School starts soon; the crowds are gone. Nauvoo is returning to what it was when we first got here. Kind of… When we got here back in April, the tree branches were bare; no leaves and no flowers or fruit. We have watched as spring sprang into being. We watched leaf buds open and block our view beyond. We watched the wild animals as they scurried about everywhere. We watched the river current as it carried its muddy water downstream. Today, the leaves are still on the trees, the wildlife is still out there and the river continues to flow down its designated course. But the leaves aren’t all deep green any more. A few are starting to turn pale, while others have gone yellow or red. Not many, mind you, but a few are starting to let us wonder what the autumn is going to look like when it arrives in all its glory here in Nauvoo. This last week we saw deer about on two different days. The geese are starting to come back after their summer vacation to the north. Perhaps they were hiding deep while the people populated the streets so heavily last month. And the river? Well, its shoals are lined for hundreds of feet out … with lily pads – all in full bloom. It is indeed breathtaking to look out over the banks and wonder how Huck Finn could get his raft beyond the array of flowers and pads to get to the flow beyond.
Monday, we went across the river (by car) to Montrose to clean a Church historical site showing to where the Saints crossed when in exodus from Nauvoo. We were close to where the miracle of the quail occurred in 1846. We were also close to where the prophet’s red hanky was used to heal so many that were suffering from malaria and the like in the early days of the Saint’s reprieve in 1839. Such a marvelous view of the temple! It now stands as a monument of the dedication and hard labor that the Saints exerted to build that font of blessings and strength. Of course, the temple we see today is not the same building that they built in the 1840’s, but it looks just like it and sits in the very same location. It also provides the same function that the original temple bequeathed years ago. There on the Iowa side of the river, we saw what the saints would have seen as they turned about to see their beloved temple for the last time before turning their wagons westward to cross to some place somewhere out west where religious freedom could be assured. Our sympathy for the early Saints increased as we stood where they stood looking beyond the Mississippi River to the house of God where He had endowed his flock with the power, knowledge and understanding that they would need before embarking on their trek westward. But unlike them, when our work there was done, we could return to Nauvoo, unmolested by the persecutions that drove them out years ago.
Our callings as assistant baptistery coordinators on Tuesday afternoons will be short lived. We have already been asked to train our replacements. At the same time, we are being trained for our new callings as shift coordinators on the Wednesday afternoon shift. That calling may also be short lived since in November, the temple will fall into its winter schedule, cutting back half of its shifts. We don’t know yet if we will be requested to continue on when the two Wednesday shifts are combined.
As many of you may know, the Church is now providing a new film in the temple. Because we only start sessions here once every hour, and we progress from room to room, the longer film (by 12 minutes) does not affect the schedule of sessions per se. But what it does do, is require that our ordinance workers be available to work at the veil later in the hour. That may cause grief if they can’t get to their next assignments on time - especially if sessions do not start on time. We will see what happens when we start showing the new film for the first time this coming Tuesday. What a challenge ... especially for us as we become new shift coordinators at the same time!
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