April 30, 2016 - Saturday in Nauvoo

Our morning started with steady rain, and continued throughout the day.  Mom and I had our early morning devotional and prayers to begin our day.  We then went to the stake center for a cleaning assignment.  The Nauvoo Wards have a hard time making their cleaning assignments, so the senior missionaries have been picking up the slack.  I understand that the Nauvoo Stake will hire a service to come into the building each week to do the cleaning.  It is sad that the Saints will miss the opportunity for service in their own meeting house.

I had the early shift at the Browning Gun shop and mom had a split shift at the John Taylor home.  Those two historical sites are nearly right across the street from each other.  With the rain falling most of the day, I could not even break away to say hello!  But, we had the car there and mom took it home for her lunch break, and I took it home after my shift.  I then returned at 5:00pm to pick her up.  Then we had Rendezvous tonight and played for about 80 guests.  They were a great audience and mom and I had fun with our parts.  Hint: "Having fun" can be interpreted as "we did not miss any of our lines".  (That's the language of theater...)

And, tomorrow is our Fast Sunday meetings.  The first Sunday of the month gives each of us an opportunity to Fast for two complete meals and donate the amount of money for those two meals to the Fast Offering contributions to the Church.  For mom and me, those meals are such a privilege to miss, and make this monthly donation to assist those who have more needs than we do. 

Along with fasting, and attending our weekly Sacrament Meeting, I appreciate the thoughts shared with us at General Conference, by Elder David A. Bednar, on the cleansing process made available to us on the Sabbath Day.  Our Sacrament observance makes our Sabbath Day a Holy Day..., an opportunity to renew sacred covenants and remember our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Here is a summary of Elder Bednar's talk from the Church website;

Elder David A. Bednar
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

As members of the Lord’s restored Church, we are blessed both by our initial cleansing from sin associated with baptism and by the potential for an ongoing cleansing from sin made possible through the companionship and power of the Holy Ghost. …

… The act of partaking of the sacrament, in and of itself, does not remit sins. But as we prepare conscientiously and participate in this holy ordinance with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then the promise is that we may always have the Spirit of the Lord to be with us. And by the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost as our constant companion, we can always retain a remission of our sins. …

The ordinances of baptism by immersion, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the sacrament are not isolated and discrete events; rather, they are elements in an interrelated and additive pattern of redemptive progress. Each successive ordinance elevates and enlarges our spiritual purpose, desire, and performance. …

… I promise and testify we will be blessed with increased faith in the Savior and greater spiritual assurance as we seek to always retain a remission of our sins and, ultimately, to stand spotless before the Lord at the last day.

Mom and I are both very thankful for the opportunity afforded us to attend Sacrament Meeting, and our other meetings, and renew these marvelous and sacred promises that we have made to our Heavenly Father. We have been blessed so abundantly to be here on this mission and to be able to be tutored and taught the precious principles of the Gospel as observed by the early Nauvoo Saints.  We are looking forward to sharing what we have learned with our precious family and friends back home!

April 29, 2016 - Friday in Nauvoo

The temperatures have cooled off considerably this week.   Our morning walk was made in high 40 degree temperatures.  And that was pretty much the way it stayed most of the day.  Mom had the early shift as the world's best wagon narrator, and I had the afternoon shift at the Blacksmith's shop.  That meant that mom took the car and I walked to my site assignment.  I left the house at about 11:20am and it took me just under 23 minutes to make the two mile walk.  That added to our morning walk of just a little over six miles!

The goose family

As we were walking along the Mississippi Riverbank this morning, this little family was paddling by.  They did not seem to be in any great hurry so I was able to snap this picture.

Then, as I was walking to the Blacksmith shop, I met mom on the wagon tour about a mile into my walk.  I waved at her and kept up my pace to get to the site assignment on time.  I arrived at the Blacksmith shop about 3 minutes before her wagon rounded the corner in front of the Blacksmith shop, and I got this snap shot;

World famous wagon narrator (ask the Jeppson kids)

This wagon had only 3 or 4 passengers, but on her next wagon that she narrated on, it was almost full.  When the wagons come around the corner and pass by the shops, we try to get outside and wave at the guests on the wagons.  Since the day was cooler than normal, the guest counts were pretty low.  We only had six tours in the Blacksmith Shop today.  This is usually one of the top three historic sites to be visited each day.

