April 1, 2015 - Wednesday

The days and weeks and now the months are flying by.  Does anyone else notice?  Here it is, April 2015, and Easter Sunday is coming this week and General Conference falls on Easter... it doesn't get any better than this!  I know that we will hear a lot about #BecauseHeLives, the Church initiative that is rolling out worldwide on HeLives.mormon.org.  It began on Saturday March 28, 2015, and will be going through December 2015.  Perhaps the biggest news is the U-Tube exposure on Easter Sunday.  For every hit anywhere in the world on U-Tube, the Church will have a message about this initiative.  It was introduced in every mission of the Church last week and the excitement is growing!

We began our day with an early morning meeting at the Visitor's Center in Nauvoo.  Our weekly meeting began at 7:45am and we must have had half the mission couples out sick.  That would be about 80 people!  Some of our social activities have been postponed to give some time to recuperate for these missionaries.  The mission doctor has been among the sick!  We introduced the sanitizer to him when we arrived here in the mission, and today we asked him if he was using the bottle we gave him.... his answer was no!  We're going to get that bottle back and keep using our sanitizer!  We have avoided missing any days or meetings because of sickness.  Must be something to that sanitizer...

The we attended the 10:00am Nauvoo Temple session.  There were about 20 people in the session.  We then stopped by Robert at the Nauvoo barber shop and both mom and I got haircuts.  He was a favorite of Wayne and Mary Call and he sends his greetings to them!  He is a wealth of information about the happenings and the people in Nauvoo!  We have enjoyed getting to know him!  He also works security at the temple on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays.  Apparently there are some nuts in the area that try to compromise the temple and the temple grounds.

Then we went to Keokuk for some milk and a few grocery items.  Milk at the Aldi's store in Keokuk is $1.89 per gallon.  At Wal-Mart across the street it is $3.69.  This discrepancy has been like this since we got here, and Aldi's has all the basic items we need! Jared how about .49 for large cucumbers and .39 for beautiful green or red bell peppers?  Even .49 for a large head of lettuce. 

When we got home I decided to show a few favorite rooms in the home we are in.  This is a very large and comfortable home that is begging for visitors!!  Take a look at these pictures;

Here is our shower stall.  It has shelves on both ends of the shower to hold shampoos and conditioners, wash rags, soap, razors, and there is still more shelving space!  It is extra wide measuring 30 inches wide by 60 inches long.  The shower head is over 7 feet off the floor and it is the full spray shower head.  Mom and I like this shower!

 Here is a look at the office space from two different angles.  And there is a large closet in this room that holds all of our winter jackets and another closet next to it with multiple floor to ceiling shelves.  We can't possible use all this space but it is very comfortable indeed.  The windows open on two walls and let in a ton of light.  It is a very nice work area.

Grandpas "man cave" in this second full size bedroom!  My favorite T-shirt came along with us to Nauvoo!

In the "man-cave", we have the dressing area for Grandpa.  It is right off the main bathroom and has the queen size bed in the room.  There is also a window in here that lets in a lot of light and gives us a look at the front doors of the visitor's center.

And finally in the two pictures below, there is Granny and Grandpa's room with the half bathroom just off the room.  It is a huge bedroom probably as large as our bedroom back home.

Then, this afternoon, mom and I drove into Nauvoo for our Rendezvous Play.  We got there early and because of sickness they gave me two additional speaking parts.  They were short and I didn't butcher them up too much.  In a scene with the Elders discussing leaving Nauvoo, there was a cute question in the play; "Are any of you married?"  My part came in: "I'm not, but I can take orders if that is what you mean!" (deadpan serious)  As I understand it, this is a coveted part for obvious reasons - short and oh, sooooo funny for this part of the play.  Another one was just a straight line; "Brother Brigham would know what to do if he were here".....

I have to be truthful, this is such an adrenalin rush for me and I do not like being on stage.  Getting out of your comfort zone is definitely uncomfortable... ask my soak-n-wet white pioneer shirt!  You can imagine the playful kidding that goes on between the missionaries that is so much fun!

And finally, I stayed after the show to review my part for this summers version of Rendezvous.  I play the part of a father talking to his son who is in love with a girl named Marie.  Both my son and Marie are part of the young performers from BYU and I understand they are a tremendous hit with unlimited energy.  All the men are telling me this is one of the funniest and favorite parts of the summer version of the show.  I can see that potential as I read the script to the directors.

I promise, seeing me on stage will be worth the admission and you will have lifetime teasing rights, so you won't want to miss this show!  It starts Memorial Day weekend and goes through the middle of August.

Thank you for checking in with me tonight.  I love doing the blog and I hope you have fun reading it!  Have a great evening!   We love you!