Coleus

6:00 AM when I go to work

Our coleus cuttings are ready to be potted, so most of this week Sister Bailey and I potted coleus, while Sister Grigsby took the young sisters assigned to us out to work in the park.  Here is our week's work.

Red Sky in the morning,  FM missionaries take warning

 It did rain, after we got back from watering, the rest of the morning.  So we worked in the greenhouse.  We worked on this project off and on all week.

Coleus cuttings we made this summer...

Are big enough to go into pots. 

Elder Barrow was making duct work in the costume room of the pageant department.  He had to go up in a very wobbly lift. 

Dee and Jason relax after a hard week's work up in the ceiling. 

Still mayfly season

 Mayflies on cobwebs.

On Saturday we had some fun. 

Saturday we took a bike ride and found this little gem. 

Built in 1846.  It's for sale. 

Saturday night we had a mission dinner to say good-by to 8 young sisters and several senior couples.  We have nine violinists in the mission. All classically trained, but they weren't playing classical music.  Orange Blossom Special!

If you look close you can see the sisters with paper hats marching around the room with their percussion instruments. 

It is the season in Nauvoo to start saying good-by to half the mission.  Between now and November the young sisters will either go home or go out-bound to a proselyting mission. Many of the seniors will finish their missions.  This is the hardest part of the mission, saying good-by, even though we know they are going on to other good things.   As we get nearer to our year mark, more and more missionaries who have been our friends all of our mission are leaving.  That is just part of serving a mission in Nauvoo. 

Mission Training: This week was zone meeting, but we all met together long enough to let the Warners and the Corders say good-by.  Then the Pinnets led us in a discussion about adapting our lessons, or tours to our audience.

Party week

This week we went to two mission parties and two parties that we created to celebrate my birthday.
I can tell about the week best through photos.  Here goes!

Monday was the first rainy day we'd had in a month, at least.  But we still watched the horses come back from their weekend pasture.

What does the grounds crew do on a rainy day? Wash pots!

Corn

Still Mayfly season.

                                         Tuesday was my birthday. Here's how it went, but not in order. 

Sweet rolls for lunch with the garden club. 

                                           

Worked in the gardens

Our morning prayer meeting sings happy birthday. 

Dinner at the Drake . . .

With the Mensels.

Steak dinners

From Elder Barrow

and also from Elder Barrow

It was a lovely day.

The YPMs say good-bye.

Cast party. Sister Whiting created a game - of course. 

Good-pie party.  All of these FM missionaries are leaving in the next few weeks.  Things will never be the same here. 

My high school friend came through Nauvoo.  So fun to catch up. 

The brick mason, Elder Corder, fixed this wall at Brigham Young's house.  Nice job, right?

So shows are over, YPMs have left, good-bye parties are done.  Nauvoo is quieting down. 

Beginning of last times

With Pageant over,  and us nearing our year mark, we are starting the "last times".  Last time to see Pageant.  Sunday we saw the Love of Christ concert, for the only time.  Missionaries could only see it on stand by, and it was always full, until Sunday.   This week was the last time for Sunset on the Mississippi.  We went Thursday, Friday, and Saturday so that we could see each casts' last performance.  Each one did a little something different for their finale.  The YPMs and the Nauvoo Brass Band leave this Wednesday.  Nauvoo will go back to being a quiet oasis in the mid-west.

Sunday Concert

Monday we went to  Peter's Place - for the first time, and probably the last before they close for the season.  We didn't even know Peter had a place for eating until the Bailiey's told us. 

This mural has an interesting story.  The missionary who was painting it went home and was diagnosed with cancer.  He never returned to finish the mural.  The owner of Peter's place is waiting for the artist's grandson to finish his degree in art at BYU to come finish it.




Tuesday we dumped the pageant pots.

Dumped

Tuesday night a little girl came to the children's table to color her hat.  She wrote her name - Clwyd.  "That's a Welsh name," I observed.  Her mother was quite surprised.

Wednesday we attended the Cluff reunion.  David Cluff brought his 12 children here to Nauvoo in the 1840s.  He owned a few properties around town, most notably a carpenter, furniture making shop where the Catholic school now stands.  Dee is a descendant of Benjamin Cluff, one of David's sons.
After the "family photo" a man came up to me and asked how I knew his daughter's name was Welsh.  I explained that my maiden name was Griffith.  He has Griffiths in his genealogy as well.  His mother is Welsh, but grew up in England before coming to America.   He was very interested in my family history although I can't trace them back to Wales.  Genealogy is a way to make quick friends.

Cluff family assembles for photo shoot. 

The Country Fair band played for the reunion. We danced. 

Besides attending Sunset three times, we saved coleus from mealy bugs, weeded, and did stick runs.

For Orange Blossom Express all the missionaries who played the violin joined in. 

Saturday after an early morning bike ride, chores, and attending the temple we headed out to West Point, Iowa for all you can eat corn - which they had to import from Illinois because of the wet spring.

All you can eat corn - I couldn't even eat one they were so big.

Chicken cooking at the Corn fest. It wasn't free but there sure was a lot of it. 

The corn was cooked using this steam engine.  The steam was sent to the cooker on the right.

Mission Training

President Lusvardi shared lessons he learned while traveling on the Nimitz Aircraft carrier.  This man has led an amazing life.  The main lesson was that we can't see all that the Lord can see.  We need to trust in Him and his messengers.  He had three tuning forks.  He hit the A fork and then held up the other A fork close to it, not touching and the second A fork picked up the vibration. Then he hit the A fork and held up a C fork next to it.  Nothing happened.  Lesson, we need to be in tune to the spirit for it to guide us. 

He added, " We came here to learn things to change us."  I know I've been changed through this mission experience, but also throughout all of my life's experiences.  If we aren't growing, changing for the better, becoming more like our Savior, we are missing the point of life. 

End of July and Pageant

The height of summer activity ended Saturday night, with the Nauvoo Pageant's last performance.  For the missionaries it means no more security parking duty, which we did on Saturday night.  Next week we dance our last Sunset performances, and life will return to normal.  Here are some of the things I saw this week:

These photos don't show up unless you can enlarge them.  To the left of the lamplight you can see the streams of mayflies.  I'm sorry the birds do show up better, but believe me, hundreds were flying around the compound, along with millions of mayflies.

Mayflies - everywhere and not just at night.

Followed by hundreds of swallows to eat them. 

I thought I'd better take a photo of the temple from the FM compound while the leaves were on the trees.

We water every morning M-F at 6:00 AM on Mulholland Street.  Sorry to wake the folks in the Wilford Woodruff Inn, but it is the best time to do it. 

Sister Grigsby in the watering truck.  I'm driving the other one across the street. 

A moth in Family Living Center garden. 

On Saturday we went with Nauvoo on the Road to another Thresher convention.  This one was in Hamilton, the next town south of Nauvoo.  It was an extremely busy day, and lots of fun.  We were set up next to the animals and the corn husking equipment, which the children could work. 

Sister Watkins demonstrates a merry-go-round. 

Baby pigs

Calf and mule?

First you husk the corn

Then you grind it. 

Ground Corn

There was a one room school house.  I found the subjects offered were interesting. 

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We hurried home from Hamilton and grabbed some dinner at our favorite restaurants Nauvoo food truck.  Then went to the pageant to do parking security.  Busy day, a joy to serve.

This is a really needed addition to Nauvoo.  Until Mi Camino Real appeared there was no where to find a good dinner at a reasonable price.