Week 8 Highlights

This week started out (weather -wise) the same as last week, except that last week our electricity was out when we got home from our Sunday fireside, and we got to play “Nauvoo in the 1840s” with no lights except for our candles .... and our little LED flashlight. The power was out until sometime during the night when we were fast asleep, and was back to normal by the next morning.

The fireside was very interesting with Rod Meldrum talking about the latest DNA testing results. It seems that a few years ago, some anti-Mormon folks produced a DVD that reported on the DNA research on American Indians and showed that the only known link to the American Indians was to the Asian population, proving that all of the Indians came across the “Land Bridge” from Asia. Well, it turns out that they published their findings a couple of years too soon. After their DVD, the same DNA researchers were invited to Europe, where a similar study was going on. Working together, they found that there are groups of American Indians who have the same DNA origins as a very small group of people who live and lived in an area around Israel. There is a whole bunch more technical stuff to go with it, but it is pretty amazing.

While we were there, a big electrical storm came in and knocked out a lot of power in Nauvoo. (Here's a photo of our house with a storm coming in)

Monday evening we went to a presentation by Susan Eastman Black at the Visitor’s Center auditorium. She spoke about John Taylor. She said that it was during her research on John Taylor that her son was born, and she was so impressed with John Taylor, that she named her son John. I thought at the time that I’m sure her son was happy that she wasn’t studying about Philo Dibble. She is an amazing speaker, who is very popular at BYU Education Week and Women’s Conference. All of these firesides and presentations are always held to one hour. Nice.

There are a bunch of young men and women called to serve in Nauvoo each summer for 4 months – from May to August. They are called the Young Performing Missionaries. They do the stage plays and musical productions all over Nauvoo during the summer. The lady in charge of the performances is Sis. Davis, a VERY talented lady who happens to be 82 years old. She had a fireside Tuesday evening where she and her friend (a very talented pianist) performed. The program lasted the usual one hour, and she was up in front at the microphone singing and talking the entire time. It was a VERY good stand-up comic/singer program. She wrote most of the material, and did imitations and material about life after 70 and all sorts of things. She did a “Remember when” segment that included a lot of old radio programs and radio commercials. For most of that part, her Young Performing Missionaries just sat and stared as all the old folks joined in singing the radio jingles. It was very fun. I guess you had to be there. (I guess you had to be OLD and be there)

Have you heard of the movie about Emma Smith? It has been in some theatres in California and a LOT of theatres in Utah and Idaho. On Wednesday, we were invited to the showing of this movie at the Fun Zone just out of town. The Executive Producer for the Movie, David Kennedy, was there to introduce the movie, and several of the consultants who assisted in the research, as well as several families who are direct descendents of Joseph and Emma Smith. It is a very good movie concerning the time that Emma and Joseph were married as told from Emma’s point of view. It is a Very interesting movie, and very well done.

By the way, the Fun Zone is a FUN Zone. It has go-carts, an indoor play zone, pizza and other great food, and all sorts of games, somewhat like Chucky Cheese. Somewhat.

Because we had a trip planned for our day off (Thursday), we did our washing, cleaning and shopping on Wednesday (Before the movie and after our Temple shift). (We are on the a.m. shift on Wednesdays, so we had time after) Well, as it turns out, the weather wasn’t cooperating. North of us there have been some serious storms and you may have heard on the news, the Mississippi River (The word “Mississippi” is fun to type) is rising, causing some problems in Iowa. Illinois has built 8-foot levees along the problem areas, and Iowa has built 4-foot levees. Guess where the water is going? Most of the bridges are ok, but many of the roads going to and from the bridges are under water. We decided that rather than take any chances, we would postpone our trip until next Thursday. It is now Sunday, and we still don’t know if we will be going this coming week. It mostly depends on the severity of the storm that is here today.

So instead of our trip, we just stayed around home and walked to a couple of Nauvoo sites:

The Seventies Hall:

This hall was the Church’s first MTC. It is here that the first missionaries learned gospel principles and missionary skills. From here, they were sent to every state in the US, to the Indians, to Canada, Europe, Palestine and the Pacific Isles. This hall was also used for lectures, offices, a school, a library and on the second floor, they had a museum. We’ve included a photo of the meeting hall on the bottom floor. On the 2^nd floor, there is STILL a museum. Very interesting.

Brigham Young’s home

While Brigham Young was on his mission to England, his wife moved from their home in Montrose, across the Mississippi River to Nauvoo. It was an unfinished log home, but when Brigham came back from his mission, he built this home. You can easily see that Brigham was an accomplished carpenter. When the archeologists excavated the Young’s root cellar, they found some of Sister Young’s china. They lived here with their children until they moved west. During the tour of this home, they read a letter that Brigham’s wife wrote to him, telling him of Joseph Smith’s death.

High Hopes and Riverboats

This is a one-hour musical production performed by the Young Performing Missionaries twice a day. (Then they do “Sunset on the Mississippi” every evening and Anna Amanda in between) It is a great production about life in Nauvoo in the 1840s.

With all of our activities, we still had time to do the work we were called here to do. We LOVE serving in the Nauvoo temple every day. It was a good week and we had the opportunity to be guides to a couple who came here to be married. That is always a highlight.

Every second Friday there is an extra session held at 7:00pm, and this month mom and I got to officiate. Because of the problems with the river, attendance wasn’t up to what was expected, but it still was very nice.

Saturday night, after our shift, we went to the Nauvoo Hotel for dinner for Father’s day. We’ve already mentioned that they have a great buffet and salad bar. And the cinnamon rolls are worth the price of the entire dinner. (Mom made me eat TWO of them)

I guess that’s about it for this week. We are thankful that we are here and able to serve in this temple at this time.

All is well.

We love you all,
Mom & Dad / Granny & Grandpa