Flooding the Earth - with a twist

Mission Training

I'm doing a separate post for mission training because this week's training was so important for all members of the church who are interested in sharing the Book of Mormon. 

Last week's training's message was simply keep in touch with the people you introduce the restored church to.  President Lusvardi told us a story, in pictures of a family he taught in Argentina when he was a young missionary, and then kept in touch with them over the years, up until the sealing in the temple of one of the children to his wife.  We were told on our missions to not even write to people we had contacted.  The fear was that people join the church because of a friendship with the missionaries, rather than a conviction that the church is the restored church of Jesus Christ. Interesting how things change and we learn how to do things better. 

Which brings me to this week's training.  President Lusvardi reports that we are giving away more Book of Mormons than ever before. Flooding the earth as President Benson asked us to do years ago.  People take them, but they don't read them.  So he invited, via webcam, a mission companion of his that he served with as area mission specialist trainers of mission presidents, President Lee Donaldson.  This is what he taught us:

The Book of Mormon combined with the spirit is our most important resource.  He pointed out that Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith September 21 - harvest time.  This means to me that The Book of Mormon is the reaper of the field that is white, ready to harvest.  But we have to get people to read it.  

When sharing the Book of Mormon with a friend, start by showing the introduction to 1 Nephi. Read the first lines out-loud because people don't know how to pronounce the names Lehi, Sariah, Nephi, etc.  Then do a guided reading, asking questions to help the friend understand what to look for, what is important. 

Explained the chapter heading, then asked, "What is the first word of verse 1?"  I.  "Tell me about your parents."  They were good.  " If they are good, what do they do?"  Then have them read the first verse. 

"Would you like to know the mysteries of God?  You will learn this in this book."

Go to verse 4 and  explain the background history of Jerusalem and talk about what it means to repent. 

Continue selecting verses to read together, ending with verse 12 - As he read, he was filled with the Spirit of the Lord.  "That's my promise to you."

President Lee explained that just handing our friends the Book of Mormon is incomplete.   We won't share it the same with each person.  Where we start in the Book of Mormon will depend on what their questions are.  In chapter 5 of Preach My Gospel are questions of the soul that people ask, and where to find the answers in the Book of Mormon. 

If you have read this, and don't know about the Book of Mormon, have someone who does read it with you, or at least be available to answer your questions.  

I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints because of  some counsel I read in Alma 32:27  If ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.  The passage goes on to explain that after that desire, faith will grow, eventually into knowledge, and knowledge is what I was after.  Not the knowledge of the world, which was contradictory and ever changing, but something solid, certain. And so I embarked on a great experiment, giving place to God's words, from the Book of Mormon, the Bible, the ancient prophets and the living prophets.  And this has given me  a solid foundation to live my life on.  I hope you will accept Alma's invitation, and experiment by reading the Book of Mormon, but read it with the help of a friend who is familiar with it. 

We've had a lot of good mission trainings, but I think this one might prove to be the most useful to me both here on my official mission, but more so after I leave. 

End of Summer slow down

Rare Nauvoo site - 6 horses pulling the wagon.  The teamsters had time to have a little fun. 

This post covers two weeks, because my phone wouldn't let go of last weeks photos.  Besides, not much new is going on right now. This is sort of a down period in the grounds.  The beds are pretty much weeded.  We haven't had any major storms, so the branches are staying attached to the trees.   We've had lots of young sisters to help us, which we very much appreciated.  That is all going to change next month.  They either go home, or go to their outbound assignments.  About the time they leave, we start pulling up beds of the annuals in order to get the beds ready for bulbs.  So plant pulling, bulb planting, and leaf raking is in my future, but for these last weeks of summer, things are kind of mellow.
I am excited that 4 young sisters have been assigned to the Raleigh NC mission.  We will be home before they come back to Nauvoo.  So be watching for Sisters Bloxham, Decker, Taylor, and Baldwin.  I doubt they will be assigned to Sanford, but we will find them wherever they are sent.

Weeding at Land and Records

Hibiscus

One sure sign that summer is ending is the bringing in of the pots from the streets of Nauvoo. We lifted most of the pots into the trailer, but some were just too big.

Dumped pots in the compost. 

Cleaning pots. 

