PAGEANT Takes Over our life

After the Martyrdom commemoration, everyone's focus was on pageant season.  Starting with bringing all of the chairs from Carthage and setting them up at the Pageant stage.  But first, on Friday morning, President Lusvardi fixed a delicious breakfast for all of the  sisters who had worked in the sewing room this year.  It was so fun to see all of my sewing buddies together again - one last time. The next time we sew, Sister Hayhurst will be gone.

July is packed.

Which reminds me, our upstairs neighbors, the Bakers left on Friday as well, due to health issues.  I am very sad for them to go.  We ate together, played games together, and just enjoyed having each other around.  God bless them - this is their third mission and they need to go home and recover.  Elder Baker kept the condo project enthused. Sister Baker is just the most down to earth person I know.  We loved them and will miss them.

So here are some photos to finish up the month of June.

Bakers receiving their FM flag from Marcus

President Lusvardi cooking for us. 

9 months and I finally saw a barge

The river has gone down.  If you remember this was surrounded by water at the beginning of the month.

Setting up pageant chairs.

New baby oxen

Nauvoo diversity. 

Martyrdom Commemoration

Carthage Commemoration

June 27,1844 Joseph, Hyrum, John Taylor, and Willard Richards were in Carthage Jail.  Joseph and Hyrum were there on charges of treason, brought forth by enemies of the church. They never stood trial.  Around 5 on that hot, sultry June day a mob, with black painted faces stormed the jail, shot and killed Hyrum, then Joseph, wounded John Taylor.  A year earlier Joseph had told Willard Richards that one day he would be in a rain of bullets, with friends dropping dead around him, but he wouldn't be touched - and so it was.  In my opinion, Willard Richards and John Taylor were preserved by God as witnesses to what took place. If they hadn't been there, only the mobs account would be available.

This week was all about getting ready for the 175th commemoration of that piece of history.  Tuesday night we had a huge thunder storm. So Wednesday we picked up branches all day. We took two trailer loads to the burn pile - and I was driving! And I backed up the trailer each time in one try.  Another challenge conquered.

Getting ready at Carthage Jail

Thursday we cleaned up sticks at Carthage.  Some of our team were in charge of chairs. 900 chairs were set up - and I think they were all filled.  After work I attended the Joseph Smith Historic Societies commemoration at the Smith Family Cemetery.  The Young Performing Missionaries sang solos of the verses of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, each verse to a different tune, as we don't know what tune John Taylor sang in Carthage Jail at the request of first Joseph and then Hyrum.
Later we drove out with another missionary couple to Carthage. It was another hot June afternoon. 

This is the first hot week we've had, and it was very hot, with heat indexes around 106 degrees. It is good that we start our day at 6:00 AM and stop at noon.  That is the only way to beat the heat.

Nauvoo Brass Band

Mark Taylor with Heritage Choir behind.

The three times great grandson of John Taylor, Mark Taylor, spoke about the martyrdom from John Taylor's eye witness account.  Although Joseph Smith's scribe and the church historian,  Willard Richards had never written a description of the scene in the jail. After Richards had died it was realized that only John Taylor was left who could tell what had happened. He wrote down in as much detail as he could what took place in the jail that afternoon.  Brother Taylor shared with us much of John Taylor's writings.   Then he told us a story that he asked us never to forget - it had nothing to do with the martydom, but everything to do with our testimonies.  I will post it at the end of this blog.

Graves of Joseph, Hyrum and Emma

That evening we walked around the candle lit cemetery.  A fitting end to a day of reflection. 

My testimony of Joseph Smith as a prophet of God stands on many foundation blocks.  One of those blocks is the price he was constantly willing to pay for his claim as prophet.  All he had to do to relieve the conflicts that assailed him from the time he told his story of his first vision, and increased after receiving the plates from the angel, Moroni, was to say he had been deceived.  He didn't even have to say it didn't happen, but that Satan had deceived him.  But as he said, he knew it and God knew it and he couldn't deny it. And there were many others who witnessed the unrolling of the events, and stood by and took the persecutions with him. He knew going to Carthage was a death sentence.  And maybe he knew that it was required to seal his testimony with his blood.  Three times he told Hyrum not to come.  Hyrum was willing to die with his brother. If anyone would have thought this was a fraud, it would have been Hyrum.  But he knew from first hand experience that this was the work of God.  As Jeffrey Holland says in the video shown at Carthage Jail, they wouldn't have gone, they wouldn't have given their lives, if it wasn't true.

