Winding Down

We have one week of work to do before this grand experience comes to an end.  You might wonder how I'm feeling.  I'm ready.  If all of these good friends were staying forever, I'd be more sad.  But many have already left and eventually they all will leave, scattering back to their homes.  Some of us will cross paths again, which is something great to look forward to.  In the mean time, we have one more week of work, site training, and a dinner at Willard Richard's house.

The most exciting thing this week happened on Monday.  We had our exit interview with the mission president. Only he's not a mission president, but a site director.  It's a little confusing, because we are missionaries, and he is a president.  But Nauvoo is no longer the Illinois Nauvoo Mission, but rather Nauvoo Historic Site, under the direction of the history department of the church rather than the missionary department.  He gave us a lot of good counsel and we really loved talking with him.  Nauvoo Historic Site is in good hands.

The second best thing was Zone Conference.  President Rizley created a power point about the priesthood, which our zone leaders, the Carlsons, used to lead a really good discussion about the role of the priesthood, especially has it relates to women's role.  I'm sorry that was our last zone conference.  The thing I will miss most here is the learning.  Our leaders have been the best teachers of gospel principles.  And our cohort has so much experience living the gospel.  The discussions we have are deep and meaningful.  It helps that the Joseph Smith Papers have been published.  The scholarship that is coming from them is outstanding.

 Work this week was very slow, too cold to go out, not much to do in the greenhouses, so we washed pots, and transplanted a few seedlings into trays.   Finally Thursday another shipment of plants came in.  They are shipped in trays of plugs. Each plug contains a flower.  We transplant the plugs into pots.  It takes about a day and a half to get them all done.  Time passes much faster when we are out working in the yard.

As a mission in Nauvoo comes to an end we start missing each other, so there are lots of dinners.  Wednesday forty missionaries gathered at Dr. Getwell's restaurant to honor our photographer, Elder Cornwell.  We were lucky to be here with the Cornwells.  Not only did he photograph our time here, but he and his wife are just a good couple to know.  And they have a son or daughter in Winston-Salem, so we hope to meet up with them at the Raleigh Temple from time to time.

Thursday we were invited to Newel K. Whitney's house, by the Odums, who are missionaries from South Carolina.  After a good dinner, we played dulcimers and discussed the Civil War.  They are another couple who we will see in North Carolina.  I've been asked so often since the Odums came, why don't I have an accent.  They speak real Southern. 

Dee in front of Newel K. Whitney's home, completely modernized inside. 

Saturday we cleaned like crazy.  All of the blinds had to be taken down and washed, along with the curtains. Most things are packed that we aren't using.  I hope it all fits in the car.

Between ice storms I've been taking afternoon walks, enjoying living in so peaceful a place.  This afternoon I thought, this is the Lord's revenge on those who took the saints' property away from them, a revenge that didn't hurt anyone, but restored what was rightfully theirs.   There is a quote by John Taylor, third president of the church,  that he gave in 1882.

As a people or community, we can abide our time, but I will say to you Latter-day Saints, that there is nothing of which you have been despoiled by oppressive acts or mobocratic rule, but that you will again possess, or your children after you. Your possessions, of which you have been fraudulently despoiled in Missouri and Illinois, you will again possess, and that without force, or fraud or violence. The Lord has a way of his own in regulating such matters.   JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES 23:61-62

The Lord does indeed have his own way of regulating affairs.   The Nauvoo Restoration Incorporated started buying back the dispossessed property in the 1960s, and it was of course done without force, fraud, or violence.  The process has been going on since then, including restoring the temple.   Nauvoo stands as a monument to the men and women who didn't lose faith, even as their property and the lives of many loved ones were ripped from them.  As Wilford Woodruff left Nauvoo he said:
"I left Nauvoo for the last time perhaps  in this life. I looked upon the temple and city of Nauvoo as I retired from it and felt to ask the Lord to preserve it as a monument to the sacrifice of the Saints. "

That prayer has been answered and continues to be answered.  By summer there will be a whole new section of restored homes just below the temple.  In a couple of years a new visitor's center will be built.   Some people have compared this town to Williamsburg.  It is not. The tour guides are not professionals. They are all volunteers and for half the year young women missionaries guide the tours.  They share the stories of the people who lived here.  These stories cause us to ask questions - like why did they come and why did they stay?
  Though Nauvoo is a historical mission, not a proselyting mission, visiting here can be a spiritual experience.

Old style fence

New style fence around the newly rebuilt Hunter home. 

It's been a privilege to serve here.  I will miss it, but I'm ready to move on to the next thing in my life.

Love is in the Air

Steam rising from the river on a frosty morning. 

