Friends, Temple and Pageants

There are more people here in Nauvoo during the summer and especially during the Pageants in July, than at any other time of the year.  It has been wonderful to see so many people at the temple, at the historic sites and at the various shows.  The time has flown by this month for us, primarily because we are kept very busy in the temple.  It has been wonderful serving so many people.  

This past week Bruce and Marsha Haynes were in Nauvoo.  They were on a Church Historic Site Tour and let us know they were in town.  We were able to participate in a sealing session with them and also visit with them afterwards.  It was wonderful to see them!

Below is a photo with Brady Leavitt taken on June 27th.   He was with a group of youth from Louisville, Kentucky.  it was great to see him.



And guess who we saw at this evening's show "Our Story Goes On"?  Emily Densley (Riley's wife).  She plays snare drum with the Bagpipes.  She sat right behind us at the show.  It was great to see her!  She will be here all week.  We hope we see her at some of their performances.



Below is a photo of some of the senior missionaries during one of the Sunset by the Mississippi shows we saw last week.  If you notice the couple in the center (dressed in green) you will see Elder and Sister Schmidt (Allan and Colleen) from the River Ridge 4th ward who are serving as FM (Facilities Management) missionaries in Nauvoo.  They perform 2-3 times per week at the Sunset by the Mississippi show.  It was great to see them in this show.

The pageants continue to astound us.  We have been able to go to each pageant (British and Nauvoo) a couple of times so far and have thoroughly enjoyed them.  The messages, music, actors, stage, etc. are wonderful.  Below are some photos from the Pageants, starting with what the pageant stage looks like during the day while some of the performers are rehearsing.

The tent in the background is where I (along with 4 others) do our translation in Spanish during the shows.  I have done this for 3 of the British Pageant Shows.

And the sunsets continue to amaze us.

July Activities --- a Very Busy Month

On Friday, July 5th we sat on the grass west of the temple to hear a band concert and watch fireworks across the river.  The sunset was an unexpected show in and of itself.  

And looking the other direction (east) we saw this view:

Pageants:

July is a very busy month here in Nauvoo.  There are two Pageants going on from July 9 - August 3, and many activities happening during the day.  The British Pageant is on Wednesdays and Fridays,  and the Nauvoo Pageant  is on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.  

There are people who are in the casts of the pageants, and we have many visitors watching the pageants.  So the the temple has been busier than normal and the ward we attend in Nauvoo (every 3 weeks since we serve in the Kewanee Branch the other weeks) is very busy (with over 2,000 people attending each week this month).  In fact, we taught the senior primary this morning (actually Marilyn did most of the teaching, I just showed the videos today) and we had 32 children in our class.  

Below shows the chairs setup for the pageant and three pictures from scenes in the Pageants.

There are about 2,500 chairs set up to watch the pageants and I think most of the chairs are filled each night.  It has been a lot of fun seeing the pageants and singing at the end of the British Pageant..  The missionaries go up at the end of this Pageant and sing 3 songs with the cast.  The actors, music, message and everything about these pageants are excellent.  There are a lot of pictures of the pageants online.

The person in charge of the the Spanish readers heard me read some Spanish names in the temple (while doing sealings) and asked me to be one of the 5 readers for some of the Pageants.  I have done this for three British Pageant shows so far and it has been a good experience for me.  The script is in english in one column and Spanish in the next column so we just follow along the script and read the Spanish words when it is our turn.  This has been an experience that has caused me to be a little out of my comfort zone.  I don't speak Spanish very often but can read the words okay.

Below is one of the activities at the Country Fair (which takes place before the Pageants):

Here we are at the Print Shop, and Marilyn with the Sister Missionaries there:

This is a picture of some of the Young Performing Missionaries who were performing on Main Street (where many of the Historic Sites are located):

Below I am next to an area that has prairie grass.  This is the type of grass that the pioneers saw when crossing the plains.  it would grow as tall as a man.    About 1/5 of the US plains area was covered with this during the time the Pioneers crossed the plains.  And yes, that is the Nauvoo Temple in the background (looking northeast behind me).

And lastly, but mostly important, is a photo of the wall where our precious grandchildrens' pictures are hanging.  Marilyn (Grandma) put these up over the weekend.  Thanks for sending the photos of the children!  We love and miss all of you.