Senior privileges

There are a lot of things that senior missionaries can do that young missionaries are not allowed to do.  We can talk to our children and friends whenever we need to.  We can watch whatever we want to on the computer and the TV.  TVs were even on our things to bring, although I don't know anyone who brought theirs.  We can fish and hunt, and many do.  The Hayhursts even brought their canoe.
And we can buy cars! So we did.  Before the snow flies we wanted a 4 wheel drive, and we needed something a little bigger to get our stuff home.  As things slowed down from a busy summer, we went car shopping.

I really loved our little blue fusion,
but we didn't need two cars.  

Introducing our new Highlander. 

Visitors

Some welcomed, like Ann's next door neighbors from Utah, The Tuckers.

And some not.  This marmot goes by many names: Mr. Woodchuck, Groundhog, Whistle Pig None of them make him a welcomed guest.  He only stayed a day or two and then moved on, thank goodness.  Better than the skunk we had for several weeks.

On Saturday we went down to Frontier Days at Quinsippi Island, just west of Quincy.  The friends of  Log Cabin Village are gathering log cabins from around the state to create a frontier village.  Abe was there showing us old fashion penmanship, but I didn't ask for a  photo this time.

A Civil war nurse explains her wares. 

A walking spinning wheel.

The End of an Era

When I came a year ago there were 5 sisters on the grounds crew.  I made #6.  This week the last of those  5, Sister Grigsby, went home.  I couldn't have been trained with a better group of sisters. People often say that our crew works harder than anyone in Nauvoo.  I don't know about that, knowing what my husband has had to do while here, but they did set a high standard of attention to detail, not stopping until the job was done, and did it with kindness and co-operation.   I miss them, but I am looking forward to what seems like a brand new mission.  Sister Bailey has been here almost 3 months and we are getting new sisters in October.  I will be the "experienced" one - and at least I can drive the van and trailer and I have Richard's phone number if we have a question - which we will.  I'm excited for the fall and all the work we have to do.  Last year I dragged myself home each day after work.  That doesn't happen so often now, but when it does, I know I will get up the next day ready to go.

The Grigsbys receive their  FM flag. 

Just a few more things

Just a couple more things.  Lyon Drug gardens brought in some very, very hot peppers.  I'm told they make jalapenos seem like sugar.   One day I spied these temple stones down in the FM compound.  They are from the original temple and have been in storage in the building behind them.  Some women are cleaning them.  My guess is that they will be on display when the new section of historic Nauvoo opens next summer.

Temple stones

We ended the week with a mission dinner to say good-by to a few more departing missionarires.  We don't always have a dinner when missionaries leave, but because there are so many young sisters leaving we give them a proper send-off.  Complete with a chance to march in the Sunset band.

I looked back at what we were doing last year - and on the very same P-Day, we washed our windows.  This year we understand why they needed washed.  The mayflies are disgusting.  Plus we had a collection of dead wasps in our south window.  So now our windows are sparkling clean and I will be able to open them if it ever gets cool enough.  This year is suppose to be warmer than last fall, so it may be awhile before I want to open them.  But I'm ready.

Fall is in the air

The first week in September brought some very comfortable, beautiful weather.  We watered, weeded, and cut grass, just as we'd been doing, but some things were different.  The biggest thing for me was we changed to starting work at 7:00 A.M. instead of 6.  While other sisters liked the early time,  I really struggled with the 6 A.M. time.  It was better on the really hot days, but once it started cooling off, I wanted to join the sun and get up later. 
       
The week started with a very uplifting  Sunday afternoon concert by the Young Sister Missionaries.  They will be going home this month or out-bound by next month, so it was our last time to see them all together.  And the week ended with a visit on Saturday morning by Elder Bruce Hafen and his wife.  I've loved the books he wrote that I've read, and he met expectations with his presentation.

I didn't take a lot of photos, but here are a few.

The Young Sister Missionaries concert. 

More FM missionaries went home.

The Craners

Elder Dallin, a service missionary

Richard and Sister Keeton display the watermelon grown in Lyon Drug garden.


 


                       

Watering, mowing, weeding

Mowing Sarah Granger Kimball's grass.

Before at Heber C. Kimball's home. 

After the weeds are removed. Good work sisters. 

What I learned on my mission:

Our trailer, perfectly centered dump at the burn pile, by me, first try..  And this wasn't easy to learn!

Every morning and evening there are 3 - 7 deer in our yard, including two new bambis. 

Elder Hafen's gave a presentation from his book, Faith is NOT Blind.  His children have created a website where people can discuss questions of faith. This talk is also on Youtube if you'd like to hear it. 

It was our district's turn to clean the grove, and then we took a bike ride over to the Lyon Drug garden to see what was happening now that September has arrived.