After church on Sunday we were invited to the Mecham's for dinner.  Sister Mecham is 89 years old, but always sends a missionary couple off with a farewell dinner.  This was ours.  She told us we had to eat her cake for an appetizer.  The reason was she had other things for dessert.  Cake was followed by a pot roast dinner.  Then Elder Mecham recited poems he'd written and memorized.  I asked Sister Mecham what was the largest crowd she had ever served?  200!  She lived in Florida in her younger years and every December they had an open house for the neighbors.  The neighbors brought family who were visiting, and so it grew.  We all have a mission in life and I think one of Sister Mecham's missions is to entertain.  She was a professional clown and she still likes to make people happy.

The work week continued as usual with a little sanding in the paint department, potting up newly arrived annuals for the garden, and washing pots.

Sister Willmore dropped by the carpentry shop and took our picture.  She also showed us how to edit photographs on our phone.  I'm always learning new things from the other missionaries. 

One day in the pot shop we learned about grafting from a master gardener.  

Elder Barrow was given a few unusual challenges.  He never knows what he will be asked to do.  One task that came his way was fixing the dryer vents in an apartment building where the young sisters live during the summer.   The vents emptied into the attic instead of the outside.  So he had to crawl up  through a 2 foot hole in each apartment and reroute the vents.  It was cold, and he couldn't wear his coat and get through the small hole.  Later this week the missionaries working at Browning Gun complained that the log cabin behind the house was cold, despite the gas logs burning in the fireplace.  Elder Barrow discovered that the chimney actually worked and instead of smoke, carried the heat straight up and out.  So he created a plug for the chimney. Soon the room was toasty warm.  Don't worry.  He checked for CO and CO2.  All is well.

Elder Barrow at the site of his work. 

See the makeshift damper

It snowed the morning after he created the shield, and I went with him to shovel the walks and check on how the shield was working.  It was a beautiful cold morning and I took some frosty pictures from inside and outside Browning Gun.

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This pillar of light is actually the end of the rainbow. 

We no longer have mission training.  It is now historic site training.  This week we critiqued the newest Nauvoo brochure.  After the discussion President Rizley shared some things learned on their trip to Egypt comparing the Egyptian temples to temples of the covenant people of God.

The weekend was packed with activity.  Friday night we had a mission Valentine Party, complete with a game of matching first names of missionaries to last names, a pot luck dinner, and some round dancing.  My favorite dance, The Virginia Reel,  capped the evening.  Elder Barrow and I won the prize for the most enthusiastic reelers - a courting candle holder.

Since we call each other Elder and Sister
it was a challenge to match first names to last names

waiting for dance instructions

Elder Cornwell, our mission photographer

On Saturday for our last big hurrah before leaving the mission we finally made it to Springfield and Lincoln country.  The Howards came with us.   It was well worth the trip.

In front of the Lincoln home - the only home he ever owned.  The family lived here 17 years.  They rented it out while in Washington, planning to return at the end of his presidency. 

 The Lincoln Museum was the best I've ever been to.   If you ever get a chance please visit.

Lincoln's law office. 

Lincoln's cabinet discusses the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Lincoln's loved to entertain - at least Mary did.

Only 300 of the 500 invited guests came because of the rain.  She outdid Sister Mecham.  I doubt she fed them a meal.

Discoveries

We've made some wonderful discoveries about Dee's ancestors since we've been here.  He'd always been told that ancestor grandfathers on both his father's and his mother's side had worked on the Nauvoo temple.  But since being here we've discovered several lines that passed through Nauvoo, in fact all of his great great grandparents except for one line lived here or near here during the Nauvoo period.  On Sunday we went to the Land and Records office to check out more about the Ellison's and the Hobsons.  We found out that only Dee's great grandfather John Ellison left Hancock County with the Saints.  His parents and siblings all stayed and are buried just east of Nauvoo.  Then we found the site where another line had lived, also outside Nauvoo in Hancock County.  Since it was a sunny Sunday afternoon we decided to go exploring.

Not our kin, but
the village of Durham is in the background

Durham (Camp Creek) cemetery

Monument to the Ellison family

Matthew and Jane Ellison - parents who stayed 

The work week was not unusual.  We finished doing coleus cuttings.  Our new co-site director , Sister Rizley, joined us one morning.   They lived near Phoenix, and I mentioned that my college roommate had lived near Phoenix in Steven Spielburg's childhood home.  Sister Rizley, who is very animated and energetic, rose up out of her chair and exclaimed, "You know Mary Sanderson?  Mary Talmadge Sanderson!"  Their children had grown up together in the ward.  So I called Mary that afternoon and we did a lot of catching up.  We need to call more often and not talk so long.
Nauvoo is where people's paths cross.  Church members are very interconnected.
Sister Rizley loved her morning at FM so much that she redesigned her Wednesday night Site Training around what we do in FM.

We worked in the paint department one morning, sanding base molding for the Hunter home.  We had to move these boards three times.  They were heavy.

