in the church—and while they were gone, some robbers broke in and took all their earthly possessions.   They were all pretty devastated, but I guess the President put out a call to the other missionaries and members, and soon they all had suits and everything else they had lost.

 

Keith was funny—he said—"I'll bet those thieves didn't know quite what to think about all that strange underwear."   That got a big laugh from the audience.

 

They also said that their manager would go into a town ahead of them and book concerts, and they would play for a couple of hours at each one.  They really got pretty dang good—because of all the playing they did every day.  I forgot to say that they had to set up their own amplifiers and equipment several times a day.

 

One time the manager booked a concert at a leper colony out on an island in the middle of a lake.  Nobody ever went out there, but the band went and played 2 to 3 hours for these people. They were so grateful for this concert.  (That brought a tear to everyone in the audience.)

 

After it was over, they had the director and producers come up for Q & A, and they had 4 of the band members there—so that was neat.   Too bad Keith wasn't there.  But everybody was asking questions.  Some of the Q & A's afterwards only generate about 5 questions.   This one went on and on.  Then this guy on the first row raised his hand and they called on him.  Turns out that he was from Argentina and stated that he was 10 years old when the Los Mormon Boys came to his town.   He remembered that they were the talk of all of Argentina—everyone knew who they were.  Then he said—I hesitate to tell you our town—it was San Rafael!   (The place where they got all their belongings stolen.)

 

That was such a fitting ending to the whole presentation.  I loved it. 

 

The documentary pointed out that the Catholics didn't like all the attention the Mormons got and didn't want anybody to go to the concerts—but people ignored that and all went anyway.

 

Some of the other missionaries were a little jealous of the group—but some felt like they really opened up the country.   The press and radio seemed to be very favorable to them and really helped with the publicity of the group.

 

It's amazing that this little event in Mormon history wasn't more known to the Saints in the States.  At least I never knew about it until now.

 

Back to the Festival.

 

The feature films I attended included "Emma Smith: My Story" which was well done and included footage from the new Joseph Smith movie that is shown on Temple Square.  It has the look and feel of "The Work and the Glory."  It tells more of Emma's view of the events surrounding Joseph's tumultuous life.

 

"Errand of Angels" by Christian Vuissa was a refreshing look at lady missionaries in Austria.  It's message is one of tolerance and acceptance of differences in a companionship. It had interesting situations and gave a glimpse of missionary life that was very real.

 

I finished out my Saturday's entertainment with "Forever Strong."  Wow!  Ryan Little just keeps getting better and better.  It isn't LDS themed, but has great life-lessons presented.  It will, no doubt, gain a status among the better sports films that have been produced by Hollywood.

 

I'm sad that I didn't get to see everything at the festival, but some events were scheduled opposite others, and it was difficult to choose between them.

 

LDS Film is definitely on the upward swing with production values improving 10 fold every year.

 

Thanks to Christian Vuissa for organizing and executing the film festival!  He's the Man!

 

More later,

 

Ta Pip,

 

Carolyn Hart Bennett

Rexburg, Idaho