November 25, 2015 - Wednesday in Nauvoo

Thanksgiving Eve 2015, brings back some memories of Thanksgiving Eve 2014, in the Philippines.  That was a difficult evening for us as we gave our best to trying to make the call to the Philippines work.  We hadn't met the mission president yet, but we did meet the other senior couple in the mission. 

Those feelings of being over 8,000 miles away from home, and attempting to serve a long awaited for mission, under some of the most challenging conditions, are days not to be forgotten.  Comparing those feelings with this year is quite a contrast for sure!

We were up this morning and had our morning devotional and prayers.  I had enough time to work out while mom was getting ready for our weekly Wednesday training meeting.  And we left the house at about 7:20am for the Visitor's Center for the 8:00am meeting. 

The training material was on the new "Christmas.mormon.org" Church-wide effort to introduce the 2015 Church Christmas message that will debut on Sunday November 29th.  The 3 minute video was breathtaking and, just like "BecauseHeLives" Church-wide Easter video message that I have viewed several dozen times, I don't think I will get tired of seeing this in the Visitor's Center theater this Christmas season. 

Part of the training was the mission president role playing different scenarios in introducing the video.  In this picture, the president's sister-in-law and her husband were called randomly to participate;

Wednesday Training and "role" playing

These are Elder and Sister Ramsey and we love working with them!  When Elder Ramsey got up to the podium, the president had just laid out the scenario of meeting these two "friends" at Church and telling them about the video.  Before President Gibbons could say the first words of his "role play", Elder Ramsey grabs the microphone and says; "well hello Larry".....

That greeting totally caught President Gibbons off guard and all he could stammer was something like, "well I had a real good introduction but now my mind has gone blank".... and then Elder Ramsey said, "I was just trying to break the ice"...  It was hilarious and probably the best role play I have ever witnessed!  All the missionaries were rolling in their seats!

Teaching at the Print Shop

Reviewing the press where the books are printed in the 1840's

We worked the all-day shift at the Printing office.  Mom did a great job teaching about the printing trade in the 1840's.  That had to be one of the most tedious jobs back then!  Here is some background information about the newspapers in Nauvoo in the 1840's;

"The chief source of news in Nauvoo was the newspaper. The Saints had published newspapers in Missouri and Ohio. During the siege in Missouri, Church leaders buried the printing press used for the Elders’ Journal. It was recovered in 1839 and brought to Nauvoo where it was used to print the Times and Seasons starting in November of that year. As the official publication of the Church, the Times and Seasons was carefully controlled and supervised by the Prophet.

During its brief history, the Times and Seasons published significant doctrinal items and policy statements, including parts of Joseph Smith’s official history, portions of the book of Moses, and the book of Abraham, which were all later included in the Pearl of Great Price. The paper also featured conference addresses, circular letters from the Council of the Twelve Apostles, minutes of important Church meetings, reprints from other newspapers, and the King Follett Discourse. There were dozens of articles on the Book of Mormon including items on archaeological evidence and discussion of geographical locations.

Nauvoo also had a weekly nonreligious newspaper devoted to agriculture, business, science, art, and community events. When it first appeared in April 1842 it was known as the Wasp, but the name was later changed to the Nauvoo Neighbor. It was printed on the same press as the Times and Seasons and was edited by William Smith, brother of the Prophet. Later John Taylor was assigned the editorial responsibility."

And then there are the lines given by the Editor in the Rendezvous Play;

The “TIMES AND SEASONS” was devoted to the Church, its history and the like, while my paper, “The NAUVOO NEIGHBOR”, was more of a public journal.  It was small so I had to be selective about what I committed to print.  That means that not every event was included.  You’ll just have to trust me that we had our due proportions of disasters, tornadoes, thievery and bully fights, from week to week, even if it wasn’t reported.

But, the important issues, the people to people issues, that explained the kind of people we had here in Nauvoo, and their various comings and goings, THOSE were almost always reported in the “NEIGHBOR”.

So there is a little taste of our day at the Printing Office and at the Training meeting this morning.  We came back to our little home and mom did laundry and I did some cleaning.  I can't believe tomorrow is Thanksgiving!  We will be celebrating the day of Thanks with some fellow missionaries, after our site shifts end.  We work at the Visitors Center tomorrow and all sites close at 3:00pm.  Our Zone dinner is at 4:00pm and then we put on the Rendezvous Play at 7:00pm..... how many folks will come to the play tomorrow???  On Thanksgiving Day????  Any guesses?