December 31, 2015 - Thursday in Nauvoo

2015 Year in Review -

The year 2014 ended and the year 2015 began in Rigby, Idaho, as we were waiting for our reassignment in the mission field.  We had an unexpected opportunity to share the Christmas Season with our family in Idaho and in Utah.  What a precious experience that was for us!

At the beginning of the New Year 2015, we flew to Virginia Beach and spent a few weeks with PopPop, (Mom’s 91 year old father), and helped him during his recovery from a hernia operation.  That was another great opportunity to be with him.  It was something we thought would not be possible having just flown to the Philippines, but because of our reassignment, we had that sweet opportunity.

When we got back to Idaho, we received word from the missionary department that we had been reassigned to the Illinois, Nauvoo Mission.  We were to re-enter the MTC on Monday February 16, 2015.  We had three days of Visitors Center Training and began our trip to Nauvoo on Wednesday February 18^th.  This was the maiden voyage of our new Honda Odyssey Van that we picked up at the end of January!  We arrived in Nauvoo later in the evening on February 19^th and were immediately made to feel welcomed!

We began the mission orientation on Friday February 20^th, and met with the mission presidency.  They each had training for us and we were well prepared for our first site assignments on Thursday February 26^th.  We served in the Nauvoo area for four weeks and were then transferred to Carthage beginning the last week in March.  We had one moving day, and relocated to missionary housing right in the Carthage Visitors Center compound, and in the shadow of the old historic Carthage Jail.  Mom and I served as the Carthage Visitors Center Site Leaders from April until August, 2015.  We were sent back to Nauvoo on August 28^th after a marvelous summer season!

The experience in Carthage was life changing.  The first six weeks were spent learning, in depth, learning about Joseph and Hyrum, and, more specifically, the last three days of their lives.  The history of the month of June 1844, is firmly set in my mind.  We were taught by the Spirit, and by loving missionaries, the intimate details of the Martyrdom period.   

We had the responsibility to clean the jail and what an amazing experience that was.  I was often in the Martyrdom room, by myself, and sat there pondering and praying.  That was such a marvelous way to prepare for the busy summer season where we were guides and missionaries to over 61,000 visitors.

Every youth group that came was a separate and distinct sweet opportunity to share testimony and bear witness of the Prophet of the Restoration.  I would often sit in the Martyrdom room with groups of up to 60 youth and tell them that once they passed the threshold of that room, they had entered a point of no return.  Their tender lives would never be the same, and would especially be strengthened, if they let the Holy Ghost teach them.  Carthage will forever remain a highlight of my Gospel learning!

When we moved back to Nauvoo, we were immediately assigned to the Nauvoo Visitors Center.  We became the site leaders there in November 2015, and are still serving in that capacity.  We have assignments in assorted Nauvoo sites on two of the seven days each week, but our primary focus is the Visitors Center.  What a wonderful place to serve and greet visitors coming to Nauvoo for the Christmas and holiday periods!  

Since arriving back here in Nauvoo, we have welcomed over 5,000 visitors so far.  The off season really began in late August, but the guests continue to come in and enjoy the Spirit of Nauvoo.  About 10% of our guests are not members of the Church.  Many are less active, and a good number of the members coming are here for the first time.

This has been such a rewarding experience to be here as a missionary, to serve full time with my eternal companion, and to be taught and nurtured together by the Holy Ghost.  There is no other experience like a full time senior mission!  I am fully convinced of that.  It is everything that we are willing to invest in it, to make it this kind of incredible experience.  

I am very excited about the prospects of the year 2016.  There are a tremendous number of challenges that will have to be faced.  Preparation for these challenges begins each new day and with each new year!  This will be a great year and I am so ready to see what lies ahead!

Mom had a 6:00am hair appointment this morning.  It is tough trying to fit things in with our schedules!  But this worked out great.  We just postponed our walk until after our site assignment today.  We worked at the Visitors Center from 9:00am until 12:30pm.  Our friend and fellow missionary, Sister Chamberlain, gave us this package this morning;'

Mysterious Package!

It was a package we had seen in the mail room with the package addressed to "Elder and Sister".  It was such a treat to find out that Wal Mart had left off "Lasher"...  The mail room had opened the package and found out it was from a Lasher in Rigby!  It was a treasure chest of precious pictures of our precious family!  Everyone looked sooooooo good!  Thank you!!
 
We walked home and prepared one of our favorite meals, cordon blue!  Well, mom prepared it and I took a nap....  We even had some Martinellis to toast in the new year!  We did our weekly cleaning and then took off on our belated walk at 3:15pm.  The sun was shining and the temperature was a cool 30 degrees, with very little wind. 

