Week 24 Highlights

Well, we can see the decrease each week in temple attendance. There are fewer and fewer visitors from other states and countries and the "Locals" make up more of the small sessions each day. By "Local", we mean those who live in the Nauvoo Temple district, even though it can mean a three-hour drive for them. We've started recognizing them and it's good to see them come and attend the temple. This past week Mom & I again got to help in Spanish. When we came to Nauvoo, we didn't think we would have any chance to do that, so it has been a real pleasant surprise.

This past Monday, for Family Home Evening, Brother Pierce, a Temple Missionary, gave a slide presentation and spoke about the building of the new Nauvoo Temple. Brother Pierce is a carpenter who volunteered his time during the construction of the temple and was assigned to do the finish carpentry work in one of the sealing rooms. He talked about the con- struction of the temple from the time of the announce- ment until the completion. What made it even more interesting was that he took a lot of photos during the con- struction, and in addition, he had also collected many pictures of the old Nauvoo Temple and combined many of those photos with excerpts from journals of the saints who lived at that time. He did a real good job - very interesting. And a pumpkin crumb cake/strudel thing for dessert. Yum!

On Wednesday, we made a discovery. We found that Brother Cottle (our downstairs neighbor) and Brother White (our other downstairs neighbor) have birthdays on October 2nd and October 4th. With my birthday on October 3rd, it gave us plenty of excuse to go out for a grand birthday dinner. We went to the buffet at the Nauvoo Hotel. It is a great buffet with lots of yummy food and, of course, the famous Nauvoo Hotel Cinnamon rolls. (I only had two this time) After dinner, they brought each of us a little birthday cake, still warm from the oven and sang "Happy Birthday". We had a great time and got home somewhat late. Fortunately, our P-day was the next day. Unfortunately, the Cottles work the morning shift on Thursday.

On our P-day, we went to Quincy. Our first stop was at TCBY. This was the first frozen yogurt shop we have found since we came to the Midwest. It was most delicious. Then we took a long look through the Quincy Mall. Again. After that, we drove to downtown Quincy and ate at the Patio Restaurant, located in the old Elkton Hotel. It was surprisingly nice and very good food. I ordered the restaurant's specialty - the 2-inch thick pork chop. To keep it healthy, I had steak fries with it. Mom had the salmon and everything tasted great. They also have a pasta bar that looked very good. Maybe next time.

After dinner, we walked the few blocks back to the Oakley-Lindsay Center for a play. They have a VERY nice theater where we saw "Death Takes a Holiday". The original play was in Italian, then it was translated into English and played on Broadway and in 1934 it was made into a movie. In 2002, it was again made into a movie under the name of "Meet Joe Black" starring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins. In all of these productions, Death is played by a man, but in the Quincy Community Theater version, it was played by a woman. It was quite good, and we enjoyed it very much.

At 7:30am on Friday morning, we had the assignment to work on the temple grounds. You never know what to expect when you have this assignment. Last time we had a two-hour weeding assignment. This time we were asked to move a whole bunch of pansies from a deck in the shade, where they were delivered, to some tables in the sun. Not a difficult assignment, but there sure were a lot of them. After that, we replaced the trash bags in the trashcans on the temple grounds, then picked up several barrels of clippings and dumped them in the trash trailer. By the time our two hours were over, it had warmed up to 59 degrees. Yup, it feels like fall.

Saturday, between the 2nd session of conference and the Priesthood Meeting, the local Catholic Church was having a fund-raising dinner - their annual "Taco Supper". A few of us got together to attend, and when we got there, it almost looked like a Temple Missionary social. During the time we were eating, there were approx. 25 couples sitting in their "Cultural Hall". It was the first Midwest Catholic Taco Supper we have ever had. The big Nauvoo Catholic Chapel is located between the Nauvoo Temple and the Nauvoo Stake Center. (See the Catholic Chapel on the left in the aerial photo) It is quite a beautiful, historic brick building that was completed around 1848 -the same year that the original Nauvoo Temple was burned. (No connection)

Well, thus ends another marvelous week in beautiful, historic Nauvoo.

Thanks again for all of your e-mails, notes, cards, and letters.

All is well.

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