January 30, 2016 - Saturday in Nauvoo

Another beautiful day in Nauvoo!  This was our last Saturday assignment to clean the Stake Center.  Our Zone has had the assignment all month and we have had to sacrifice our morning walks to be there by 7:00am.  But it was all worth it to work with 20 plus missionaries in cleaning the Lords House!  We left our home at a few minutes before 7:00am after we had our morning devotional and prayers, and had showered and got ready for the day.  Here is what greeted us this morning;

The Nauvoo Morning sky this morning!

We tried to capture the pink sky over the temple this morning!

We were assigned to the Visitors Center for the early shift today.  We walked there after the cleaning assignment and were open and ready to receive guests by 8:45am.  We had a few visitors this morning and we even had two wagon rides on this beautiful day!  We walked back home after our shift and began our weekly fast.  We get to teach the Sunday School lesson tomorrow taken from 1 Nephi 16 through 22, so the fast will help us as we team teach together.

As I read this lesson I was especially impressed with some additional insights.  First of all, in my simple math, we will have over 100 senior missionaries at this Sunday School class.  Each senior missionary, I would estimate, has been a member of the Church, on the average, about 40 years.  So that gives us, as a body of Latter-day Saints, a rough total of 4,000 years of experience in the Church!  That's 4 millennia of church experience!  

Another insight was the fact that Nephi consistently said "I will", to the commandments.  He never said; "I don't want to", or "I'll think about it", or, "I'll try".  He said; "I will!"  Imagine what that would be like if we all had that reaction to callings and impressions and counsel from inspired leaders!

And one other thought I had was in the course of building the ship.  It is like he did not even hesitate!    He simply asked where he could find ore with which to make tools to build the ship.... Now, to me, that was quite an insight.  The ship was something he had never been involved in building but he was willing to be taught because the Lord said that it would be built, "after the manner in which I will show thee".  He broke down the assignment to finding ore to make the tools.  The project was manageable for him and with the Lord's instruction and counsel and teachings, he was able to accomplish some "great things"!

He was so willing to follow His counsel and teachings!  And one verse that has been inspirational to me was in 1 Nephi 18:3 where Nephi taught us that he, "went into the mount oft, and did "pray oft unto the Lord", "wherefore the Lord did show unto me great things".  I don't think the Lord was just teaching Nephi to just build a ship.... Nephi was able to build the ship, but he was also being taught "great things" to help him fulfill his earthly mission and assignments that would be coming to him the rest of his life, and perhaps, through the eternities!

Tonight we had rendezvous and had 8 people in the audience.  The show went well and mom and I had fun doing our parts.  We should be ready to perform when our precious families and friends come and see us!  We have such a great cast!  It is so fun to be in a position to see our cast in action!  As the Editor, I can sit in the theater and see most of the vignettes and watch the talent flow from these wonderful missionaries.