One of my favorite parts in the Rendezvous Play is when mom and I interact together.  She is the Relief Society President and I am the Editor trying to tell great stories while she is trying to begin a meeting.  It is a fun part of the play, and this is one of the lines I say;

"The Relief Society – now the oldest and largest women’s organization in the world, started right here in Nauvoo in the upstairs room of the Prophets Red Brick Store…… Imagine that!" 

The Relief Society was first organized on March 17, 1842.  There have been so many blessings associated with the Relief Society over the years.  Each morning that we take our long walk, we usually pass by the Red Brick Store where Joseph Smith formally organized this society.  As it is very easy to do, there are many things we take for granted in the Church.  And the contributions of this women's organization are sometimes under appreciated.  Here is a brief history of this Relief Society;

Latter-day Saint women were blessed with a new Church organization during the Nauvoo era. It had its inception when several women, led by Sarah M. Kimball, organized to make shirts for the men working on the temple. They drafted a plan of government typical of women’s groups at that time, but when Joseph Smith was consulted, he offered to organize the women after the same pattern as the priesthood. Under his direction and at a gathering of eighteen women, the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo was organized on 17 March 1842. Emma Smith was selected as its president, thus, according to Joseph, fulfilling an earlier revelation identifying her as an “elect lady” (D&C 25:3). The organization’s objective was “the relief of the poor, the destitute, the widow and the orphan, and for the exercise of all benevolent purposes.”

On 28 April the Prophet gave the sisters additional counsel and promises. He advised the women to treat their husbands “with mildness and affection” and to meet them with a “smile instead of an argument or a murmur,” reminding them that when a mind is in despair it needs the “solace of affection and kindness.” After promising that they would receive appropriate instruction through the order of the priesthood, he said, “I now turn the key in your behalf in the name of the Lord, and this Society shall rejoice, and knowledge and intelligence shall flow down from this time henceforth; this is the beginning of better days to the poor and needy, who shall be made to rejoice and pour forth blessings on your heads.”

In our world so filled with hate and misguided relationships, can you imagine how impactful the Relief Society would be if it was embraced by every country?  I have to wonder just how people must feel after fighting so hard for "equal rights", and "political correctness",  and all the other man made stumbling blocks, and then realize, (either in this lifetime or the next), that women and men were created to compliment each other!  There have been countless folks who have been "made to rejoice", from the marvelous work of the Relief Society!  And I am grateful for the blessings that have come to our family as a result of my wife and daughters participating over the years!

April 28, 2016 - Thursday in Nauvoo

We had some marvelous thunder storms last night with some heavy rainfall.  That is a great recipe for a wonderful morning walk!  The air had cleared and the sky was temporarily clear with a wonderful beginning of a beautiful sunrise when we left the house.  We have modified our walk just slightly to incorporate another half mile to make our morning walk around four miles.  We are making the full circuit in about 75 minutes.  It is so important to leave the house by 6:00am!  Look at these residue clouds from last night's storm!;

Look at the straight cloud line!

Another storm brewing??

And after our morning devotional and prayers, we did just that, and left the house a little before 6:00am.  We got home at around 7:20am and got ready to serve together at the Heber C. Kimball Home.  Our shift was from 9:45am to 2:45pm.  But for today, the schedulers put another couple in from 12:00 noon to 5:00pm.  Since we have minimal visitors here this week, and since there are only two chairs in the missionary's waiting area, mom had the idea to have me contact the Saline's, and suggest we work until 1:15pm and leave and they come in at 1:15pm to relieve us.  Made sense to us and to the Saline's!

Then, mom and I got off at 1:15pm and, we went home and changed our pioneer clothing to our missionary attire, and drove to Quincy for a monthly visit to Sam's.  It was a perfect day to do that and not wait for our next P-day.  We had the evening off with no Sunset practice, and the Rendezvous play was last night.  We had a fun and safe afternoon and got back home by 5:00pm.