We had planned to go to Springfield to the Lincoln museum on Saturday, but the weather turned icy on us, so instead we did some packing - yes it is getting that close, and visited a quirky little museum we learned about at Untold Stories.  Don Black, a popular youth speaker in the 80s and 90s, has a hobby of collecting anything that has to do with Joseph Smith.  He collects things from the 1840s, and obtains copies of original items that people don't want to part with or are stored in the Church history department.  He even has a copy of a forgery by the infamous Mark Hoffman.  All of these items are displayed in a log cabin on Winchester Street.  I recommend that you visit it - but not on a cold day.  It was almost too cold to stay very long, but we endured and saw everything we could.  The items covered the walls from ceiling to floor, so somethings were too high and somethings were too low to see.  He needs a larger log cabin.

Saturday afternoon I took a walk.  The sky was filled with 5 or 6 flocks of geese, all honking and flying in different directions.  As they flew off, an eagle flew right in front of me just below the tree line.  I've never been that close to a flying eagle.  As I started up the hill, the full moon rose over the horizon.  I tried to take a picture, but my camera doesn't work in the cold.  When I finally warmed it up, I wasn't in a very picturesque spot to take a picture.  I will miss living in a rural park.

Snowdrops - first sign of spring.

My camera got cold so I had to wait until this view. 

I've mentioned before that Senior rules are a little different - well, a lot different - than young missionaries' rules. For example,  Saturday night we watched the most amazing and heart breaking game between Duke and Carolina.   The next time they play - in 4 weeks - we will be home to watch it.

Only 15 work days left.

Last two weeks of January

Another two week post.  This is getting to be the norm, isn't it.   The fact is, it's winter and things are slow.  Saturday we had a nice light fluffy, snow and everyone got out and shoveled.  Then it rained at night, and then froze.  So we woke up Sunday to a sheet of ice everywhere.  We went to the mission branch instead of Burlington. The sites closed on Martin Luther King day and the next day because of the ice.  When sites close, most of FM stay home as well.  A few went in to work on various projects, but we didn't.  We did have our district dinner and meeting on Monday, despite the ice.

Wednesday we had our first historic site training - formerly known as mission training.  Sister Rizely is co-director.  She taught us a PMG lesson about companionship evaluation.   She adapted it to our situation, since we are married to our companions.  President Rizley gave us a really interesting history lesson.  I hope that continues.

Publishing House - a warehouse on Water Street

1840 Book of Mormon

He told us the history of the publishing of the 1840 edition of the Book of Mormon - accomplished in the poverty of the Saints.






Thursday I woke up sick.  I stayed home Thursday and Friday.  Mostly I slept.   By Saturday night I was feeling almost good again, which was a good thing because we were assigned to talk in sacrament meeting on Sunday.  We spoke on fast offering and tithing - not the most stimulating subjects.

Sunday was Ann's birthday and the whole family actually got on Facetime at the same time.  We were invited to dinners at the Flanders, and then attended the Exodus fireside.  Different missionaries shared stories about their ancestors who had lived in Nauvoo.  Many of the stories were about the trials they faced in Nauvoo, but Dee actually told the story of David Cluff's tools.  A man came and offered to make him a new set of tools.  "I can't pay you."  "We will discuss that later."  For three weeks the man created a new set of tools for him.  As he was preparing to leave David expressed concern that he still couldn't pay him. " We can settle up the next time you see me. "  David's young son, Benjamin, watched the man walk down the road, but looked away for a second.  When he looked back there was no man.  Benjamin is Dee's great, great grandfather.  He recorded this story in the Cluff family history.

The Story Tellers

Elder Barrow relates the story his great great grandfather told.

Monday night the FM sisters gave the departing FM missionaries a Hamburger Dinner going away party.  The Schmidts leave next - then us!  The next day the Prettymans leave, and finally the Howards.  That takes us through March.  A big part of a Nauvoo mission is welcoming new missionaries and saying good-bye to departing missionaries.  It's gotten easier to say good-bye because these missionaries I will probably see again - maybe even soon.

And there is always plenty of food. 

Sister Schmidt tells one of her humorous stories

Howards, Schmidts, Barrows, and Prettymans on the hot seat.

Thursday Sister Bailey was sick.  We had another dinner, this time with the Cornwells, Jensens, and Greens.  The Cornwells came out with us, and so are leaving the same day as we are.  Sister Cornwell had some stored food she wanted to eat before we left, so invited us to help out.  Always glad to serve.

Friday the annual Untold Stories of Nauvoo conference began.  We didn't go last year, but this year there were some presentations we wanted to see.

Over 300,000 artifacts found at the Samuel Smith site. 

Saturday morning we began the day by cleaning the Stake Center.   Next was the Exodus Commemoration, remembering the pioneers who were forced to leave their City of Joseph and head out to the wilderness, where they would be able to build their community hopefully undisturbed by anyone.

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After Exodus we went to some more Untold Stories. 

And so ended two more weeks of our fast diminishing time in Nauvoo.