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.