Thursday's historic site assignment!

One of the Blacksmith's apprentices for Heber C. Kimball!

Serving at the Heber C. Kimball home is always a special experience.  His great grandson, J. LeRoy Kimball began the entire restoration of Nauvoo with an innocent motive, to have a summer home in Nauvoo....  here is his story from Church history;

Dr. J. LeRoy Kimball hadn’t planned to reconstruct historic sites in Nauvoo, Illinois, the city the Saints vacated under persecution in the 1840s as they began their westward travels. When Dr. Kimball first went to this city on the horseshoe bend of the Mississippi River in 1929, he didn’t know he would find the home that had belonged to his great-grand-father, Heber C. Kimball. But he did find it, and he told the woman who owned it that if she ever sold it, he wanted a chance to buy it.

That chance came in 1954. After Dr. Kimball bought the home, he spent several years refinishing it to make it livable. He wasn’t trying to do pure restoration work, in which the home would be returned to its pre-Civil War condition; he was only trying to create a suitable vacation home, a place where the Kimballs could escape the pressures of life.

Instead, it was the beginning of a new life work for Dr. Kimball and his wife, Marjorie Dahlen Kimball.

In 1960 the Kimball home was dedicated. President Spencer W. Kimball, a grandson of Heber C. Kimball and then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, gave the dedicatory prayer. Also at the dedication were Elder Delbert L. Stapley and Elder Harold B. Lee of the Quorum of the Twelve, President J. Reuben Clark, First Counselor in the First Presidency—and a thousand other guests. Many came because they were friends of the Kimballs or patients of Dr. Kimball.

“I thought they’d all go home, and then we’d move into the house and spend two or three weeks there whenever we felt like it,” says Dr. Kimball. “But all we did was act as guides. We never did spend a night in that home. Never have.”

As interest in restoring old Mormon homes and buildings in Nauvoo grew, Dr. Kimball found himself buying land to protect the Kimball property. First he bought land to the south, to keep a motel from being built near his property. Then he bought the other lots on the Kimball block. Then came the Brigham Young home, which was in disrepair.

“The interest increased rather rapidly,” he says. “Before I knew it, I had thousands of dollars worth of land.” He told President David O. McKay of some forty homes or partial homes that would justify restoration. “I told him I knew what I would do if I had the money: I’d buy them to restore them.” Soon, with private and Church donations, he had the money.

That was the beginning, in 1962, of the nonprofit corporation known as Nauvoo Restoration Inc.

As for Heber C. Kimball, he has such an amazing life story.  He was an example of dedicated and consecrated service to the Lord, in helping to build the Kingdom of God, and as an original member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  He served eight missions for the Church and had the tremendous love and support of his family during those many years away serving those missions.  Here is a brief history of this great man from the Church history records;

When we speak of building the kingdom of God today, most of the time we mean it in a figurative sense: we serve in the Church, share the gospel with others, and follow the counsel of the living prophet.

Heber C. Kimball did all of these things, but as a blacksmith and potter,1 he also built the kingdom in a literal sense. Kimball was an artisan—a man of considerable manual skill. When he followed Brigham Young from Nauvoo to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, he brought this large tool chest with him and used the tools in it to build the Lord’s kingdom in the West.

Throughout his life, Kimball lived his faith and “strove to build both the spiritual and material Kingdom of God.” After his baptism in 1832, Kimball served the Lord wherever and whenever he was called. He served several missions to the eastern United States, and he presided over missionary work in England, baptizing many and helping hundreds of converts immigrate to the United States to join the main body of the Church.  He served on the Nauvoo city council and helped build the Nauvoo Temple. 

After Joseph Smith was killed and the Saints were forced from Nauvoo, Heber C. Kimball helped Brigham Young organize and supervise the Saints’ move across Iowa to Winter Quarters.  He was later called as first counselor to President Brigham Young, and in 1848 he led a company of pioneers across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley.

