A week of training

The new missionaries arrived on the 18^th.  Since then we have been busy helping them settle in and then train them so that when the temple re-opens, the work can continue smoothly and efficiently. We have had all of them come to our various apartments so that we can feed them and get to know them two at a time.  My problem now is remembering who is who as we are becoming friends with about 40 new couples.

Training started with a tour of the temple.  Tours are normally not given, but these people need to be able to get from point A to point B without ending up in a dressing room for the wrong gender, etc.  With a temple that is laid out on six floors it is easy to forget which floor you need to be on.  Then, private (or closed) endowment sessions were provided so they could watch the way it is done in this temple.  Training films were also shown, not that they hadn’t already seen them a million times, but we just wanted to make sure that we all started off with the same instruction.  With permission from the First Presidency, we were allowed to meet in the Assembly Room during our training week.  There we listened as each of the temple presidency members, their wives and the recorder talked to us all – trying to answer questions that might arise and help each to feel comfortable in their new callings.  We ended with a special meeting where snippets were replicated from the ground-breaking, corner-stone laying and dedication of the temple (NAUV2) – including the dedicatory prayer.  As I recall, something similar was done last year using snippets from the multiple dedications of the original temple here in Nauvoo.

Starting this last Sunday, we were all sent out to help the many wards and branches in the temple district: to be with them and to strengthen them as best we can.  We were sent out to be part of the Mt. Pleasant Iowa branch.  It is about an hour’s drive from Nauvoo.  Of course, Sunday was a day that was predicted to bring with it a lot of thunder storms and rain and even possible tornados.  But when the time came for us to leave, the weather looked reasonable - so we headed off to enjoy some time with the Mt. Pleasant branch.  It started to sprinkle just a little before we arrived home later that day.  So for us the weather was good – until that night when the thunder and lightning suggested a war in the heavens was waging in all its fury.  But we will be returning every week to attend meeting with the branch there and see what we can do to help out.   This branch is actually the combination of two smaller branches – a Spanish speaking branch having been assimilated in with the English speaking branch.  Now, as we arrive, we find that all but two of the Spanish speaking families have gone inactive and perhaps there is a lot that we can do to try and reclaim these other families that aren’t coming any more.  We are not alone.  Two other temple missionary couples are also assigned to come with us.  One of the other couples also speak some Spanish.  Pray for our success.

The historic sites in Missouri

Oh, how time slips by … so quickly.  I was going to write two days ago, and then yesterday … and now, I wonder how it got to be today, with still nothing written.  It isn’t that I have nothing to write about.  There is plenty.  Perhaps, I just don’t know how to condense it all into something that is still meaningful and conveys the feelings that were there as we experienced what we did over the last week.

With the Nauvoo temple closed, we felt pretty useless for the first couple of days.  After all, that is why we are here – to work in the temple.  We didn’t have a lot of days to take advantage of – really only a week.  That’s not long enough to go back to Utah, or even to visit Kirtland or Palmyra.  So we chose to just do a two day tour with a local brother here.  He took us, along with five other temple missionary couples and we went to visit some of the church historical sites in Missouri.  He owns his own bus that seats a dozen passengers and off we went – about three and a half hours out to Adam-Ondi-Ahman.  We didn’t see anything that we hadn’t seen before, but we got to hear what and where events took place there that we had missed before as there are no missionaries there to explain anything nor are there any signs to explain any of it.  It was nice to get the inside scoop.  It was cold and windy; that hadn’t changed from when we had been there before.  But now we know where the altar stood where Adam offered up his morning prayers.  We stood on “preacher’s rock”.  We listened as others whispered a football’s field away and could understand all that was said.  And we reviewed the prophecies of upcoming events yet to occur there.  We followed that up with stops in Gallatin, Far West, Richmond, and Liberty.  We saw where the jail was where Joseph stood in majesty when he rebuked the guards in Richmond.  We saw the “temple-prison” or the jail where the prophet remained for four months through the dead of winter in Liberty.  On the way from Gallatin to Liberty, we also drove within a short distance of where the battle of Crooked River occurred and the location on Fishing River where Zion’s Camp was miraculously preserved and again where many of their group died of Cholera.  We were able to arrange for our daughter, Kristy and her family, who live in the area, to dine with us at Liberty. Over all it was a delightful day.  The next day we went to Independence, where we sought out the markers indicating where the corners of the main temple will someday be built and we also went to the visitor’s centers in the area.  We saw where Gov. Boggs was living when an attempt was made on his life.  Then we headed back to Liberty where we attended the Kansas City Temple before heading back home. 

We needed to hurry back as the new missionaries were to arrive on Friday.  Now, this week, we will be helping to train them and be ready to re-open the temple next week.  More on that next time.

Nauvoo is coming back to life

The wind is blowing; the air is cold; snow has been falling and will likely do so a bit more before the day is over.  Yesterday we enjoyed 80 degree temperatures.  Spring is fickle.  But there is hope.  Many of the magnolia trees in the area are starting to bloom.  A few daffodils have been brave enough to produce a bloom or two.  The tulips are hopefully not too far behind.  The rest of the trees still have no leaves or buds – except for those that are still hanging onto their dead leaves from last year.  But the sun has been out; the fields of grass have turned green again; and the NRI have recently completed their first pass at mowing the grass.  Again we have seen the bunny rabbits and even a turtle or two.  The birds have been around a plenty, as have the squirrels.  These have been chasing each other all over, up and down trees, back and forth all over the fields – they are really a lot of fun to watch.

