Time Flies Part 2

Friday

After Thursday I didn't know if I'd be able to get out of bed Friday morning.  But this is a place of miracles and I did get up, actually anticipating the day's work.  Instead of watering the greenhouse plants, I was chosen to go with Sister Nelson to water the beds of flowers around town.  The watering truck is much smaller than the dump trailer truck, so I got brave and drove it - successfully!  The gardens around town are so beautiful.  And Friday was much cooler than Thursday.  It took us more than  2 1/2 hours to water.  Afterward we did coleus cuttings in the greenhouse.  It gave me a chance to visit with some of our crew.  One of the sisters was Jenny's experiential education professor at Ricks. Her specialty is backpacking with llamas.  So many interesting people here.  By the time you are a senior, we all have stories. 

Since Friday was a very restful day, Dee and I did our grocery shopping after lunch.  This freed up our P-day on Saturday.  Friday night the sunset was beautiful.  Our phones just can't capture the bright red, so I won't even post it. Our neighbors said it was the prettiest sunset they've seen - and they've been here almost 18 months. 

Saturday

P-Day!  First of all, we slept in. We didn't get up until 7:00!.  We Facetimed Gideon, who had invented a new truck to show us.  I got to show him the trucks I get to play with, making me a very cool grandma.

It was a beautiful fall morning, so before the sites opened we went for a bike ride down to the river and the Community of Christ sites, which include Joseph and Emma Smith's home and store, and the Smith Family Cemetery.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Community of Christ church help each other out with their complementary historic areas. 

The rest of the morning we washed all the bugs, cobwebs, and dirt off our kitchen windows.  Now we can enjoy the sunsets without going outside. 

After lunch we went on the Wagon Ride and the Carriage Ride.  The Carriage Ride takes you through country while the narrator tells stories about the early settlers of Nauvoo.  The Wagon Ride narrator tells more history of the area, starting with the First Nation people and including some information about the Mississippi. When you come to Nauvoo make sure you do both.  Each one was about 30 minutes. 

Dee enjoyed the BYU football game - since they won. We had a short choir practice at 8:00.

Sunday

I can't believe this is only my second Sunday in Nauvoo.  I've learned so much in the past week.  Each day has been very different.   We went to choir at 7:00 AM, and were ready for sacrament meeting at 7:50.  The YSM (young sister missionaries) who are going home this week gave the talks. The topic was revelation.  I just finished reading all of President Nelson's conference talks, working backwards from his earliest talks in 1984. Yesterday I read all of his talks from April Conference.  So the talks on receiving revelation added to my week's reading.  We are all anticipating general conference in two weeks.  They told us at the MTC that the general authorities have said to be ready for more of what we were given last conference. 

Over the last year I've found myself pondering Brigham Young's statement.  “There is no doubt, if a person lives according to the revelations given to God’s people, he may have the Spirit of the Lord to signify to him his will, and to guide and to direct him in the discharge of his duties, in his temporal as well as his spiritual exercises. I am satisfied, however, that in this respect, we live far beneath our privileges.” (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. and arr. by John A. Widtsoe, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1973, p. 32; emphasis added.)

I've wondered what privileges and how do we obtain those privileges.  I think President Nelson is trying to bring us to a point where we can enjoy the privileges that can be ours, teaching us exactly how to receive personal revelation.  It certainly has been a theme I've heard many times while here, in a place where so many revelations were received as the gospel was restored.