Trip Home , Arrival Home, End of Full-Time Mission

Trip Home --- We left Nauvoo on Monday afternoon and arrived home on Wednesday afternoon.  It was sad leaving Nauvoo, the temple and the wonderful people there.  The trip home was long but we looked forward to being home.  The scenery was pretty good in certain parts of the country.  Below are some photos we took.  We live in a beautiful, wonderful country.  We finished our almost 12 months of service which we very much enjoyed.  We are now entering another chapter in our lives.  




Arrival home --- When we got home we saw the yellow ribbons on the trees and light poles and the nice Welcome Home sign on our door.  Of course, because of the restrictions on gathering together and our self-isolation for 14 days, we didn't have anyone at home welcoming us in person.  However, there were several in the ward who called us to welcome us.




End of Full-time Mission -- That evening we were released by our Stake President - President Soffe via FaceTime.  It was different being released this way but the conversation was wonderful .  He was very gracious and kind.  He said there are 40 full-time missionaries in our stake that are coming home from their missions.  We have now been released from our full-time mission.

Fellow Temple Missionaries, Changes to Returning Date, Farewell to Nauvoo

Fellow Temple Missionaries --- There were six of us temple missionary couples who arrived on the same date last year - April 12, 2019.  The four remaining couples met at the end of Parley street on Friday morning to talk about some of our experiences here and share our appreciation for each other.  We have grown to love and appreciate these great people and will miss our almost daily association with them.  Fortunately for us, some of them live close enough to us in Utah and so we will probably see them occasionally.




Changes to Returning Date --- This week has been almost daily changes and updates.  We indicated to our Temple President our willingness to stay here until the temple closes on April 3rd, serving in the temple with other ordinance workers with patrons who will be participating in living ordinances.  But as the week progressed two main changes were made:  only those in the temple district could participate in living ordinances in their our temple (this drastically reduced the number of people scheduled for this temple); all senior missionaries are to go home immediately.  

We found out on Thursday afternoon that we would be going home as soon as got everything ready.  Since that time we have been packing our items and cleaning the apartment.  We will be leaving tomorrow (Monday) and plan on arriving home in South Jordan on Wednesday afternoon.  All returning missionaries (including us) are asked to do a self-isolation in their homes for 14 days.  Because of this self-isolation we basically will resume our normal lives about the same date as if we would have served our mission a full 12 months (i.e., until April 8th).


Farewell to Nauvoo -- This has been such a great blessing for us to serve in this beautiful temple and to get to know and serve with such faithful members of the Church.  Nauvoo has been so meaningful to us for many years and serving here has only made that bond we have with this great place even stronger.  We will especially miss the wonderful people we have served with.  Serving a mission has given us many opportunities to grow in many ways.  Some may consider this time here as a sacrifice and in some ways it has been, especially in being away from family and friends.  But the blessings we have received by serving here have been plentiful and we are so grateful to our Heavenly Father for this great opportunity.

Lucy Mack Smith Home, Dinner with other Temple Missionaries, Closures

Last Tuesday we took the opportunity of visiting the last home of Lucy Mack Smith.  She was such an elect lady who saw, in just a few years, her husband and three of her sons pass away.  Yet she remained strong in the Gospel.  The Historic Site Missionary (Sister Munoa) was very kind and knowledgeable about Sister Smith.




We had a wonderful dinner with two other temple missionary couples - Elder and Sister Hammond (who arrived with us last April, and are also from South Jordan), and Elder and Sister Lamb (who just arrived and are from the Phoenix area).  We had a very pleasant conversation with them.  It is a great blessing to be able to get to know these fine people.  Unfortunately, we didn't think to take a picture of all of us when they were with us on Sunday evening.

Nauvoo Temple Closure and our Plans - Of course, the biggest question that others ask of us right now is:  now that the temple is closed except for living ordinances, will this effect the date that you will be going home?  Our last day at the temple was scheduled for April 3rd and so we were planning on coming home shortly after that.  

