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).