Our friends, the Skinner's stopped by on their way to the mission New Years Even party and dropped off some finger foods for us.  They are so kind and considerate!  And mom was in bed by 7:15pm.  I wanted to make sure I did this last post of the year and especially to express our love and appreciation for all of our family and friends who have joined us on this missionary journey from "Laoag and onto Nauvoo" during 2015!  Here's to a great 2016!

December 30, 2015 - Wednesday in Nauvoo

Our weekly Wednesday Training meeting was held today.  It is the last training meeting of the year 2015.  Mom and I had a meeting with the Visitors Center staff about 40 minutes before the 8:00am training meeting, and reviewed our focus for the Visitors Center for the coming year.  

The training meeting at 8:00am centered around good healthy options for senior missionaries.  Staying healthy in the mission field is a huge focus here.  We have a senior missionary doctor who works with the missionaries here, and the mission president is a retired doctor himself.  Eating healthy, exercise and rest were the key messages today.  Mom and I are grateful for the health we enjoy and the abilities we have to walk and exercise almost everyday.  The only days we take off are Wednesday training meeting days and Sundays. 

Mom and I both served outside the Visitors Center today.  Mom was at the Log School and I was at the Print Shop.  Mom had one or two tours all day and I had 5 tours.  All in all it was a pretty quiet day in the Nauvoo sites.

Mom and the school house!

This is an intricate Noah's ark display in the school house...

And the stockings were hung....

My first shot at setting up a quilt to tie!

Above the Print Shop is a room where the sisters tie quilts.  This morning Elder Horlacher and I were working at the shop when we were asked to set up the quilt frame.  What a challenge it was, but we were able to do it!  The sisters never came back to show us how to tie the quilt so I guess that will be left for another day!

Mom in action tonight in Rendezvous!

The rendezvous Play was attended by about 30 people and we had a good performance.  After the show we were looking forward to seeing a dad and his 4 girls come out from the Cultural Hall to say hello.  They came to our sites today and we were reminded that they had also been out at Carthage this summer when mom and I were out there.  They surprised our entire cast by giving each one of us a long stemmed rose!  What a thoughtful thing to do!

Beautiful roses from our audience members!

They have a special place on our table in the dining-room!  Our first roses as Rendezvous actors!  Totally unexpected and so very much appreciated!  This has been a very good day!

December 29, 2015 - Tuesday in Nauvoo

Jack Frost was so alive and well this morning!  The temperature registered 29 degrees, but the wind chill brought that down to around 20 degrees.  Mom and I bundled up, nice and tight, and took our morning walk.  We were very careful as we tested each surface we walked on, all the way around our path, for ice.  We were blessed with no slipping and sliding!  

We had our morning devotional and prayers before our walk.  And came back to our little safe, and warm, haven and continued our workout of stretching and "tightening"....  I want to make sure I complete this mission with fewer pounds on this body than when I started!  

After our morning preparations, we walked over to the Visitors Center.  Now that was even colder since we could not bundle up as warmly as we did on this morning's walk.  But it was a very quick and brisk 10 minute commute by foot!  When we got inside the Visitors center, we quickly got the lights on, and the music playing, and the doors unlocked, and had prayers with the other missionary sister who came in with us to work the Guest Services desk.  We have a great crew we get to work with!

Today also began the remodel of the bathrooms.  There was an original design flaw in the bathrooms that gave no access to potential plumbing problems from the back of the wall.  Leaks have been occurring the last few months, so permission was grated to bring the bathrooms up to date.  They started by dividing the women's bathroom so that it could be shared with the men.  And that opened up the men's bathroom for the full blown remodel.  They have about 6 to 8 weeks of work to do to complete both bathrooms.

I did capture some pictures of the early start on the remodel.  However, my pictures fell during companion study time, and my timing of the pictures was a little off....  Here are 4 senior missionaries who have just received their January 2016 copies of the Ensign and incorporated them into their companion study.  Check out the pictures;

Companion study with two "investigators"...

I just hope these pictures don't get back to the mission president.... isn't serving a mission fun?

Then, earlier this week, I was taking some pictures of the decorations around Nauvoo.  The mission has tried to recreate the way the early Saints may have decorated here in Nauvoo during the 7 years they had of relative peace.  It is difficult to imagine how they must have felt when they arrived here hoping this was a place that they could find relief from the persecutions and mobs.  They did find it for a short time, and then the Adversary went right back at them, and they were forced, again, to retreat.  Here are some of the decorations of the 1840's era;

Wilford Woodruff Home

Scovile Bakery

Along Main Street 

 

The Visitors Center

Lucy Mack Smith Home

The West Theater in the Nauvoo Visitors Center

The Seventies Hall

The John Taylor Home

Carthage Visitors Center

This has been a wonderful Christmas season for mom and me!  We have been able to share our testimonies of the Savior, and we have strengthened that testimony as a result.  We work with so many wonderful senior missionaries, and we are having some remarkable experiences with them.  Again, we are so very thankful for the love that we have felt from our families back home in Idaho and Utah and California!  We love you and hope and pray for a prosperous New Year, 2016, for each one of us!

