Break the Fast Dinner, Flood Museum, Sister Missionaries

We continue to serve five days a week in the temple with Tuesday as our Preparation Day (P-Day).  This week there were a lot of changes made to many of our assignments.  We are now the Baptistry Coordinators on Mondays (weeks 1,3, and 5) and still the trainers on the Thursday afternoon shift.  I think that now all of the temple missionaries have some leadership responsibility at the temple.  

We had a wonderful time in the Baptistry yesterday.  There were nine families who came to the Baptistry, some were grandchildren of the Temple Missionaries.  Things went smoothly and the Spirit was very strong.  This is the Lord's house and He (and Heavenly Father) are very interested in everything that goes on in all of the temples.  We felt the Lord's help and guidance through the influence of the Holy Ghost. 


On Sunday we ate dinner (our "Break the Fast" dinner) at the home of the 1st counselor in the Temple Presidency and his wife (President and Sister Smith).  We had a very wonderful time with them, two senior sister missionaries, and another temple missionary couple.  We forgot to take any pictures when we were there.  The Smiths have lived in Nauvoo for 19 years and he was the Bishop of the Nauvoo 3rd ward a few years ago.  

President and Sister Smith were very gracious hosts.  We had a lovely dinner and then we had an activity.  President Smith asked us to write down five things we would like to know about someone else - perhaps our ancestors.  Then we gave our individual lists to someone else who was asked to read the list and respond to the items in the list.  This was a great activity for us to get to know each other better.  President Smith also emphasized the importance of passing on the stories of our lives (in an engaging format) to our posterity.  He talked about a Storytelling Conference held annually at Thanksgiving Point where people can learn how to compose and tell great stories, and listen to very good story tellers.  This sounds intriguing and we might just look into this.

The Flood Museum

Yesterday we went on a tour at the Flood Museum here in Nauvoo with our FHE group.  The tour inside the museum begins with archaeological evidence of the flood from many parts of the world.  Each of these findings show that the flood indeed did happen.  We then went into different rooms.  In each room there was video covering different topics (creation, building the ark, the flood, the aftermath of the flood, rainbow).  He (the curator - Bob Wright) was our host and in the last room he showed artifacts (mostly facsimiles) of famous items including the Shroud of Turin.  Below are some pictures from our visit in this museum.  Here is the link to their site:  https://www.thefloodmuseum.com/

Inside the Museum - in the ancient artifact room

Representation of the Shroud of Turin with a bust of Jesus made from measuring the features on the shroud

Our Host Bob Wright (on the right) with someone representing Noah

Our FHE group outside the Museum

Dinner at the Andersons with our FHE group after the tour at the Flood Museum

Later that evening we attended a very spiritual and touching fireside featuring the Sister Missionaries serving in Nauvoo.  They sang beautiful hymns focusing on the Savior Jesus Christ.  Some also played the violin and one played the flute.  Several of the Sister Missionaries took turns accompanying on the piano.  The Spirit was very strong during the concert.  These missionaries will be leaving in the next few weeks to go to areas outside of Nauvoo (I think they stay in the U.S.) and will serve in proselyting areas.  They have been here since spring, serving in the Visitors' Center and at the Historic Sites.  We will miss them when they are gone.  But we know that it is not very busy here over the winter and they will be of great service wherever they go.

Nauvoo Sister Missionaries