The Holy and the Ivory

Another week has gone by, which like most others, was spent in the temple doing the work to which we have been called.   All is the same - except for …

You might be aware that Becky was asked to be the director of the Temple Choir starting in November.  But, it’s hard to direct a choir when you can’t preview the music and it’s hard to do that if you don’t have access to a piano.  So… we looked at our little keyboard that we brought with us.  It is not a full length keyboard and it kind of sounds like a toy.  So… Becky started to look around … and … found this great offer on a full-length keyboard that sounds just like a real piano.    So…  Yeah, we bought it.  Becky is ecstatic!   She isn’t even complaining about all the items that didn’t come with it.  It didn’t come with a piano bench, or a stand to put it on, or ear-phones so she can play it in the apartment without disturbing the others in our apartment building.  But it did come with a sustain pedal.  It really does sound great.  Isn’t life wonderful?   By the way, we can use the stand that came with our old keyboard, we can use a regular hard-backed chair instead of a bench, and we can use some old ear-phones that we brought with us.    But the old stand is too high (even on its lowest setting) and it provides zero leg-room.  So she sits on two pillows some distance back from the keyboard.  The cord for the head-set is too short to be sitting so far back, so she leans way over and, in short time, her back hurts from the effort.  But she is not complaining; she loves her new keyboard!

Oh, we did have a pair of young sister missionaries come over for dinner the other night.  Their stay here in Nauvoo, is almost over, for a while.  The young missionaries here are now all sister missionaries.  They come on 18-month missions, spending a summer here and then they get transferred to other missions throughout the USA for the winter and then they come back to spend a second summer here in Nauvoo.  One of the two that came for dinner is preparing to go home in another week or two.  Her companion will soon be off to Virginia for the winter.  This is an interesting place for missionaries.  Performing missionaries come in for just 3-months.  The young sister missionaries are here akin to migrating birds.  And senior missionaries come in for 6, 12 or 18 month missions.  Our numbers vary from maybe 60 couples here in the winter to a couple hundred here in the summer - not to mention the young missionaries that join us for the summer months.

Serving in the temple

Last Thursday, our P-day, we were supposed to go to Springfield, Illinois to view museums, memorials, etc.  But we didn’t.  We didn’t feel good about leaving our shift early on Wednesday so we could get there at a reasonable hour.  We feel that other opportunities will make themselves available later on and we should really try to be in the temple when we ought to be – after all, that is why we were called to be here in the first place.

Of the five shifts that we are on each week, each shift coordinator tried to rotate us such that each gets an opportunity to officiate on a session about once a month on their shift.  This last week, we were asked to officiate three times, all on different shifts.  We probably won’t get the opportunity to officiate again for several weeks.  But we did enjoy this week.  The session we officiated on Saturday was filled and several had to be bumped when seats could not be made available for all that wanted to attend.  That was the third session that day to overflow!  I wish we could get a few of those that come on Saturdays to come in on a different day of the week.  The other days really suffer for lack of attendance.

We are the shift coordinators for the Wednesday afternoon shift.  We are starting to get the hang of what we are doing, but we are still novices with the challenges of it all.  Each week we create a new line assignment sheet that we hope will meet the needs of the patrons that come, based on the forecast (a list of the reservations made by patrons that want to attend that day).  For example, we only assign workers to the baptistery when we know patrons will be coming to do baptisms.  We also need to consider the ordinance worker’s individual needs and skills.  Some workers only come once or twice a month.  Illness, health issues, absences, and individual schedules (which change daily) all play into the challenge.  As some ordinance workers are also sealers, we need to be careful to always have one of them semi-available.   Currently we spend several hours a week creating the sheet for the upcoming Wednesday. 

Even after the sheet is distributed, we will then make adjustments as needed as patrons arrive that were not on the forecast [Although reservations are suggested, they are not required so we often get surprises].  Because attendance is generally down during this time of the year, we assign as many of the workers that we can to go as patrons on endowment sessions during the shift.  When doing this, we end up being really thinly spread -- and then we only hope we can still cover all the bases.  There may be times when a sealing session isn't scheduled but our workers are in initiatory instead (or the other way around).  Then, if patrons come to do sealings when we have no session scheduled for them, we can close down an initiatory booth and bring those workers up to be the sealer and witnesses for a sealing session. Or we may ask some workers to cover two (or more) bases so other workers can be made free.  It gets to be a bit of a game we play, but we do enjoy the challenge of it all.  We feel the help of the Holy Spirit directing us in this work, for which we are ever so grateful.

Our Constant Blessings

I was wondering when all that rain that the rest of you got would catch up with us here in the mid-west.  Well, today we finally got a little bit.  Not a lot, mind you, but what we got was much appreciated.  It has been a fairly dry summer, even for us.

