March 6, 2015 - Friday

Sister Lasher and I had the late site schedule that goes from 11:45am to 5:00pm.  I went to the Seventies Hall that was shared with the Blacksmith Shop, and Sister Lasher went to the Schoolhouse.  We had about 30 visitors at the Blacksmith Shop and most came after 3:00pm.  Sister Lasher had two visitors.

I was very pleased with today's temperatures!  When we took our morning walk it was about 20 degrees but very comfortable.  During the day it warmed up to close to 45 degrees and melted the snow on our driveway.  I am sure looking forward to Spring weather!

Here are some pictures at the Seventies Hall;  They will and have actually had some meetings in this period building.  It was sold in 1846 to the Presbyterian Church and later sold to the Catholic Church.  Then it was turned into a school house and at the turn of the century about 1900, the building was torn down.  During the restoration of Nauvoo that began in the 1960's, it was rebuilt on the original foundation that was covered with about 2 feet of dirt.  The hall itself was re-built to the specs that were present in the 1840's.

The purpose of the Seventies Hall was to prepare missionaries to teach the Gospel.  From here they were sent to nearly every state and into Canada and Europe.  Over 3500 Seventies were called to teach during the Nauvoo years.

My Brethren.......

Seating for the classes was for about 75 or so.

Here is the outside of the Seventies Hall - take a look at the inscription at the top (Priesthood)

It was an interesting history of the beginnings of this building.  There was no money to build it, so those called as Seventies approached the Prophet Joseph Smith for permission to build.  He gave that approval providing they funded it themselves.  They went to work and made the bricks, traded for lumber and provided the labor.  In the early part of 1844, the west wall was up and a tornado came along one night and knocked the wall down and destroyed the flooring of the hall.  The brethren were about to give up on the project when Brigham Young told them that the reason the wall came down was because the devil was angry with them building this hall.  Brigham told them they needed to redouble their efforts and build the hall to defy the efforts of the adversary.  They did and added an additional row of bricks on that new outside west wall and the building was dedicated over a 5 day period in December 1844 to a very happy and determined group of men!

I also took this picture today:

Outside the Blacksmiths Shop

The Blacksmith wore many hats.  He was responsible for many things pertaining to his trade and this picture shows one of his tools that he used to put shoe on oxen.  Unlike the horse where you can lift the leg up and hold it between your knees to put on the shoe, when you lifted the oxen's leg, he would lay down.  This invention allow the oxen to come in and stand, and a belt was placed to lift the oxen just slightly off his feet, and the Blacksmith could then hold up his leg and place the fitted shoe on his hoof.

Here are some shots of mom at the schoolhouse.   Nauvoo had every industry in full swing and the school was an important part of the pioneers lifestyle!

The school room with benches and portable computers (chalkboard tablets!)

How would you like this special lady teaching you?

Well, I almost forgot......  We made our debut on stage tonight and the production went on even with mom and me participating.  My photos are too dark, but we did not have any speaking parts, just group singing parts.  It was designed to put us at ease and the purpose served us well.  Here are some photos that you can put action to ..... and a smile or two!

What can I say more.... a picture is worth .........?

We are pictured with Elder and Sister Jones - Sister Jones directs the play and they leave for home next month

Can you pick Elder Lasher out??  (2nd right from the poll)

How about Sister Lasher?  (2nd right from the poll - back row)

We wanted to take a picture with the Jones' here because she works so hard to make the play "Rendezvous" perfect every night.  She works with all three casts and you can only imagine what she goes through when someone calls in sick or doesn't pull their full weight.  She is one of the reasons we need to put our best efforts into everything we do here.  And, we want to make sure that our Father in Heaven is pleased with our efforts, so comfort zones have to be set aside!  Thus the smile and a little relief that our first show is done!

As you might be able to see, we debuted to a full house!  It was a beautiful spring-like day and we had visitors from all over the United States.  This was a good group of people and they even clapped for our performance!

Now, back to singing and dancing and acting on Tuesday and Friday for the balance of March.  We should get this down by January 2017, don't you think?  (Bishop and Sister Call would be so proud!)