September 27, 2015 - Sunday in Nauvoo

Today was Fast Sunday for the mission in preparation for General Conference that begins next Saturday.  It was a beautiful Sabbath Day as mom and I walked to the Stake Center for our morning meetings.  Our strategy for our Sunday walk to the meetings is to leave our home at just a little past 7:00am to avoid any traffic.  You see, the choir people head to the 7:00am practice sessions a little before 7:00am and the stragglers come a few minutes after 7:00am.... Our goal to to start our walk after the stragglers, and so far we have been right on!

Our meetings today were wonderful.  The mission will be losing another 40 missionaries in the next two weeks so this was the last testimony meeting for many of the departing missionaries.  It seems like they are all ready to go back home, and yet have had so many wonderful memories of having served here together.  

Mom and I walked home and enjoyed our favorite "break the fast" breakfast for lunch, and then had the afternoon off.  We had a visit by a member of the mission presidency who asked us to spearhead a mission Thanksgiving dinner.  It is fairly simple.  The Nauvoo Stake will reach out to the less active members of the stake and other interested investigators to have a mission tour and dinner on the Friday or Saturday before Thanksgiving.  We will organize the tours and the dinner as needed.  Since it is in the Stake's area of responsibility, the work will be greatly minimized.  It should be fun.

Later this evening, we had a light dinner and social hour with 4 other couples at the Skinner's home.  The other missionary couples were the Clark's, Hall's, and Ramsey's.  We had a fun time and we all are in the same Emma Hale Rendezvous cast.  It was fun to get together.  And mom and I walked over to the Skinner's home which is about a half mile away.  Here are some pictures from our walk home tonight;

This is out in the barn area of the mission.  The Skinner's are one of the teamsters and live out here.

The Mississippi River is right below the sunset....

The clouds are magnificent.

More of those clouds!

It was such a beautiful walk home!  I know that these pictures don't quite do the scenery justice, but I had to try and catch the feeling!  We had a nice and relaxing Sabbath Day and we are looking forward to a full week of service in the sites this week as we lead up to General Conference!