The Story we shouldn't forget

At age 24 Heber J. Grant had been called as a stake president.  John Taylor and his counselor, Joseph F. Smith  came to reorganize the stake. Here is the story in Heber J. Grant's words.

At the lunch table after my first short speech which lasted seven and a half minutes,
President Smith said: "Heber, you said you believe the gospel with all your heart, and
propose to live it, but you did not bear your testimony that you know it is true. Don't
you know absolutely that this gospel is true?"
I answered: 'I do not.'

“What you a president of a stake!, said President Smith.

“‘That is what I said.’

"President Taylor, I am in favor of undoing this afternoon what

we did this morning. I do not think any man should preside over a stake who has

not a perfect and abiding knowledge of the divinity of this work."

I said: I am not going to complain.(Mark Taylor explained that Heber said he didn't ask for the job and would gladly pass the job over to someone else.)

President Taylor had a habit, when something pleased him excessively, of shaking his body and laughing.  He said, "Joseph, Joseph, Joseph, he knows it just as well as you do. The only thing that he does not know is that he does know it.  It will be but a short time until he does know it. He leans over backwards. You do not need to worry."

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-heber-j-grant/the-life-and-ministry-of-heber-j-grant?lang=eng

This old house

On Sunday, June 23, Kelley texted that she needed help.  She'd been down with a terrible earache - the weekend they moved into their new house.  Mckay had come to help and they got all moved in, but now she was facing a week of her home in boxes, too sick to take care of the boys, and Andrew leaving town.  Dee and Ann spent a long time Sunday night trying to get her there somehow, but tickets to Canada at short notice were over $1000 one way.  We were only 11 hours away by car, but we are on a mission.  On Monday morning at prayer meeting I noticed that the mission president was there.  He often attends our FM prayer meetings, so that wasn't unusual, but it did make it easy for us to talk to him.  Dee and I stood up after prayer meeting was over and just talked about whether we should say something.  Then there he was, standing in front of us.  Now that is unusual.  We explained our dilemma and he simply said, "If you have the impression that you should go, then maybe you should go."  Well, what parents wouldn't think they should go.  So this week was spent serving in Canada.  By the time we got there Kelley had gotten some better medicine and the pain was being controlled, but as soon as the pain medicine wore off she knew it.  I was able to unpack her kitchen while she got some rest.  Dee was able to fix several wiring problems and some other things.  And all three of us kept up with the children. Dee also became acquainted with the house's construction, so that when Kelley "Face times" a problem with him, he'll know more about the house. One day we cleaned up Kelley's old house, which turned out to be a very good thing, because the next day the landlord called to say the people who had been in the house for 20 years before Kelley, wanted to move back right away.  It was like that house was just made available for the Miles. So our being there made things better for Kelley and for that family. And for us.  It was a good week to be gone from Nauvoo.  It rained a lot and we didn't even miss our dancing - it was rained out.  We got back Friday and danced on Saturday.  But I didn't get around to doing a blog - so here it is.

Grandpa time

Lots of weeds.  I didn't find time to weed, eh,eh.

Exploring the rock collection the previous owner left behind. 

Sunset on the Mississippi, and no, it's not more sunset photos.

The grounds crew is now officially meeting for work at 6 AM each morning to beat the heat.  We quit at noon.  This week fooled us, with morning temperatures in the 50s, and highs around 70, but it was still good to be up in the fresh morning air and done by lunch time.  We mostly weeded, which is honestly my favorite work.  We work at our own pace, and get in different positions as our backs and knees get tired, and everything looks nice when we are done.  As Sister Christensen likes to say, "We made a difference."  One day we were surprised by an old fellow grounds worker, Sister Dare.  It was so fun to see her and Elder Dare.

We did have one rainy morning, so we cleaned pots and the pot shop.  Everything looks so nice.  We were outside again after our 10:00 break.

And the Voodoo plant bloomed! It blooms once a year, and only remains in bloom for a day or two.  And it stinks like a dead animal to attract flies.  Lovely.

These little bambis rested in our lawn one afternoon

In June we dance in Sunset on the Mississippi on Wednesday and Saturday night.  In July we dance on Monday and Thursday, so you all come and see Elder Barrow in Stout Hearted Men.  He is quite good at doing the right steps at the right time, which makes it easy for me.  I just have to follow him.

Mississippi Mud

Stout hearted Men

The Blue Cast women.  There is a red cast and a yellow cast.  I love these sisters. 

