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.

Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith 175th Anniversary of their deaths

Grave Markers for Hyrum, Joseph and Emma Smith

Marker outside the Smith Family Cemetery.  This small cemetery is beautiful and well kept.

On Thursday, June 27th there was a commemoration held at the Smith Family Cemetery in Nauvoo.  The Community of Christ Church sponsored this event.  There were wonderful messages given and songs sung.  Several members of our Church were asked to participate.  The leaders of the Community of Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints churches here in Nauvoo work hand in hand on many things.

Our temple President asked me to read one of the 6 readings because it concerned something Joseph Smith said while in the Nauvoo temple.  Joseph Smith said it was so appropriate to all who had died in the faith.  I was honored to be able to do this.  Marilyn recorded what I did along with two videos of two of the Young Performing Missionaries singing.  I recorded two short videos of the Nauvoo Brass Band.  Below are links (just copy and paste any of them to an internet browser) to these videos in my YouTube channel.

https://youtu.be/whAwmv7GBjc
https://youtu.be/nMVZiEAve8Q
https://youtu.be/HVouN7heiNI
https://youtu.be/ceXIsKbCzI8
https://youtu.be/_x3ihD8ovGM

Our Church also sponsored a commemoration of the 175th year since their deaths.  This was held in Carthage at 5 pm that afternoon.  We were unable to attend it because we were serving in the temple at that time.

Joseph and Hyrum Smith were great men.  They were men of integrity, loyalty, courage, trust, faith and unwavering testimony.   President Russell M. Ballard spoke about them in the following address he gave in 2012:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2019-06-25/joseph-smith-russell-ballard-175th-martyrdom-anniversary-50201

In his talk he said the following:  "They were men of integrity, loyalty, courage, trust, faith and unwavering testimony...  Every Church member ought to think about what those two prophets were willing to do to restore the gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ."

Statues of Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith west of the Nauvoo Temple entrance.

Angel Moroni Statue on Nauvoo Temple hit by Lightning

On Friday, June 28, 2019 at around 2 pm lightning struck the top of the angel Moroni statue on the Nauvoo temple.  We were in the underground temple parking lot across the street from the temple when this happened.  We saw a flash of light and simultaneously heard a very loud boom.  We knew the lightning struck very close to us but because of the heavy rain we didn't know exactly where it hit until the next day.  

Those in the temple said it felt like an earthquake.  In the temple lights flickered, scanners were effected, and security cameras were impacted.  But the temple continued to have a normal schedule and operations the rest of the day.

I have read that lightning strikes occur involving the tall temple steeples around the world and the statues are wired with grounding devices to minimize the damage and control the effects of such a strike.  In this case I think the grounding devices worked pretty well.

Below are some pictures of the Angel Moroni on top of the Nauvoo Temple.

Normal Statue of Angel Moroni

Closer view -- notice the head and the trumpet - blackened.

Angel Moroni statue after the lightning struck

Kalona Again

We went to Kalona again this past week. It is a community which has a lot of Amish people. We ate at one of their homes. It was a delicious meal.

 We learned that all Amish are Mennonite religion but not all Mennonites are Amish. They are known, as well as for many other things, for their fabulous handmade quilts. The sidewalks have quilt block patterns in-bedded every so often. 

We also saw a creative wood work store. They didn't allow pictures but we bought a small sample of how they combine woods to make beautiful items like, cutting blocks, lazy susans, napkin holders, and many other items. They also had amazing dining room sets with chairs made to fit your body so well. If money was no object...

We had dinner, visited the creamery, a quilt shop, a candy  shop, a bakery. This time it wasn't raining so it was more enjoyable. We rode with Brother and Sister Baugh from California. It's always interesting to get to know the different couples here. Also there were Brother and Sister Livingston. They are from Texas. He had a heart attack on their way here and had triple by-pass surgery in May. They live in our building. The Kauers also live in our building. They are from Idaho Falls. The Welch's are from Providence, Cache Valley, Utah. They are serving here with their daughter, Tiffany. 

FHE at the unique Tukuafu's home

Greetings from Nauvoo!  It continues to be a beautiful place.  It continues to rain a fair amount but the temperatures are not as warm as they normally are at this time of year.  It is very green here.

We continue to serve 5 days a week in the temple as ordinance workers.  Each day we have different assignments in the temple except for Wednesday when we serve in the Baptistry for the entire shift.  The temple is open Monday - Saturday.  On Monday it closes at 1 pm but on Tuesday - Saturday it is open until almost 8 pm.  We love serving in the temple.  We are also able to perform many of our own family ordinances.  In fact, we are able to do some of our own ancestor's ordinances almost every day we are in the temple.

In our Kewanee Branch assignment we are currently teaching the temple preparation class to 3 wonderful women, two are young sisters (early 20's) and are accompanied by their lovely grandmother, the other is a woman a little younger than us (i.e., in the prime of her life!).  They are all very receptive to learning about preparing to go to the temple for the first time.  Today we taught them about symbols and their importance in the Savior's teachings, the Gospel in general and in the temple.  We love teaching them and look forward to when they will be ready to go to the temple.

Last Monday night we were invited by another FHE group to go to the Tukuafu's house which is about 12 minutes north of Nauvoo.  They are a delightful couple who moved to Nauvoo and built their home about 10 years ago.  Both of them play musical instruments and sing.  They have 14 children.  Sister Tukuafu showed us many of the instruments she either made (which was most of them) or bought, and then played them.  They were mostly string instruments.  She and her husband are very talented.  Below are two photos from our visit with them.  It was a wonderful evening.

The Tukuafu's home, built from a log cabin about 150 years old.  A very unique and beautiful home.

Brother and Sister Tukuafu.  They are a charming couple!


Here is a link to a short video I took of Sister Owens playing the Psaltery instrument:
https://youtu.be/VgQTxS-YI_g

This past Tuesday afternoon (on our Preparation Day (P-Day)) we went to the Visitor's Center and saw one of the plays that the Young Performing Missionaries (YPMs) perform in.  It is called "The Promise".  it is about life in Nauvoo during the early and mid 1840's.  It was a fun play.  After the play we had our picture taken in the Visitors' Center by a statue of Joesph Smith and the First Vision.  

Nick & ShayLa's Wedding Activities

Last week we went home to South Jordan to participate in Nick and ShayLa's wedding.

On Saturday morning Nick and ShayLa were married in the Oquirrh Mountain temple.  It was a very nice ceremony.  We were so happy to have all of our children supporting Nick.  It meant so much to us.

That day we also had a wedding luncheon and a wedding reception for Nick and ShayLa.  There were many people who helped with each of these activities.  It was wonderful to see old friends, extended family and neighbors who attended the wedding reception. 
The reception was beautifully decorated.  Nick and ShayLa are so happy.  We are thrilled that they found each other and are now married.

We also spent some time together with our family both before and after Saturday's wedding activities.  It was wonderful being with our family.  Below are some pictures that were taken at some of the wedding activities.

Nick and ShayLa after the wedding in the Oquirrh Mountain temple.

The happy couple at the wedding reception.  They danced up a storm.

Almost all of our grandchildren - plus one from another family

Nick and ShayLa after the wedding reception.