Our mission, our service, the pageant and our lives all continue on...

Today it was my turn. I got to stand in front of our Sunday School class and teach the lesson. I didn't get the participation that Becky got last week, but then the topic did not lend itself to a whole lot of participation. But I didn't get any tomatoes, so I get to live to see another day - for which I am grateful. I also got to pass the Sacrament and sing in a special musical number in Sacrament Meeting as well. We do get used. (Note: 12 “priests” and 24 “deacons” are used each week for the sacrament. The attendance in the Stake center overflows all the way to the very back of the cultural hall.)

Friday and Saturday we served in the temple as mentors for a couple that has just been called to serve here in Nauvoo. They are the Speaks from Kirksville, Mo. These good people have previously served in both the St. Louis Temple and in the Kansas City Temple. So our biggest efforts have been in helping them learn their way around the six floors of the Nauvoo Temple as well as how we do things here in Nauvoo. Things are always done just a little differently in every temple, and Nauvoo is no exception. The ordinances are the same, but procedures often vary to compensate for the layout of the building, etc. The Speaks are picking things up quickly.

The pageant continues. We still have one more week. I will be out there, reading the Spanish script on three of the five remaining performances. Last Wednesday, we had a bus load of 60 up from Mexico, and over 40 of them were using headsets to listen to the pageant in Spanish. I don't think I have the lines down quite as well as the cast that are up on stage, but I am getting fairly good at saying my part at the right time and within the same amount of time as the actors are taking and hopefully with the same emotion that they are portraying. Of course, the actors themselves don't always say the exact same words every time nor do they say them in the same way each time, but they're close – and we are becoming more flexible in our ability to keep with them. Each Sunday evening the core cast also puts on a fireside...each week in a different nearby town. Last week they were in Quincy, if I remember correctly. And tonight, they will be doing it on the pageant stage right here in Nauvoo. They entitle it “Our Story Goes On”. We look forward to being there.

Last Thursday I went to the county seat to get the last of the immunizations that were required for us as missionaries. It couldn't be taken until six months after the first of the series had been given. So kind of like the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum, I, too, went to Carthage and got shot. The difference being that I continue to live to tell the tale.

A time to celebrate

Today is our anniversary. Becky and I have now been married for all of 41 years. So far, it has been a great ride, and each day proves to be better than the previous. She has been all that I had ever hoped she would be and a whole world more. She keeps me on my toes, and I pray that she has some coat tails that I can hang onto when it comes to exaltation. She is amazing.

Today was Becky's turn to teach the Sunday School lesson. She did well, she got great participation and then lots of comments afterward. I'm sure that she was feeling a bit uncomfortable considering that we had an emeritus member of the Quorum of Seventy (Spencer P. Condie) in attendance. She can't recall ever teaching priesthood brethren before either. But she did well, in spite of her fears. Her topic was the Oath and Covenant that belongs to the Priesthood.

We went out to dinner last night in Burlington, IA (about 30 minutes to the north of us). We met there along with 11 other couples, all of which were or are currently serving as temple missionaries. It was kind of a missionary reunion for those that were here last year, and we only got invited to join them just because we knew one of the couples that got released last fall and had returned to attend the pageant. The restaurant was perhaps the nicest we have been in since we left home, and was appropriate for our anniversary celebration. But, it all came to a screeching halt for us when we had to hurry back to Nauvoo so I could help with the Spanish translation. We'll need to go back again when we have more time.

While we have been here, we have invested in a little art. On the way here we obtained a landscape painting done by our daughter, Kristy. While here, we have found pictures of the original Nauvoo temple as well as one of the reconstructed temple. Yesterday we purchased a picture of the Savior to adorn our apartment walls as well. After three months, our apartment is starting to feel a little bit more like home.

If we get released here in October, we are close to “hump” day. Six-month missions sure go by fast. It has been such an amazing opportunity to serve here in Nauvoo. We would never refuse the offer to extend for another year, if that turns out to be our fortune. The Spirit of the Lord is so strong here, especially in the temple – and also on the flats. The pageant (going on right now) doesn't hurt either. When I step in to help voice the pageant script in Spanish, one of the parts I present is that of the prophet Joseph. As a result, I get to recite his account of the first vision, and to read his testimony of having seen the Savior in the Kirtland Temple, as well as announce to the world some of the great gospel truths that came through revelations to him. Each time, I feel like I am baring my testimony of the Savior, of the prophet Joseph and of the truthfulness of the gospel. I suppose that with each effort, I am also putting more emotion into it – because others are now noting that they can feel my testimony as I speak, and I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to share in this manner.

Thanks for your visit !

There is nothing like a little company to brighten the heart. And we got just that when our daughter, Lia, and her family arrived here last Sunday night. They spent the next couple of days getting a pretty good taste of things to do while they were here in Nauvoo. They even got to attend the pageant on its opening night. And oh what a night! It was hot and it was muggy. We haven't had another night like it since. They also got to watch a little baby bunny hop down the aisle of the pageant, right in the middle of the performance, and crowds watching it at every turn. We can only assume that it eventually found its way to the rear where it could escape. It was never really in any harm, at least from us. But it was an item of enjoyment, like everything else that surrounds us here.

