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!