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We're blessed in the United States to have easy access to great choirs and church music, but in some parts of the world members have very little access to these sacred hymns. This was the case for the Kekchi speaking saints in Guatemala. But, not any more.
The Church recently translated 206 hymns into the Mayan language of Kekchi. While helping with the translation Mike Peck longed to have the saints in Guatemala hear them sung by a choir.
"After having realized how good the translations were coming out that's what really fired up the desire in me to want to share these translations and these hymns in a meaningful way," Peck said.
He shared his idea with Julie Hanson, a former Mormon Tabernacle choir member. And she began enlisting the help of others. They ended up with a choir of about 34 people ready to travel to Guatemala to sing for the people there.
"They had never heard a choir before in a live setting," Hanson said. "So this was just such a wonderful experience for us and for them."
In all, they performed 11 firesides in 9 different cities. Over 2000 people were able to come to the performances. Along with the firesides, the choir also performed service and held music clinics for the communities they visited.
With over 12,000 Kekchi speaking saints there was a tremendous need for this new book. Before leaving on their trip the choir was able to raise money to buy over 900 copies of both the hymn book and the newly translated triple combination for the people there.
