Our Nauvoo Blog of Awesomeness: Week 18 Highlights

It’s great to be able to start each week serving in the Temple. With fewer patrons, we have more of an opportunity to participate as patrons ourselves. This past week in addition to our regular duties, we officiated in two sessions and served as patrons in two sessions. It is still amazing to be here in this historic temple every day and to have the opportunity to serve. And we’re able to do this because you are all helping with all the stuff at home, allowing us to concentrate on our Temple Missionary work. We love and appreciate all of you for what you are doing. Thanks again!

This past week 40 site missionaries, all of the performing missionaries and all of the band went home, leaving Nauvoo a bit quiet. We got to Church about the same time as usual and actually got to sit in the chapel. Yahoo! It will be like this until next spring, with the daily visitors decreasing each week.

We were still able to attend three more Vocal Point shows before they left. One was last Sunday when they did a show on the Visitor’s Center Stage where they took turns sharing with us their favorite hymns, then sang a verse or two, having the audience join them on the last verse of each song. It was a VERY good show. The next one was on the outside stage, and was a fun energetic, entertaining show. We were amazed how many bugs there were at the show. Mom and I got many mosquito bites on our hands that have been driving us crazy for the past few days. The third show was another entertainment show, but they moved back into the Visitor’s Center Stage because of problems with the bugs. We really enjoyed them, but now they, too have left and gone home.

This week it was time to have our monthly dinner with our apartment neighbors. Although we see them almost every day, we are usually going in different directions with our different schedules, so it is always good to get together for a little relaxing, fun time. It was our turn to host and we had my favorite dinner of all time – Mom’s chicken enchiladas and corn on the cob. There was also a tomato/cucumber salad, rolls and other vegetables. Yum.

Well, it is official. We are now authentic Illinois residents. On our way back from Ft. Madison this past week, we got barged. That is the term they use here for when you are trying to cross the Mississippi river, but get stuck on the bridge while it opens to let a barge go by. The Ft. Madison Bridge has a section in the middle of it that turns 90 degrees to let the barges go by while those who have already started onto the bridge have to sit and wait. This was our first time getting barged and not only did we get to wait for one large barge, but also, another barge was approaching the bridge from quite a distance down river, and they left the bridge open for that one, too. In all, the wait was about 45 minutes. Because the bridge is quite narrow (one lane in each direction) once you are on the bridge, you are not allowed to make a U-turn to get off of the bridge. This gives everyone time to turn off their cars, get out, walk down to the section that is open, look up and down the river, and try to determine how long it is going to take. We talked to a couple of families who were on their way to Nauvoo, so we were able to give them some advice on what to see and where to start when they got there. Everyone we saw and talked to seemed fine with the wait – no one was complaining. When the bridge finally turned back so we could cross, they waived everyone past the tollbooth without having to pay. Saved us $1.00. In the photo, the part of the bridge that shows on the other side of the barge is the part of the bridge that will turn back in line with the rest of the bridge so we can continue across to Illinois.

Sister Susan Eastman Black was getting ready to return to BYU for the coming semester, so they scheduled another Sunday Sociable with her as the speaker. She surprised us with a talk about Christmas. As she started, she said that she hoped that she would be able to get to the part where Christ was born before her time ran out. It was a very interesting talk with some great details about everything from the time of Mary and Joseph’s betrothal until finally at the conclusion, finishing with the birth of Christ. It was VERY informative and many times we were reminded of the “Savior of the World” production. She is a very good speaker – very at-ease and always speaks without notes.