Last p-day, we went on another tour.  This one took us along the Mormon pioneer trail in Iowa, through the first county (Lee County) they crossed through.  We started off in Montrose, or actually just north of Montrose where the wagons came up off the ferries (or off the ice) and up the bluff away from the river.  We saw where the miracle of the quail occurred.  We got to hold the “divining rods” that helps the historians today find the tracks of the wagon road, grave sites and foundations of homes built and since destroyed.  By car we climbed over the ridge as we left the Mississippi River and looked back over our shoulders, the same as the early Saints did, to see their last glimpse of the temple as they left.  We stopped and tried to map out the settlement of Zarahemla that housed the Saints on the Iowa side of the river (along with Montrose) during the Nauvoo era.  We followed the path (as close as modern roads would permit) to Sugar Creek, the first encampment along the trail for the Saints.  Then a ways further yet, to a site near where the second encampment would have been. At this time of the year, the land is dry and the terrain would be easy to cross even with horses or oxen and wagons.  The landscape is still green.  It is hard to imagine how it was when the Saints had to work so hard to pull their wagons through deep mud and ever descending rains over those same miles.  We were appalled by the number of graves that have been detected along the way.  Evidently there were a lot more deaths than that which has been reported.  Our guide thought that perhaps many infants may have perished without ever receiving a name – and therefore not becoming a statistic.  It is hard to say for sure.  The day was cause for much reflection as I considered how many of my ancestors may have walked that very “road” that we followed that day.  I am so thankful for them.  (I also appreciate modern transportation.)

The number of visitors to the temple are few these days.  On Wednesday, we didn’t have a single youth come to be baptized.  The other areas of the temple were pretty quiet as well.  On days like that, we often assign our temple workers to be patrons.  At least that way, a few ordinances are performed making our stay here of some worth.  Saturdays are, by far, the busiest day at the temple.  Yesterday we had two or three families come in from within the temple district to be sealed together for time and all eternity.  One consisted of parents and two teen-age children.  Another of two daughters, one age 26 and the other just 5.   And I thought our family had quite a spread!  This one was even more so.  There is always a special spirit that resides in the temple.  I am so glad to be able to be here and to work in such a sacred environment. 

We have made a lot of wonderful friend amongst the other temple missionaries assigned to be here.  In the short time that we have been here, our lives have been enriched so much through our association with them.  Our ‘family’ here has become quite close-knit.  We often share meals together, family-home-evenings together, tours together, etc.  It has been suggested that we come very close here to living the law of consecration.  Our housing is similar.  We all even sleep under the same rose colored comforters on our beds.  Our dinnerware is identical.  Even the same pictures hang on each of our walls – unless we replace them.  There will be many of the missionaries that we will come to miss when their time to leave arrives at the end of next month.  But in time, others will come to replace them and other associations will be created that will be just as meaningful.  We love the time that we are spending here.  It is so enriching, edifying and enjoyable. 

A Short Diversion

This week has been unusual, at least for couple missionaries like us.  We up and left the mission field.  Of course, we had permission from the temple president, who is our mission president.  We went to the Kansas City area for a couple of days.  We left on Friday and just got back a few minutes ago on this fine Sunday afternoon.  We went there to be with our granddaughter, Katie Brown, on her baptismal day.  Kansas City is about five hours away by car, but as the Browns live on this side of the City, we were able to make the trip in about 4 and ½ hours each way.  We attended Sacrament Meeting there as well before making the return trip back to Nauvoo.

For us it was a nice opportunity to have a quick break from the routine of temple work day in and day out.  We discovered that the chapel where the Browns meet is just across the street from the Kansas City temple.  We didn’t get to go inside, but it was nice to be in its shadow as pictures were taken there on her baptismal day.

This afternoon, we will be entering back into the Nauvoo temple to attend a meeting there.  It is so good to be able to be in the temple business.  There is such a wonderful feeling to be doing the Lord’s work in the sacred environment that exists in those marvelous buildings.

The work continues

Our week has been busy - learning to be the coordinators that they want us to be.  Like anything else it takes practice to learn new responsibilities and to step in and do them well.  We are expected to put out a line assignment sheet each week, juggling positions between the various workers in a way that will keep their work interesting but at the same time within each of their individual capabilities.  All positions need to be covered each hour of the shift.  Some workers need to leave early each day.  Others need frequent breaks.  Some are in training.  Some are needed as sealers.  Slow days, when there are not a lot of patrons, we need to assign the workers to go on sessions.  Creating the assignment sheet is challenging to maintain good coverage and flexibility as well.  This last week, I probably scrapped my efforts three or more times before coming up with something that I thought might work.  I am grateful that the other ordinance workers are patient with our efforts and willing to help in whatever way they can.

Last Monday, I also worked in the Call Center.  There I used the phones provided by the Mission to follow up on referrals made during the pageant.  First I would call the member making the referral.  Now that they are in their homes, they can provide us with the phone numbers of the non-members they want us to visit.  We then call the non-member to see if they are indeed interested in us sending missionaries in their direction and if so, to get their address.  I was asked to do this because the Spanish speaking proselyting missionaries that would normally do this have been transferred to other locations.  I am not much for talking on the phone - even less in Spanish.  But I was willing to give it a try.  There were a lot of "no body home"s  But I was able to get a few phone numbers of non-members and of those I found two at home.  Both were anxious to have the missionaries come by.  So I felt my time was well spent.