December

December Week 1

The last swag

Weeks bed.

The last decorating of Nauvoo and Carthage.

Mishaps and angels

First I cleaned out the leaves from the Cultural Hall.  A grate lay under the leaves and under the grate were 3 inches of decomposed leaves.  I could lift the 4 grates up, no problem, but I couldn't get them back in place.  Elder Bailey drove by and his wife whistled for him to stop.  He quickly saw the problem, I had them in the wrong order, and put it all right again. 

The next day Richard let us take the gator with the snowplow back to the burn pile to dump some trash.  All went well, and we went for our break.  Then I got a text from Sister Pinnet, who saw us dumping. "Did you take out the weights?"  What weights?  Weights had been put in the back of the gator to balance the snowplow.  Back we went to burn pile.  Fortunately Elder Prettyman hadn't pushed our trash into the burn pile yet.  We sifted through the trash and sure enough, found not 1 weight, but 6 at 50 pounds each.  We were able to pull them out and place them (drop them) outside the burn pile.  Then once again we found Elder Bailey available, and he went and got them into his truck and put them back in the gator. 

Now we could go to out next task which was to decorate the fence at the Weeks flower bed.  We trustingly placed the decorations in the back of the trailer, and thought we didn't need to close the trailer as we were only going two country blocks up the road.  No sooner did we arrive than Elder Barrow called me.  "Lose something?"  Actually we had lost all of the decorations.  He retrieved them from some contractor who probably thought he'd got some nice greenery to take to the wife.  They were quickly delivered to us and we managed to stay out of trouble the rest of the day.   Thanks to our husbands, all was well. 

John Deere 50 pound weights

Odds and Ends

Elder Schmidt gives us ornaments each Christmas ...

that he makes. 

I can sometimes dump things right where I want them. 

Sunrise on the temple

Elder Harker's saw horse where he practices his roping - and he's not even a teamster, yet. 

Carthage Caroling

Every year there is a town square festival at Carthage.  The missionaries go in groups and carol around the square. This year wasn't as fun as last year for me.  First of all, it wasn't new, and secondly it was unseasonably warm.  But the trains in the museum were still as interesting. 

Missionaries singing

Variety Friday

First we set up chairs for the Light Up the Tree program

Conservation was making new candles ..

So we took a turn. 

Then we went back to our regular work of coleus and leaves.

Christmas Walk 2

Last year the president decided we needed to do the Christmas Walk two weekends.  Which meant we needed to "relight" the tree.  Elder Barrow and I were asked to organize the story telling for both weekends.  

Missionaries wait their cue to sing ... 

Light Up the Tree

Visitor Center's Nativity

Silent Night Truce - The Wardles

The Christmas Prayer - The Kidbys

O Little Town of Bethlehem - The Flanders

His Gift to Us - Sisters Swanson and Simmons

 People could ride the wagon down to the stories.  On the wagon they sang Christmas Carols.

Teamster Davies and Sister Davies

Another Christmas Walk put to bed, and we turn our attention to our missionary Christmas activities. 

Things should really slow down now that the Christmas Walk is over and family is all gone.  The next people to leave Nauvoo will be us.  We are at 2 months and change, as Elder Nelson described our way of counting time.  As a young missionary I never thought about going home.  We were living our lives and nothing waited for us at home except school and adult responsibilities.  It's different for senior missionaries.  We have left our families, our houses, the people we were ministering to, our life.  So it is natural for us to think about going back to all of that, and wondering how things are without us.  On the other hand, I find myself drinking in the peace of living here in this historic, and sacred place.  It will be a change to get back to real life.  So enough about that - Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.  Matthew 6:34