December 28, 2015 - Monday in Nauvoo

Another P-day has come and gone and we are better off from enjoying a wonderful day together.  We are finally getting that long anticipated freezing rain.  The morning walk was out of the question, and our trip for groceries was in question for most of the early morning hours.  

We were in full indoor exercise mode by 6:00am and had our morning devotional and prayers completed.  Mom and I both finished getting ready for the day and were ready to leave by 8:30am.  However, the weather was still rainy a icy cold.  However, we decided that since it wasn't freezing or snowing, we would venture out for our trip to Sam's Club in Quincy. Even though it rained all the way to Quincy, the roads were free from ice and we enjoyed the ride down.

Our first stop was to Christopher and Banks to see if a sweater was still there from last week that mom liked.  The Mall was pretty quiet and we went right to the store, and there it was!  And just the right size!  With the coupons we had and one furnished by the clerk, the final cost of the $42.00 sweater was -0-!  The exact sweater mom would have gotten at 50% off last week came was free today with the coupons we had.  I think that must be a new world's record for mom and me!

And then we headed straight for Sam's.  The rain was falling a little harder when we came out of the mall, but we were parked close to the Mall entrance.  When we got to Sam's there was a parking spot right near the covered loading area!  We had fun getting our supplies and this time we shopped for the next two weeks.  Our trip home was wet and cold and by the time we pulled into Nauvoo, there were traces of snow along the roadway.  It was a good time to get off the roads!

In talking with Ali this afternoon, I found out a very touching story given by my friend and brother in the Gospel before his Sunday School lesson yesterday.  I have posted that story here as a reminder to me on how to act and react in my associations with others:

Matthew 25:34-40

34 -Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

 35 - For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

 36 - Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

 37 - Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? Or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

 38 - When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? Or naked, and clothed thee?

 39 - Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

 40 - And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

A former counselor, whom I served with, in the Rigby 10^th Ward Bishopric back in 2011, gave this thought at the beginning of his Sunday School Class on December 27, 2015;

“I was involved this year in developing and marketing a product that was due to be introduced between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I had invested a very large sum of money to get this product on the market.  I thought that this was the best time to get maximum exposure because of the Christmas season.  However, there seemed to be a delay in the process so I called to see what was going on. 

I found out from a secretary that the wrong address had been used and that the delay was caused by this error.  I was livid!  I asked her how this could have happened and she boldly exclaimed that it was my fault!  She indicated that I had apparently given the wrong address!  That did not set well with me, and I let her know, in no uncertain terms, and expressed my displeasure and anger in generous helpings!  I was so incensed that after I had finished my tirade, I abruptly hung up the phone.

It was then my opportunity to gather my thoughts and begin preparing my lesson for my Sunday School Class in two weeks.  While I was organizing my thoughts, my anger was still at a high point and I could not feel the Spirit to begin my preparations!  I knelt down in prayer and could not shake off the phone conversation.  I asked the Lord for help and he replied simply;  “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me”.

Tears instantly filled my eyes and I sobbed like a little child.  I would never want to treat the Savior like that, and if treating the secretary as I did paralleled treating the Savior, I needed to repair things as soon as possible.

And, feeling very guilty, I decided to send an email of apology…. The Lord spoke to me again and said; “that is not enough”.  That was on Friday, so Monday I picked up the phone and spoke directly to the secretary and made my apology directly to her.  I hung up the phone ready to get back to preparing that next Sunday lesson, when the Lord said; “that is not enough”.

So, I found out where the closest flower shop was to the secretary’s office, and I called and asked them to send a bouquet of flowers, and not just any bouquet, but an arrangement that anyone who would see it would say, WOW! 

I received an email later that Monday from this secretary.  She indicated that she was having a tough time and that this week she was celebrating her birthday.  She indicated that things had been very difficult for her but the bouquet of flowers had made her entire week!

When I hung up the phone I heard the Lord say; “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me”.

This time, I, again, dropped to my knees in prayer, and, as my eyes filled with tears, they were tears of joy.  We just don’t know what others are going through in their lives and the way we treat them is an example of how we might be treating our Savior.

May I suggest that when we speak to each other, in the coming new year 2016, that our conversations, our feelings and actions, will parallel that by which we might be addressing our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!