May 31, 2016 - Tuesday in Nauvoo

I was tapped to cover the Handcart site today when the missionaries assigned to the Tuesday schedule had doctor's appointments.  I served with an Elder in my cast as a fill-in because the schedulers needed mom to help in training two sisters at the John Taylor site.  Interestingly, these two sisters have been here for two or three months and still need training!  Oh well, she had to work the summer split shift of 8:45am to 12:00noon and 3:00pm to 6:00pm.  That meant we could not go home before Rendezvous and make the 6:00pm rehearsal.  Here is the handcart station ready to serve the trekkers;

7:30am Tuesday Morning ready to roll!

After our morning devotional and prayers, I walked down to the handcart station from our house so mom could have the car.  We had three groups scheduled for 9:00am.  Each group had different lengths of treks.  One small family took the 1 mile route.  They had two teenagers and they did not seem too excited about spending an hour trekking in Nauvoo.  They took only one handcart for their one mile experience.

The second family wanted a difficult experience for their four boys whose ages were about 6 years to about 11 years.  They had a tough experience with the two mile trek, but hopefully they had a positive time learning how important it is to work together.  And they took two carts!  I caught a picture of them as they were cleaning up the handcarts after they returned to the handcart station;

The family worked hard together!

And the third trek was a newlywed couple.  They were anxious to take on the three mile trek.  It was fun to orient them on the difficulties of the three miler and how important it was to work together.  Beginning their married life together will take a lot of give and take for each of them and they seemed to have that "can-do" attitude as they began their trek.  They even loaded up their handcart with an additional 140 pounds of sand bags to help them have a more "realistic" experience.  Here is a shot of them about two minutes into their trek;

Beginning life's journey - Handcart trek style!

They crossed the trickle of a stream, and got hung up on the opposite bank.  They had to unload some of the sand bags to get over that bump!  I got to walk down and encourage them never to be discouraged with the obstacles that may appear in their life's path.  And I encouraged them to always remember to work together, and be encouraging and kind to each other, as they work through their challenges.  I bet they did not expect this kind of lesson to be taught in Nauvoo at the handcart station!

We got word that the Lasher's traveled safely, today, and made it to Kearney, Nebraska.  They left home at about 5:15am this morning and arrived at their hotel at around 5:00pm tonight.  They made good time and will be here tomorrow night!  We are so excited!

Our Rendezvous Play is now in the full Summer schedule.  There are two shows, automatically, each night we perform through August 13th.  Tonight was the first show with the Jimmy and Marie Vignette.  These are the Young Performing Missionaries playing a vignette that was my role last summer as "Pa" for Jimmy.  It is a fun addition for the summer shows and we are scheduling the Lasher's there for both shows Friday!  Yea!!