On Friday night we went to the Trail of Hope vignettes.  We weren't allowed to take pictures after the program started, but Elder Cornwell posted a wonderful photo to give you an idea of what this looks like.  I don't know how many "stations" there were, but the evening was filled with first person stories, violin, flute, and vocal music.  The vignettes tell the feelings and stories of the Saints as they left Nauvoo.

Our guide, Sister Swazy from Winston-Salem!

Mission Training

Wednesday training is preparing us for Pageant next month.  President Lusvardi answered the question, "Why is the British Pageant in Nauvoo."  The British Pageant plays every 4 years in Preston, England.  When the apostles visited it, they actually went around the town knocking on doors, just like the young missionaries do.   President Kimball said, "If it hadn't been for the British Saints the church would have withered and died."  President Kimball's great grandfather was Heber C. Kimball.  After serving in his house a couple of times, I realized that I knew almost nothing about him, so I checked his biography out of the mission library.  Heber and Brigham were friends in Mendon, New York when the news of the restoration of Christ's church was brought to them. They were baptized a day apart, and together traveled to Kirtland, Ohio to meet Joseph Smith.  In 1835 Brigham and Heber were called to be part of the first quorum of apostles in the restored church.  Of all of the first 12 Brigham and Heber were the only ones to stand faithful to Joseph. As the others fell away, they were replaced by more stalwart men, like John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow.   While still in Kirtland, Joseph came to Heber while he was sitting in the temple and said, "Brother Heber, the Spirit of the Lord has whispered to me:"Let my servant Heber go to England and proclaim my Gospel, and open the door of salvation to that nation."  Elder Kimball had phenomenal success in England.  Four years later as soon as he and the other apostles were "settled" in Nauvoo, he was sent back, this time with the other apostles. It must have seemed crazy for the strongest leaders of the church to be sent away just as Nauvoo was getting settled.  Malaria was running rampant, even among the apostles, their families were living in huts, they had been stripped of all of their belongings in Missiouri.  But the Lord's ways are not fully understood to us and so in faith they left their families and went to England. They had great success and the immigration of the British Saints began.  Nauvoo was a place of gathering, in order to build the temple.  The British Saints were needed with their skills, their numbers, and this is my personal opinion, with their faith and optimism, for the Saints in Missiouri had been traumatized and were exhausted, physically and emotionally, if not spiritually.  The British Saints breathed energy and life into the city.  They were needed to build the temple, and to prepare the people for the exodus West.  Elder Barrow's ancestors were mostly from this British immigration to Nauvoo.

Also when the apostles first went to England there was no way to publish the Book of Mormon in America. One press in Missouri had been destroyed. Another had been buried.  The Saints were trying to survive, but in England the Book of Mormon could be printed.  Brigham wrote to Joseph Smith, asking for permission.  He never got a reply, so he went ahead and did it. 

       We were told that in the 1930s, when Gordon B. Hinckley's father was mission president of the Illinois Mission, he advocated for the Nauvoo Temple to be rebuilt.  He was unsuccessful, but when his son became president of the church, he made it happen.  I'm remembering learning that in the late 1940s, missionaries in California tracted out the descendants of the Nauvoo Temple's architect, William Weeks,  and they gifted the architectural drawings to the church. Sometimes we need to wait until all the pieces are in place.  One thing I've loved in Nauvoo is learning about different parts of the history, and then putting them together with other parts. 

Mission Conference

Occasionally a general Authority visits our mission.  Elder S. Gifford Nielsen, yes, the former BYU and NFL quarterback, was here for several days.  We met with him at 7:15 Saturday morning and again at 8:15 PM after we danced in Sunset.  His main messages were to be one, united, as the First Presidency is, to engage in companion study, and to understand why the leaders are talking so much about repentance.  There has been so much encouragement to learn to receive our own revelation.  We need to repent so that we are able to receive revelation.  The one allows the other to happen.  He reminded us that the Hebrew word for repent is Shub, to turn away from.  The Greek translation was metanoeo, which also means to change. Elder Nelson says in context it meant to become a new creature in Christ.  The Latin translation, Poeritere means to punish.  President Nelson said, "In the beginning that was not so."   So repentance can be a joyful thing, turning away from something that is hurtful to us and others, to the light of Christ.

It is always so edifying to be instructed by these great leaders, and part of the blessing of serving a mission.

