April 11, 2015 - Saturday

The guests coming to the visitors center are shrinking as the Spring Break comes to a close.  Typically, we have been told, there is a quiet period right before the summer season shifts into full gear.  Today, we saw that slight shift to fewer guests.  However, the groups came steady this morning and early afternoon and then we had almost two hours with no visitors.

After our morning devotional, we took a walk around the town and then parted ways.  Mom went to the jail to do the daily cleaning and I went the long way around town.  I took the picture below of the Carthage City Hall.  This was probably the location of the police station in 1844, or very close to it.  The sign indicates established in 1837 so I had to snap the shot.  This would have been one spot the Joseph and Hyrum had to have passed through.

 After the walk and breakfast, I left our home and got to the visitors center office at 9:00am and had two small groups waiting and ready for the tour.  I had to scramble to get the center opened and accommodate the guests.  I hate to see them wait, even though it makes a longer day for us to open earlier than 10:00am with only 2 missionary couples.  Today we just had 3 of us there as Sister Shepherd was home ill.

It appears that the Carthage Visitors Center has multiple websites and there are two separate sets of information, depending on which site is visited.  One site says we open from 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday through Saturday and another site indicates we open at 9:00am "during the summer" from Memorial Day until Labor Day.  The rest of the year we open at 10:00am.  So, guess which site has the most hits??

Well, we had 16 groups over the course of the day and 3 of those groups had special connection to one or both of the Lasher senior missionaries!  The group pictured below is a family from Park City, Utah.  He is an investment banker and does business worldwide.  When he walked in with his family this morning he looked very familiar, and within a very short time we connected.  He saw mom and I in the Narita Airport in Tokyo as we were returning from the Philippines, Laoag Mission!  He and his business partner saw us there and were very kind to us and obviously very observant!

Mark Lisonbee and family - we met him in Tokyo, Narita Airport!

Then, just about an hour later I met this family on a tour and we started taking about where they lived.  They mentioned a place called Shaver Lake and they knew all about Mile High Park, where my step-father helped in putting that area on the map.  I was raised there!  And, upon further discussion the sister's mother and the children's grandmother, Cindy McMains, graduated from Sierra High School in 1970 and attended school with me!

The family of Cindy McMains - Sierra High School graduate 1970

OK, so this next family was on a vacation from Guatemala City, Guatemala.  They are the Ludvin Velasquez Family and he seemed to remember Bob Lasher Jr. (Elder Lasher) serving in 1999-2001 in Guatemala City.  Bob didn't remember the name when I mentioned this to him in a text today, but what a fun possible connection to our family!

I also came across a neat song about Joseph and Hyrum from a family today.  It was written and sung by Kenneth Cope and titled "Brothers".  I Googled it this evening after our play Rendezvous, and it was recorded in 2010 and is a very neat song.

Then we hit the road after our shift ended at 5:00pm for Nauvoo and our Rendezvous Play.  Tonight we had fewer guests there in Nauvoo and had just one performance.  I had a slightly new part that made me nervous but I made it through.  It is an adrenalin rush to perform and can be very uplifting if you remember everything.  Of course that hasn't happened yet but it does seem to be getting better. 

It will be fun to perform for the grandchildren because they love their Granny and Grandpa and we can't do anything wrong, but..... for anyone else, we are at their mercy! ... "some just clap their hands or paws or anything they've got!" - (a quote from this summer's stage show Sunset!).

It's all good, this singing and dancing and acting stuff....  But I really prefer talking to people and teaching them about Joseph and Hyrum and the events leading up to June 27th.  I especially enjoy teaching the young people in the tours.  They are the future leaders and teachers and they are so receptive to these Gospel truths.

Thank you for checking in tonight and thank you for your notes of encouragement.  I get to tell certain people, almost everyday, that my experience with them will "make the Blog for my family and friends!

Have a wonderful evening!