December 12, 2015 - Saturday in Nauvoo

Guess what happened one year ago today?  Mom and I arrived back fro the Philippines after traveling over 15,000 miles in just under a month.  As we were talking about this "anniversary", mom was reminded that we left the Philippines in the morning on December 12, 2014, and arrived about 18 hours later in the late morning on the same date, December 12th!  That was quite a day for us and it was such an emotional experience all the way around....

Today, we had our morning devotional and prayers and were out on our walk by 6:00am.  It was a very warm day for December in Nauvoo.  The temperature was in the mid 50's at 6:00am.  The stars were out but the ground was pretty wet with the fog and humidity.  We could see how black ice can be a real problem here.  If the temperature drops to below freezing and the winds blow, the roads become very dangerous.  

Even walking in that situation is hazardous! 

We had the early shift at the Visitor's Center today and it was a little busier today.  We had perhaps 40 or 50 guests come in mainly for wagon rides.  We did put together some booklets for this summer's youth visitors.  We are going to need around 20,000 by June!

Putting Christ back into Christmas!

Isn't this an interesting picture?  One of the missionaries saw this photo opportunity and shared it with me.  I wanted to share it with you!  The message is pretty clear and so appropriate for our Christmas thoughts and feelings.  We are so grateful to be serving our mission together here in Nauvoo!  The missionaries all have left children, and grandchildren and some even great grandchildren, to serve the Lord and teach the Gospel through personal contacts and the theater!  Such marvelous people we get to serve with!

And we got a package today!  Only it had strict instructions to not open until Christmas morning!  Our precious family and our precious friends have been so encouraging to us as we have been out here.  This picture represents all that we hold dear from each family member and we will work hard to make you proud of our work, ..... but, we will so look forward to our next Christmas - all together!!

Is it Christmas yet?