November 19, 2015 - Thursday in Nauvoo

After a nice relaxing P-day, we were back to work at the Visitor's Center.  Our shift, today, was the early shift from 9:00am until 2:00pm.  However, the Nauvoo Historical sites continue to be pretty quiet from the guest standpoint!

We were up early for our morning devotional and prayers.  We were ready to set out on our long morning walk at 5:45am.  The air was brisk and the wind was chilly, and the temperature was in the low 40's.  We had a wonderful hour long walk around the flats here in Nauvoo.  I even got to rehearse my lines as I do everyday but Sunday.

That is an interesting thought about observing the Sabbath Day.  I have felt the divine intervention on my lines for the Rendezvous Play, and I attribute that to not ever practicing them on Sunday's.  

Working at the Visitor's Center on Sunday's is an interesting opportunity.  We have the opportunity to teach and to testify of the Gospel message being restored here in the last days.  We have the privilege of teaching the early years of that restoration as it unfolded here in Nauvoo from 1839 until the exodus in 1846.  What a unique opportunity that is when guests come in and we get to share with them the message of the Restoration along with testifying of the Prophet of the Restoration!

When we arrived at the Visitor's Center this morning at around 8:40am, the facilities management missionaries were hard at work getting ready for the holidays.  Here are some pictures of those efforts this morning:

Before

After!

Nauvoo Nativity scene!

Poinsettia accents!

Center of the Visitor's Center!

Talk about a fun place to be working this Christmas Season!  We will do some additional decorating beginning next Monday around the stages in the two theaters and some garland around that upstairs balcony.

We also have another very important role to play at the site leaders here.  Can you guess what we are doing?

Doing something to the .... piano?

That's right, we are "watering" the Steinway!

This amazing grand piano needs to have a reservoir filled with water on a regular basis to keep the pads from drying out.  I have never heard of this process before we became the site leaders!  Mary, have you ever heard of this?

And then, tonight, we had Rendezvous!  We played to an audience of eight people.  There were two sister missionaries sitting on the front row that were just returning home from their mission.  They were the best part of the audience and laughed and cried at each critical part.  I wanted to make this the best ever experience for them because they were making it the best ever experience for me!  Here is the Editor in action...... say, who took my phone??

That time already?

There are the two sister missionaries in the red!

While MY paper... the Nauvoo Neighbor.....

On October 29th 1845, the final issue of the Nauvoo Neighbor.....

This may sound a little crazy, but getting out of my comfort zone to get on a stage and perform in a play, has been a very rewarding experience for me.  I wonder how many choice experiences we might be missing by not getting out of our comfort zones?  I can see the Lord's Hand in this experience for mom and me.  He put us here to help us expand our hearts and our minds in learning about the Nauvoo experience in the 1840's and to get to know some marvelous people who are doing the same thing.  

I have such a different take on being involved in new experiences like these.  We have been taught that we must "let our lights so shine before men, (and women and children), that they may see our good works and glorify our Heavenly Father".  Of course there are many ways to do this, and there are an equal number of reasons why we should not try......, but from this opportunity, I have found that the experiences Joseph had at Liberty Jail when he received the admonition, "that these things shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good", certainly apply to me and my feeble efforts here on this stage at this time.  

Next time you are asked to try something new, ask yourself if the experience might be for your good, and, ultimately, good for those you might end up serving....  When someone comes up to you after a performance and tells you that they felt the "Spirit" from your efforts, and the efforts from your fellow missionaries, it is worth all the anxiety and butterfly's and rehearsals and practices that you have invested.... all of them!