The Temple President (President Eric Andersen) asked all of us what we would like to do.  We said we would be glad to finish our mission here as planned.  We are both in pretty good health and want to help as long as we can.  Some of the temple missionaries will be going home before April 3rd (for health reasons).  The rest of us will continue to serve the patrons as they come in for living ordinances (own endowment or sealing).  Our plan is leave here on Monday, April 6th, arriving home on Wednesday afternoon, April 8th.

Group FHE on the Brickyard, Temple Service

There was a Group FHE activity this evening at the Temple Arrival Center --  Elder Munoa (a Nauvoo Historic site missionary) spoke about the history of the Historic Brickyard and told what is going on there now.  He said that about 1 out of every 7 homes in Nauvoo in the 1840s were made out of brick.  There were 7 brickyards in operation then and they produced millions of bricks every year.  He also sang a couple of songs (and played his guitar) that he composed (and another site missionary wrote the lyrics).  It was an interesting evening.  We have been to the brickyard a couple of times since we have been here and always enjoy our time there.

This is a photo of Elder Munoa with a photo of an old kiln.

This is a photo of the Nauvoo Temple site in 1994.  The center section (circle with red bricks inside) was where the Baptistry font was located.

Temple Service --- We still very much love serving in the temple, and on Sundays, in Kewanee.  Yesterday I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting Kewanee and next week Marilyn will be giving a talk there.  A couple that we were going to host (the Lloyds from Levan, Utah) will not be arriving in Nauvoo this Thursday.  A few days ago, on their way here, Brother Lloyd got sick with a very bad cold.  He went to the hospital and tested positive for RSV.  After consulting with a Doctor, our Temple President advised them to go home to recover.  They will come back in May when the temple reopens.  As you might imagine we have been asked to be more vigilant in our hand washing, doing elbow bumps instead of hand shakes, etc. because of the coronavirus.  We are doing well - health-wise.

Break the Fast Dinner, Fireside on Endowment, Temple District, Nauvoo Jail, Sunset over the Mississippi, Temple Service

Break the Fast Dinner -- we had a very nice dinner yesterday with two other couples who serve in the Nauvoo Temple - Elder and Sister Smedley (from Lehi, Utah) and Brother and Sister Hawkes (who live here in Nauvoo and serve in the temple three days a week).  We have these dinners on Fast Sunday on most months.  This month it was our turn to host one of these dinners.  It is a wonderful opportunity for us to get together, get to know each other better and have dinner together.




Fireside on Endowment - last night the Historic Site Mission President presented some information on the restoration of the endowment to all of the site and temple missionaries.  Most of what he discussed can be found in the Gospel Library app in the Church History section.  It was interesting to see all of this information, kind of summarized.  He didn't go into any details on what occurs during the endowment but rather, gave us details about when the first endowments were given and some other pertinent historical information about this topic.


Temple District - tied closely into what the Historic Site Mission President discussed on the restoration of the temple endowment is the development of the temple district - just west of the Nauvoo temple.  There will be three restored homes (Gheen, Hunter and Weeks) and there will be a new display area (covered) that will have information about the purpose of temples and the building of the Nauvoo temple.  This area is expected to be completed by Fall of 2020.  Here is a photo of one of the homes (Hunter home) that is being restored.  





Nauvoo Jail - this jail (not in use now) is one block east of the Nauvoo temple.  Its walls are made of stones from the original Nauvoo Temple.  It is a very small jail encircled by an iron fence.



Sunset over the Mississippi - The sunsets here in Nauvoo are beautiful.   Today we took some pictures (see below) of the sun setting over the Mississippi.



Temple Service -- We love serving in the temple.  Every day we see the Lord's hand in the temple.  The patrons and ordinance workers are wonderful.  They all serve with love.  It is such a blessing to be able to be with them every day.  This past Thursday Antoinette Hall came to the temple.  She attends the Kewanee branch.  We taught her and her grandmother the temple preparation lessons last year.  And they received their own endowment on December 31st.  It was here birthday Thursday and so she wanted to do something special for her paternal grandmother.  Antoinette took her name to the temple and was proxy for her grandmother's baptism (and confirmation) and endowment.  She was  thrilled to be able to do this work.  We are so happy for her.  She has such a strong testimony of the temple.