Heber C. Kimball spent the rest of his life serving the Lord. When he was serving in England in 1840, he explained his attitude toward serving God in a letter to his wife Vilate: “I have got so I feel perfectly easy about these things, for they are the work of God and not the work of man. I know no other way than to be subject to the powers that be. I pray my Father will give me this disposition, for I wish to be in the hands of God as the clay in the hands of the potter.”  

As a man of both faith and labor, Heber lived up to this hope.

Well, you can imagine how special it is to serve here in Nauvoo and learn about these marvelous Saints who built such a strong foundation to the Restored Church of Jesus Christ.  We are learning so much as we read and study about the early Saints and Pioneers.  We are looking forward to sharing these stories with our families and friends back home.... if we can remember them!

Although we may not be called upon to leave our families and livelihoods, we can also offer dedicated and consecrated service in our wards and communities.  For Heber C. Kimball and the other early pioneers, it was their responsibility to lay the strong foundation.  We have the privilege to help finish the walls and the ceilings, and put many of the finishing touches on this great work as the time draws closer to the Lord's Second Coming.  

Isn't it wonderful we have been counted on to be a part of this great work?  Now, let's go do some good!....

April 27, 2016 - Wednesday in Nauvoo

Happy Birthday Jared!  We hope you enjoyed our rendition of "Happy Birthday" tonight!  We have been thinking about you and your special day and we look forward to sharing the next one with you, in person!

We had our weekly training meeting this morning.  After our morning devotional and prayers, we left for the meeting armed with our "Preach My Gospel" manuals.  We were asked to bring them with us to the meeting.  As it turned out, the mission president didn't allow enough time to review whatever parts he had in mind.  Instead we were instructed about more changes forthcoming in the mission, and a rambling training presentation from the young sister missionaries on the internet teaching sites.  

My schedule changed to a split shift at the Blacksmith shop from the morning shift with my sweetheart in FM.  It was raining most of the day, so she went with Sister Knapp and I took the van to avoid walking in the cold rain.  It worked out well.

Tonight I wanted to shared some insights about Quincy, Illinois.  In our Rendezvous Play there is a line about Quincy that expresses the tender feelings the Mormons had for Quincy in the winter of 1838-1839.  Here is that line;

"That’s what I started to explain a while back… so’ as you’d understand that when folks around here use the word…… SAINTS…… they’re usually talking about the good people of Quincy!"

Quincy: City of Mormon Refuge 1838-1839 - The following note comes from an article in the Quincy News about the early history of Quincy, Illinois, and the benevolent kindness of the Quincyans towards the Saints. The article exhibited their strength of unequaled character, as a city of benevolent people, helping the fleeing Latter-day Saints.  Besides receiving the fleeing saints, Quincy was a prominent transit point on the underground railroad assisting slaves fleeing the South prior to the Civil War, and helping Native Americans on their Trail of Tears in the 1830’s......

In 1839, persecution in Missouri forced the departure of nearly 10,000 Latter-day Saints into neighboring states and communities. Large groups began leaving in February of that year, headed for various locations in Illinois and Iowa.

Many came to western Illinois. With a population of about 1,500, Quincy was the region’s principal town at the time. In an extraordinary act of humanitarian service, Quincy’s 1,500 residents sheltered and assisted more than 5,000 Latter-day Saint refugees.

Notable among those helped was Emma Smith. Her husband, Church founder Joseph Smith, was imprisoned at the time in Liberty, Missouri. After walking across the frozen Mississippi River with her four children, Emma settled on the outskirts of Quincy.

Arriving refugees needed accommodations and jobs. Quincy citizenry provided both. Despite snowstorms, Quincy citizens repeatedly rescued Latter-day Saints stranded without adequate food or clothing on the Missouri side of the river. One observer at the time noted that the citizens "donated liberally, the merchants vying with each other as to which could be the most liberal."

We have been to Quincy several times, and the community is thriving.  It is a great example of how reaching out to those less fortunate than we are can have such a lasting affect.  The Lord has to work through loving and caring people as He builds His Kingdom through them.  Isn't is wonderful that we can have these kinds of experiences as we participate in the preparations of making things ready for the Saviors return?