June 1, 2015 - Monday

Today was a great day in the mission field here in Carthage.  Mom and I were up at the appointed time this morning and we were both ready to hit the ground running.  Even though it is quiet so far this week as far as tours go, we are making some progress with the community.  We are trying to focus on the businesses that we might be able to support by connecting with them and preparing them for the crowds we are anticipating.  Dairy Queen responded by bringing by some coupons for their store and I just missed talking to the manager.  I will make a follow-up call to him later this week.

Mom and I cleaned the jail this morning.  Mom does the inside and I work on the outside walk ways. We enjoy getting up early and having our morning devotionals and then taking our walks in and around the city of Carthage.  The Hansen's joined us this morning.  We have enjoyed getting to know them as we have worked together here in Carthage.  He and his wife are the Assistant Site Leaders. They are from Alberta, Canada.

We were able to get to the Visitors Center by 8:30am this morning and our guests started arriving a few minutes later.  There were just two that came in first thing and the next two hours, we had only six or eight more tours.  However, on Wednesday the tours begin with a flurry, and we have more on Thursday and Friday.  Over 500 booked so far.

But, the best part of our week will be greeting our family members coming for a few days to experience Carthage and Nauvoo with us.  I am hoping to get my phone working properly to again download some pictures.  I had the battery lose its charge on the 26th and I have found that its needs to be recharged twice a day.... and the worst part is that the pictures I have taken, somehow will not download onto this blog.  I just hope we can figure that out, easily, this week.

Tonight was our Sunset play and the weather was near perfect.  The air was cool and that kept away the bugs, and the play went very well.  However, I could not help but picture our family here participating with us Thursday night!!  It will be fun and invigorating for us to have these visits begin.  I can't begin to express how much we miss our precious family members....

Thank you for checking in with us tonight.... I hope I can download some pictures soon.  That full moon over the Mississippi was magnificent tonight on our way home.