These tomatoes looked like miniture pumpkins. 

The gourd arch

Snake Gourds

Castor plant - like castor oil. 

The Year Mark - a reflection

One year ago today we entered the MTC.  As I reflect on the past year I've asked myself , "Has this experience changed me?"  Working on the grounds has been a challenge for me. I have learned to not question my physical abilities so much.  I have learned that I can do physical work longer than I thought I could. I can drive vehicles bigger than I thought I could.  I have learned that most things I worry about never happen or are not as bad as I imagined they would be.

I've deepened my appreciation for the faith and courage of the people who lived here. I've also broadened my understanding of who those people were. Most of them had not gone through the persecutions of Missouri, but made significant sacrifices to be here. I've deepened my appreciation for the city of Nauvoo itself and what was accomplished here through the efforts of Joseph Smith and those who followed him. i've come to understand why the Lord called Nauvoo the corner stone of Zion. I've deepened my understanding of the importance of gathering.

The greatest sacrifice missionaries make, is giving up their time to help accomplish the work where they are serving. There were days when I wondered if the work I was doing was more important than what I'd be doing at home. But as I talk with friends who have gone home, their challenge is feeling that what they are doing at home is making a difference, as it had while they were here.

I don't know at what point I began feeling like our work in the gardens was an important contribution to this sacred place, but one day I did realize that it was important. At first my attitude was, someone has to do the weeding, the planting, the watering, and it may as well be me. Now I feel like it is a privilege to do this work. Maybe all the people thanking us as they walked by while we were working helped me come to this realization. Maybe President Lusvardi recognizing the FM missionaries efforts each week at Mission Training helped. I'm sure just feeling Jesus' appreciation helped the most.

Working on the sites last winter helped me realize that what site missionaries do is only a small part of being here. We each make our contribution to creating the spirit of Nauvoo, and the gardens and the maintenance of the buildings, the comfort of the houses the missionaries live in, the care of the horses, are all equally important as the tours the site missionaries do.

But has gaining this knowledge changed my character?

I really don't think I'll know if any of this has changed my character, if I'm coming closer to Christ's example, until I'm back in my regular life. I am serving with the best people I've ever known. Their example of kindness and loving others has been enormously helpful to me, especially the women I've worked with on the grounds crew.

I am having a hard time expressing my feelings about Christ and how that has changed in the past year. Let me just say the need for a Savior has never been more apparent to me. I need to speak about him more often, to follow Nephi's expression, "we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ. "

I've always known that love of family is paramount. It's been observed that when seniors are asked to go on missions they often cite missing their grandchildren as a reason to hesitate. It has been hard to leave the little ones who are changing so rapidly. Although they've been able to visit us here, and we were able to go take care of Kelley's needs in June, I've never missed them so much as I have here. Their visits have been so appreciated. Not being able to just up and go when I wanted to see them has been the hardest thing. And it is always the happiest reason missionaries give when they are saying good-bye to Nauvoo. They hate to leave, but they love to go home to their family. I also look forward to that. But for now, I want to make the next 6 months a time to serve the Lord with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength. I've learned the best way to do this is one day at a time.

What do we do in Nauvoo?

Grapevines in Nauvoo

Since not much unusual happened during the week and I didn't take many pictures, this would be  good time to go through a regular week - which is rather uncommon here.  But on Saturday, when I still didn't take any pictures, we had a big day.

Sunday 

 We go to church in Burlington where I play the piano in Primary.  The FM missionaries are sent to units in the stake for church.  Most wards need the help; Burlington functions pretty well without us, except they are short on piano players.
After church we visited with children on Face Time.  Hailey had just gotten her new clarinet which she played for us.  Lots of squeaking. We are looking forward to seeing her improve.
District meeting at the Davis'.  We had a good discussion about improving our teaching skills (chapter 10 in Preach My Gospel)

Monday - Friday

The days all run together if I don't write down what we did, which I didn't this week. Every morning at 6:00 AM we start watering the pots of flowers that are on Mulholland Street, and down Main Street, as well as the annual flower beds on Main, Exodus, Kiosk, Weeks, and the President's house. 

FM prayer meeting is at 7:00.  It starts with announcements and can get quite raucous with comments from the audience.  We say hello to new missionaries, interns, and employees, and good-bye to departing missionaries.  We sing happy birthday when needed, sing a hymn, and someone gives a spiritual message and a prayer.  Then we go to work, except on Monday when we have a grounds crew meeting in the B building. 

