At the age of thirty-eight, Perry broke one of her ankles during one of her basketball games. Her television broke at the same time. With the extra time the incidents afforded her, she was assigned by her ward to compose music for their ward road show. Perry experimented with many styles at the beginning of her career, writing pop music that she sent on demo tapes to Nashville and Los Angeles. Not finding success with pop music, she began writing more contemporary gospel music. In 2001, their song "Heal our Land" was performed at the
National Prayer Breakfast and again in 2005 for the presidential inauguration of
George W. Bush. Perry is a prolific composer. She has written nearly 3,000 songs, which she compiled into more than 108 albums. She has also written eight
cantatas, two of which have been performed in the
Salt Lake Tabernacle, She is a member of the Utah Composers Guild, and has traveled all over the world to perform her work, including to Japan and Taiwan.
"A Child's Prayer" During Perry's career, a mysterious pain left one of her hands paralyzed. As doctors were not able to find a solution, it became especially difficult to play the piano and compose music. Despite this, she continued to write songs, learning to compose them in her head instead. In a moment of particular despair over her hand, Perry wrote a song entitled "Lord Are You There?" which she later reworked and simplified to become her beloved "A Child's Prayer." There was some controversy with the song, as the church's
correlation committee believed the lyrics should include formal prayer language, such as "thee" and "thou," but Perry argued that a child would not use those words when praying. The song ultimately remained the same. ==Performances==