Week 22 Highlights

This week’s temple photo was taken from the roof of the Nauvoo Bank located just across the street from the southeast corner of the temple block. I happened to be in the bank, and happened to see the manager, and happened to ask if it would be possible for me to get access to the roof of the bank in order to take a picture. He was very agreeable and showed me how to get up there, and it turns out that anyone who knows where the stairs are, can just walk up on the roof. He then showed me the old ladder they keep up there that will allow a person to get up to the higher part of the roof. (That’s where I took the photo) Nice guy. I just may visit him again when there is a great sunset or something like that.

This past week the temple was still busy with lots of visitors coming each day and lots to do. It’s great to have the opportunity to work in all of the different locations in the temple and to be able to help with all sorts of different things. Yesterday there was a big group of young adults here from BYU Idaho. Some of them attended church with us this morning, but we didn’t have a chance to talk with any of them.

Last week’s Sunday Sociable was presented by Brother Gene Shurts and was about the building of the new Nauvoo Temple. One of his assignments that started late in 1999 was to come to the Nauvoo Temple building site every two weeks or less, and create a photographic record of the construction of the Temple. The only problem with that assignment was that he lived about 100 miles away. Nevertheless, he and his wife completed their assignment and created quite a pictorial record of the entire construction. Along with that assignment, he was also notified every time there was to be a visit by a member of the 1st presidency, or quorum member, so he was there when the cornerstones were dedicated, when the statue of the Angel Moroni was delivered, and then when it was put in place and a lot of other significant events during construction. I don’t remember how many photos he put in the final record, but obviously he only showed a small amount of them to us in his one-hour presentation. What a great assignment that would have been. It was a very interesting presentation.

This month’s Temple Missionary dinner was held this past Monday evening at the Adventure Zone just north of town. The Adventure Zone owner was kind enough to let us use his facility to eat and have our program. This is the place where they have been showing the movie “Emma” for the past few months. The evening started with a Burrito bar (Chicken or Beef) with all the trimmings. Then we moved into the “theater” room and had a fun program. In the photos, you’ll see all of us singing “Mine Hand on Mineself”, along with President Pierce. He did several songs, including “Great Big Hole in the Bottom of the Sea” and others. We again got to hear from the two accordion players (Alexander’s Ragtime Band and Lady of Spain). Following the musical portion of the evening, Three Amigos were chosen and each lead one third of the group to their respective pinata. All in all, a great evening.

Wednesday night was our assigned cleaning at the temple from 8:00 to 10:00pm. It was much better this time because we didn’t have to get up early the next day as we did the last time we cleaned. Mom and I volunteered to be vacuumers, so we were given our vacuums and sent up to the fourth floor to start and to work our way down. We were the only ones on the fourth floor, then down to the third floor while the other vacuumers started in the basement and worked their way up. It’s sure different to be there at night when there isn’t anything going on except our vacuuming. It took almost two hours to get the fourth and third floors completed, then when we were almost done, the guy in charge came by and said, “As soon as you finish with this room, meet me up on the fifth floor, and we’ll dust the tower.” We knew what that meant. We had been told that we would eventually get a chance to climb up into the tower before we left Nauvoo, but we didn’t know when it would be. We started up the spiral stairs and climbed and climbed. It turned out to only be 87 stairs, but it took us through four levels (see photo) until we could reach up and knock on the underside of the metallic dome. On level three we could look out and see the main street (Mulholland) down below with its dim streetlights and old-fashioned buildings looking like a toy town. It was quite an adventure.

This past week on our Thursday P-Day morning, Bishop and Sister Baugh (From Huntington Beach - A dentist and former bishop) dropped by to see us. It was quite a surprise. They were in St. Louis for his Dental School reunion, and so they decided to come to visit Nauvoo. They didn’t know we were here, but Wednesday evening as they were driving around town, they met the Cottles (Our downstairs neighbors) and when they told them they were from Huntington Beach, the Cottles asked if they knew the Scotts. It turns out that they went to school with our temple president and his wife and also knew a couple other Temple Missionary couples. We had a nice visit with them. When they get home, they are planning to turn in their mission papers.

We’re sure thankful to be here in Nauvoo and to be able to spend so much time in this beautiful temple. We hope that everything is going well with all of you.

All is well.

Love,

Granny & Grandpa / Mom & Dad