The Hayhursts left this week.  Here the FM manager, Jordan, presents the FM flag that all departing FM missionaries receive.  Then they each get to say a few parting words.  It is always a sad time for us to say good-by to people we have worked with. 

We water the green houses, then go do a weeding project, or a stick run, unless we have a greenhouse project.  This week we finished transplanting all of the coleus that were ready to transplant, and we divided the oyster plants.  I'll take a picture next week.

 Lately we've had young sister missionaries join us because they don't need so many site missionaries anymore.  That is a great help. They work hard and say they enjoy the change.  Having them there lightens our load and brightens our day. 

Mulching the diagonal is finished!  This army of YSMs did a great job.  We couldn't have finished without them .

This week we finished weeding the diagonal, then mulched it. Next we moved on to Family Living.  We take a break about 10:15, eat a snack and relax.  Usually there is time to go do some more weeding.  We finish the day by watering the greenhouses again. 

I found this interesting looking creature called a saddle-back caterpillar. He looks like  a little puppy dog, but don't put him on bare skin.  His hairy feet are venomous.  

Our work day ends at noon and the rest of the day is ours, unless there is a meeting in the evening.  On the way home I stop at the mail room and check out the missionary DI for treasures.  At home we have lunch, take a shower, not necessarily in that order.  It depends on how hot and dirty we are.  Dee sometimes comes home around the same time that I do, but not always.  After lunch we might fall asleep. It is frustrating to me to be too tired to do anything but take a nap, but the truth is, some days that is how it is.  I sometimes do yoga to stretch my muscles. We study Come Follow Me, Preach My Gospel, and sometimes even look at the site book.
       Now that we don't work on the sites the site book is a low priority.  I need to read it again, because it doesn't go home with us. Along with the site book, I've read a lot of books about the Nauvoo period.  It is interesting to learn as much as I can about one time period, especially when other missionaries are doing the same thing. I like learning about the more general population here, not just the church leaders.
       There are lots of ways to fill our discretionary time. We go to the temple a few times a month. I tutor reading to a third grader twice a week.   Once a week I've started going to Irene's dulcimer group again.  I was too busy to go this summer .  I've also found a missionary who can show me some new things on the guitar.  At home I read to Gideon on Facetime, work on genealogy,  watercolor, sew.  On Monday we do FHE together.  Mission Training was on Wednesday morning once Sunset practice started, but this week it went back to Wednesday evening.
     This week's training showed us how the young sister missionaries will be coming to our homes to  practice teaching lessons.  They will start going to their 6 month proselyting mission experience by the end of October. Then Nauvoo will really get quiet.

The children I read with wanted to share their discovery with me of a nest of baby bunnies.  Nauvoo is a children's paradise.  They are free range kids. 

So that was our week. And most weeks are like this, except for the surprises that happen almost every week.  This week it was NOR.

Nauvoo on the Road

   

Saturday is usually our p-day, but we were given a surprise chance to do Nauvoo on the Road again, right here in Nauvoo.  I was too busy to take any pictures. This weekend is the Grape Festival.  I don't think the grapes are ripe yet, but I really haven't been paying attention.  The teamsters were offering wagon rides from the state park into historic Nauvoo.  Our job, besides our NOR duties, was to tell them to go take a wagon ride.  The day was a great success. Over 200 people took the ride.  Most of them had no idea there was an historic district to Nauvoo.  We hope they will come back and spend the day "on the flats".
     While Elder Barrow was making ropes with the children,  I interested a lot of people in finding their ancestors.  The Family Search center will work up 4 generations if the visitors will fill out a chart for a deceased ancestor.  I really love doing this.  I ask people if they have an ancestor they would like to know more about.  I've found this is a better question than, "Are you interested in your genealogy?" Most people shrug and say no, or Aunt Sally has already done it.  But when I ask them about a specific ancestor, everyone seems to have someone they want to know more about.  This Saturday there were two men who wanted to know about their fathers who had died when they were young.  They wanted to know about their grandparents, who they knew nothing about. 

     I ended the day talking to a man from Serbia.  He declared, very politely, that he was an atheist.  Growing up in Yugoslavia, I wasn't surprised.  We talked for a long time and I invited him to learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, because he loves the principle of families, and that men make their own choices.
     I've loved all of the NORs that we have done, but this was my favorite.  We are assigned to do one more this year, but maybe we will do another one by surprise!