Nauvoo in June

Still flooding

On Water Street

After a couple of weeks of roaming the countryside, we decided to stay home and see what was new in Nauvoo.  June is a good time to visit Nauvoo.  It isn't hot yet, and the Young Performing Missionaries are in town for the summer.  They sing, dance, act, and they recreate the band that was here in 1840s Nauvoo

I haven't said much about our Mission Trainings that we have each week, but I should.  This week Aaron West from the history department gave us a lecture on how important  gathering is to our Heavenly Father.  We gather so that we can build temples.  Only in temples can we be endowed with the blessings we need for salvation. Nauvoo was a place of gathering in the 1840s and it is still a place of gathering today.  On Saturday a man stopped me to ask some questions about Nauvoo.  As we talked he told me that he was here with some people who weren't that familiar with the church.  He said they were amazed how he kept meeting people that he knew. Nauvoo is a place where members of the church meet.  For a church of 16 million, we really network very well.

I had a couple of interactions with visitors this week.  The dogwood tree is in bloom at Scovil Bakery.  While we were cleaning up the yard a visitor exclaimed over the tree.  Dogwoods don't grow out west.  I told her it was a dogwood, and asked her if she knew the symbolism of the flower.  She didn't, so I gave a 1 minute "dogwood" tour, how the blossom represents the Savior's sacrifice for us.

 Friday and Saturday we had visitors from Canada, Kelley's friends, the Lowes.  They gave me a reason to visit Pioneer Pasttimes. They took some photos of our Sunset on the Mississippi cast.

For 6 weeks every summer Dig Nauvoo comes to town.  Anyone can volunteer to help with the excavating.  Monday, after work, I actually had some energy left, so I went to dig.  It was a lot of fun.  We were mostly trying to get deeper, but we did find a little piece of pottery, and some glass - probably both from the 1970s. 

Pioneer Pastime

We had a great time with the Lowe's.  They came to dinner Friday and Saturday night, because it is hard to find a good, affordable place to eat in Nauvoo for dinner.  The first night we served bar-b-que chicken, which the kids didn't care for too much, but the tater tots were a big hit. 

The next night we had lasagna, and little 3 year old Maddie went into a monologue over how much she loved this food.  I told her she could come eat with us anytime. 

Pioneer play house

Blocks

The Band played for us and took the children on a parade. 

The Mary Garner Fields cabin and the Patty Sessions Cabin are open in the summer.  No one is there to tell you stories, but I just stepped in and took a picture. I meet so many descendants of Patty Sessions.  Even my son-in-law is descended from her. 

JUNE 3rd - our half-way mark

Today we've been on our mission exactly 9 months.  And still so much to experience.  Pageant weeks haven't even started when things really rev up here.  We've already had several school groups and youth groups. They keep the site missionaries very busy, but FM missionaries lives don't change that much.  Still we've found things to do that spice up our lives.   I was the song leader in Primary, something I've only done once many years ago.  It went pretty well.  I love 20 minute singing/sharing time.  Just the right amount of time.

When we got home from church Elder Baker, our upstairs neighbor, was 

making his famous Idaho french fries. So good and absolutely gluten free. 

On Monday we planted Carthage.  The tradition is to go to Dairy Queen afterwards.

Plants ready to go. 

The crew

Planting done

We had huge thunderstorms north of us and here, which has caused the river to rise more than it did from the spring run off.  The bridge to Keokuk, which went down to one lane during the run off, is now closed completely, so we have to cross into Iowa over the Fort Madison bridge.  That's OK going to Iowa, but they charge $2 to come back to Illinois.  And there is flooding in Fort Madison as you come off the bridge.   The Mississippi is mighty this spring.

Parley's way. The water comes up to the statue of Brigham and Joseph

We mostly mulched this week and that is the physically hardest thing I've done here.  By Friday I was exhausted.  But the gardens look so good and the mulch will keep the weeds down. 

 Saturday we visited Pittsfield Lake for a Civil War re-enactment. Nauvoo on the Road was there, but we weren't assigned to help.  At first I was disappointed that we weren't being asked to go, because FM missionaries can't be spared right now, but I've found it an advantage to be free to go around and talk to people.  With this name badge people know they can tell us about their spiritual experiences or ask us about our history.  We had both things happen on Saturday.

A carpet bagger

 This lady represents a member of a soldier's aid society.

Lincoln is so personable. 

Vintage Baseball

Something new is always happening in Nauvoo. Nine months is our half-way mark, but it really doesn't mean much, because until we've been here a year we are still experiencing new things.  I'm still new, still learning.  The big day will be when I can back up the trailer to dump our weeds and sticks.