The activity at the temple had also picked up with many sessions that were close to being full.  We had even provided a few extra sessions to accommodate those that could not make the regular sessions.  Saturday we had several weddings and families coming to be sealed together forever.  But then Saturday was the end of it.  The temple locked its doors that night – not to reopen to the public for two full weeks.  I suppose many were coming realizing that they would not have another opportunity again until the temple reopens.

Every fall, the young sister proselyting missionaries are reassigned to other missions during the long winter months.  This last week they returned to Nauvoo.  When we meet for Sacrament Meetings each Sunday, they are invited to sit in the choir seats – all sixteen of them.  Yesterday, they also had four of them speak to us giving examples of how the atonement of Christ has helped individuals they had worked with during this last winter.  They bring a lot of wonderful spirit into our meetings – if not YOUTH – which we definitely lack through the winter.  We are so happy they are back.  The number of site missionaries is also increasing.  They are gearing up for the promise of lots of visitors here during the summer months.  Yet to arrive are the new temple missionaries and the performing missionaries.  Give them time, Nauvoo is coming back to life.

We are ready for a break

General Conference was just what we needed.  There were so many wonderful talks given, many of which hit upon subjects that seemed to be directed right at us.  Oh, how we need the direction and council that comes at each of these conferences.  Sometimes, it is the whole talk, and sometimes it is just a hint – a side comment – that seems to have been put in just for our benefit.  Either way, the holy spirit is there driving it in and telling us just what we need to do with it to make our lives better and to bring us closer to being like our Father.

We are almost to our maintenance closure.  The temple closes for a couple of weeks twice a year for maintenance.  During the time that is closed, we are free to do whatever until it re-opens – more or less.  We can’t leave the temple district without permission from the temple president – but that is fairly easily obtainable.  Also, midway through this closure, our re-enforcement missionaries will be arriving and we need to be here when they do, so we can help them settle in and train them to be ready to go when the temple re-opens the following week.  So we won’t go far.  We have planned to go on a two-day tour with a tour guide to Adam-Ondi-Ahman, Far West and Liberty.  On it, we will also have opportunity to attend the temple in Kansas City.  We look forward to the break.  We also hope that while being in the Kansas City area, we will be able to hook up with our daughter, Kristy, and her family who live in that area.

A year ago, the re-enforcement missionaries that arrived included us.  We will have been here a whole year.  And that also means that in just two weeks, we only have six months left before our mission will conclude.  The mission seems to be slipping past so quickly. 

After having been here for a full year, we can better visualize our local friends and how life is for them year round.  That helps us to better understand their needs and their wants.  We see them coming to the temple often, some every week – at least during the summer.  During the winter, many can come only when the weather permits – as we have seen how controlling the winter storms can be on the ability to go from place to place.  We wonder how the early saints ever survived the winters here – not having the conveniences that we enjoy today.  We remember the families that were required to leave Missouri in the dead of winter with nothing but what they could carry in their arms and again when they left Nauvoo, again in the dead of winter, only having what would fit in a wagon, and travelling on foot through mud, ice and freezing rain.  Spring time around here is really wet.  We know. We’ve been here through it.  It can be pretty miserable when you have to be out in it.

Early Spring

Things are slowly waking up.  Last week several new site missionaries arrived.  Now, all the missionaries currently assigned to be here along with a few local members can pretty much fill the west theatre at the visitor’s center (as we pretty much did last night).  There we had a sociable where we got to see the film “Ephraim’s Rescue”, followed and preceded by some words by one of the actors that was seen in that film.  Afterwards he entertained some questions including one about how they filmed the scene with the rattle snake.  He explained that after it was learned that a snake can be – defanged – at least until they grow back in a few days (weeks?) later, they had their fun trying to shoot that scene.  Although we only get to see a few minutes of what took place in the film, he claimed it took over five hours to shoot that scene. 

Things continue to get a bit warmer – from time to time.  We still see sub-freezing weather almost every night, we also get to see the temperature climb modestly into the fifties on a frequent basis.  Today, it may have even hit the sixties!  Except for the magnolia trees that are about, we haven’t seen many buds on any of the trees yet.  The branches are still void of all leaves and the birds have few places to hide.  Oh well, I guess this is early spring.  It gives a different view of what it must have been like when Joseph enter the grove of trees “early in the spring” of 1820.  I usually don’t imagine it as being as I see the groves around here: bare and lifeless – but I suppose that that may have been the way it was.

We enjoyed the women’s conference Saturday night and look forward to the General Conference sessions that will transpire next week-end.  Almost a year ago, shortly after conference, we left to come on this mission.  As we drove across the plains, we listened anew to several of the conference sessions that we had down-loaded for that purpose.  I suppose, for Becky, it wasn’t really “anew” but rather for the first time, since she missed the conference being en route on her trip to Taiwan last year.  This year promises to be a much more relaxed occasion. 

The elder and sister that has been providing us with so many wonderful pictures over the last year is due to be released and to go home in another couple of weeks.  We will miss his daily images sent to us showing so many beautiful aspects of this area.  We will need to find another to do the same.  Or maybe we will need to break out our camera and actually get a few pictures with us in it to prove that we have been here.  But our camera is not the greatest – perhaps we will wait until summer when many of our children plan to come here for a reunion.  I hope they bring their cameras with them.