As we have mentioned in the past, we serve in the Nauvoo temple five days a week (morning or afternoon shift) for 6-7 hours per day. We love going to the temple and serving there. On most of the days we don't know exactly what assignments we will have until we arrive. The shift coordinators develop a new schedule of line assignments for each shift, each day. The only day we know what we will be doing is when we serve as Baptistry Coordinators. The assignments include ordinance work in the Baptistry, Initiatory, Endowment and Sealing areas. Often I serve at the Recommend Desk. And often we are individually assigned to a post position to help guide the patrons to where they want to go.
This past week (and part of the previous week) we saw first hand, the use of sisters and young youth as witnesses. For example, in sealings, now anyone with a full-use recommend can serve as a witness to a sealing. In the Baptisty, we have seen young youth (young women and young men) serve as witnesses, parents, grandparents and other combinations of brothers and sisters serve as witnesses. This policy change can strengthen families since they can do more of the temple work together. We know these policy changes are inspired. There have been more baptisms performed in our temple since the policy but we have especially seen more sealings performed since not as many brethren are needed in the sealing rooms to perform the sealings.
We had a very touching experience this past Thursday night in one of the sealing rooms. A young couple came in wanting to participate in sealings. They said that this was the first time they knelt across the altar from each other. We found out that they were married civilly a few years ago, and that she is sealed to her first husband (who died in an industrial accident). She had 4 children when he died. She married her current husband when she was 24 and he was 31. He had never been married before. We could tell they loved each other deeply. They have had two children together and are hoping to have another child soon. They have such faith and are such a loving couple. He will be soon working in the temple as an assistant engineer at the temple. The Spirit was very strong in the sealing room when they were there.
Small Group FHE
We spent some time with our small FHE group last night. There are five couples in our group and we meet once a month. This month we went to a local restaurant called Red Front for dinner. The picture below is from this restaurant.
After dinner we went to one of the group's apartment to talk about why we think we were called Nauvoo and to mention any experiences that confirm why we thought we were called to serve in the Nauvoo temple. We mentioned our wonderful opportunity to serve in the temple as ordinance workers (which is our most important responsibility), to serve with these other faithful temple missionaries (about 50 couples) who we have grown to love and admire, to serve with the other temple ordinance workers (called district workers), to serve the patrons, and to serve the members of the Church in the Kewanee Branch.
We also mentioned the faithfulness of the Kewanee Branch members, where we serve on Sundays. The Branch President and the Elders' Quorum President are married to women who are not members of our Church. They support their husbands in their callings, and even attend the Branch on Sundays but are not baptized members. We look forward to being in the temple with the three sisters (Sister Turner, Sister Hall and Sister Morse) when they receive their own endowments. We have taught them all of the temple preparation lessons and they have received their temple recommends from their Branch President. They will be interviewed by their Stake President next month. We discussed how we feel this is like a Zion society. Everyone in the temple is so kind and loving. And the citizens of Nauvoo have been friendly.
Preparation Day (P-Day) Activity
Today we went to Montrose (on the other side of the Mississippi River, only about 2 miles from here but it took about 45 minutes to get there because we had to go south to Keokuk to cross the river, then drove north to Montrose. Montrose is where the Saints went when leaving Nauvoo in February, 1846. We had a tour guide (Mike Foley) who guided us to some of the locations where significant events took place in LDS Pioneer history. He is not a member of the Church (he is a member of the Methodist Church) but has taken a deep interest in the LDS Pioneers and their history in Iowa and especially in Montrose, which is where he lives. He has done extensive research on this and conducts tours on this subject.
Below are some pictures we took during our activity today. The Mississippi River was not nearly as wide during the 1840's as it is today. A dam was built down river in Keokuk in 1913 which caused the river to basically become somewhat of a lake here, so it is much wider than it was at the time the Saints crossed the river in 1846.
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| Another picture of Nauvoo from Montrose. The Nauvoo Temple is in the background. |
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| View of Nauvoo from where the Saints crossed (1/4 mile from the photo above) |
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| Location where the miracle of the Quail occurred after the Saints landed on this side of the River. There was an island (where all of the Lilies are in the middle of the river). This is where this miracle occurred. |
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| This is the last view of the Nauvoo Temple from the Iowa side. It is a couple of miles west of the River. The land flattens out after this location - going west. This is the last location where the Saints could see the Nauvoo temple. |
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| After our activity we ate lunch at Angilini's in Keokuk. |
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