We went with them to a lot of what they did, at least on Monday, that we were able to get off by trading P-days with another couple at the temple. Lia also joined us in the temple on Tuesday where she was able to perform the baptisms for a few of the people whose names she brought with her.

I have been at the pageant every night this last week. At least at the beginning. I am part of the Spanish Translation team. I begged off from that on Tuesday (opening night) so I could be with family. But on the other nights, I could be found in a tent way off to the left, helping the Hispanics to enjoy the event as well. On Wednesday and Saturday nights, I was positioned at a microphone, reading the script in Spanish. For the first few nights, one of the pageant directors, came to the tent to hand us a new script for one of the scenes that kept changing with every performance. We would need to take the changes home with us, translate them into Spanish, and return the next night with new Spanish scripts to be read. Unfortunately, we were always a night behind - but it was the best we could do under the circumstances. We were happy on Friday and Saturday night when we didn't see the director bring us further changes.

The pageant continues for three more weeks – Tuesdays through Saturdays. At this rate, going to bed at eleven each night and trying to get up at 5 or 5:30 the next morning is already starting to take its toll. We take naps whenever we can work them in. Once the pageant is over, the crowds will diminish and as they leave, so will many of the missionaries that are currently here to work with them. But we will continue to enjoy the sun while it shines and we enjoy the purpose for which we are here as well.

This last week, I had opportunity to receive three sisters at the veil in French that had come from Tahiti. I also got to present a deaf brother at the veil. I am grateful for the training that I have received to be able to help out when needs such as these arise.

Our days of rehearsal are now over

Today, in Sacrament meeting, the group assembled occupied seats filling the entire chapel and recreation hall all the way back to the stage. The full cast for the pageant are here and others are coming as well to be here for the first performance that starts this coming Tuesday evening. Last evening, Main Street, here in Old Nauvoo, was crawling with people. All wanting to see the sites and feel the special spirit that resides here in Nauvoo. Gone are the geese, and deer. Either they have migrated to other climes or are hiding well beyond the view of the casual passer-by. Occasionally we see a rabbit or two on an early morning stroll. I haven't even seen as many squirrels as we used to. I guess summer is here, and with it, the population has shifted from the wild animals to the tame tourist. The wet and coolness that greeted us when we first arrived is now replaced with warm humid days. Fortunately the temple is air-conditioned (as is our apartment). Of course, we spend a lot of our time in the temple. There is no better place in Nauvoo than in the temple. And there are others that must think that as well, for our sessions are starting to fill up. For one session this last week, we had to bring in 16 extra chairs to accommodate everyone. (That is the most that fire marshals will permit, I think.) Those are the kind of problems that we like to deal with.

Most of the people that come are not from the immediate area. Most of them have traveled hundreds of miles to visit this little out-of-the-way historic site and to sense the special feelings that permeate those that come seeking them. Obviously, in the temple, we don't get a lot of opportunity to bear our testimonies to non-members. But when the pageant is here, we should be able to find many, not of our faith, who will have come to see the “Nauvoo Pageant”. In it, the actors will bare their own testimonies as they recite the testimonies of the people they represent. The words of the characters they represent are the very words that we would say ourselves and our testimonies and theirs become one. I have the opportunity to provide the Spanish for a few of the characters – and with it, that same opportunity becomes mine, to bare my testimony as I bare theirs – as I recite their lines. Perhaps I, more than many of the translators, am appreciative of this blessing since I will be providing the Spanish voice for the Prophet Joseph. I get to tell his (and now my) story of what he experienced in the Sacred Grove or when he saw God in the Kirtland Temple. I hope and pray that I will be able to give, through this “voice”, the Spirit that is needed to carry the proper message to the hearts of those who will be listening to the pageant in Spanish.

On the second of July, we attended a “Night with the Smiths”. Here, in a fireside type environment, we listened to a direct descendant of Joseph and Emma Smith tell the story of the Smith family after the saints left Nauvoo. Her perspective may be unique since she is one of the few of their descendants that are strong members of the Church. Her father is a member of one of the Mormon splinter churches and was quite anti-Mormon. So her conversion was also a story of its own that we enjoyed hearing from her.

The Fourth of July was kind of just another day at the office so to speak. The nearest parade that I was aware of was in Carthage, over 20 miles away. The nearest fireworks were in Keokuk, again several miles away. The temple was open all day, and there was a rehearsal for the pageant in the evening. Site missionaries were busy giving tours at each of the sites. Testimonies were born. The work of reclaiming God's children, both for the living and for the dead, went on at full pace – all day long. But the 4^th, was our “P” day. So we took opportunity to go to Carthage and tour the jail where the Prophet Joseph and his brother, Hyrum, were martyred. For those who remember the Bashaws, Sister Bashaw was our tour guide while we were there.