Marilyn's Birthday, Geese and Deer, FHE Group Activity, Temple

We celebrated Marilyn's birthday today by going to a restaurant in Keokuk (the Hawkeye Restuarant) with the Elder and Sister Wyndham (from the Seattle area).  Sister Wyndham's birthday is also on February 24th (but not the same birth year).  We had a pleasant time with them.  Marilyn also wanted to say thank you to all who sent her cards, gifts, messages, etc. 

There are a lot of Canadian geese who seem to love being here in the Nauvoo area.  Lately, they have spent a lot of time in an area about two blocks south of where we live.  They were there for several days this past week.  I heard they really like eating grass and now, with the snow mostly melted off of the snow, they like being on the lawns around here.  Actually, there are many birds in this area - including eagles, swans and other birds.  We see many of them along (or on) the Mississippi River as we travel to Keokuk.  Below are some pictures of some geese.




Tonight we had another FHE Group Activity with all of the Temple Missionaries and the Temple Presidency.  The topic was Adam-ondi-ahman, which is located in northwestern Missouri (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/adam-ondi-ahman?lang=eng).  The missionaries (serving at the Church's Nauvoo Historic Sites) gave an excellent presentation on Adam-ondi-ahmani, including what  happened in the past , what is happening now and specific prophesies about what will happen there in the future.  These missionaries served as missionaries in Adam-ondi-ahman.  We also sang "How Great Thou Art" (with some different words focusing on Adam-ondi-ahman) with Elder and Sister Teeples.  It was wonderful experience singing this touching song with them.  The temple matron (Sister Andersen) accompanied us.

Our temple service continues to be a great blessing for us.  For example, last Saturday we were guides for a couple who were married (sealed) in the Nauvoo temple.  There were about 45 friends and family members who came to support them.  It was a touching setting to see these great people (who live in various parts of the country) come to their sealing.  The couple was thrilled being in the temple and very appreciative of everyone serving in the temple -- and especially thankful for family and friends who were there with them.  

View of the temple from the Pageant stage area.

Cold weather, Valentine's Dinner, Temple Service, John Deere Factory Tours

This past Thursday it got very cold here in Nauvoo. It got down to -3 F with a wind chill factor or -22 F.  The wind tends to be strong on the west side of the temple (where we enter and exit the temple).  This is because the temple sits on top of the hill and the wind comes from the river (west) side.  This is a photo Marilyn took on Thursday morning on her iPad.



On Thursday night we went to dinner in Burlington to celebrate Valentine's day.  We had a very pleasant dinner.  We went out on Thursday because we serve in the temple on Friday evening.  We didn't take pictures of us in the restaurant.  We had a very enjoyable time at the restaurant.


We serve in the Nauvoo temple on Tuesday and Thursday mornings (8 am - 2 pm), and Wednesday and Friday afternoons (2 pm - 8 pm) and Saturdays (12 - 7 pm).  This is our winter schedule.  There has been only one day this winter when the temple was closed due to bad weather conditions.  This was because the sidewalks and streets were very icy and slippery.

We love serving in the temple.  Each day we feel the Lord's help as we participate in these sacred ordinances.  We, as ordinance workers, strive to serve the patrons in a manner pleasing to the Lord.  This has been a wonderful blessing for us to be able to be here at this time, serving in the temple.



Today we had the wonderful opportunity of being with another temple missionary couple - Elder Bruce and Sister Jean Hammond, who are also from South Jordan.  They came here the same time we did.   We visited two of the John Deere sites.   We first visited the John Deere Harvester factory in East Moline.  This was very interesting to see how they assembled the large combines (harvesters) - including how they painted them. These are very nice machines.  We would show you pictures of this assembly process but we were not allowed to take any pictures inside the factory.  We then visited the John Deere International Headquarters in Moline.  Here are some pictures (mostly from the display floor at the John Deere Headquarters) from our visits to these two places (and a picture of us at the Olive Garden before we toured the sites).