June 22, 2016 - Wednesday in Nauvoo

We woke up this morning to a little rain and a cooling breeze, even though officials issued a heat advisory for this afternoon.  Mom and I both had early assignments so we did not get to take a walk, but it would have been in great temperatures for sure!  Instead, we had our morning devotional and prayers and got ready for the day's activities.

Mom attended the weekly Wednesday morning training meeting, and I headed over to the trek station for a 7:30am trek reservation.  I did get some pretty neat pictures of the clouds that stayed around for most of the morning to keep the temperatures down in the high 70's and the low 80's.  That was especially nice when the forecast called for high 90's and high humidity!

For the July 4th ceremony, mom and I were asked to participate in the flag raising portion of the program.  We had a little practice for that this morning at 7:00am.  Also, mom and I are going to barbecue hotdogs on that Monday for the Young Performing missionaries, all 52 of them.  I am also going to make up a batch of our deli potato salad.  I hope I can remember the recipe!!  

Also, yesterday, mom and I were given a sweet tender mercy.  As I have previously recorded here in the blog, we had a youth group of 150 from the College Station, Texas area join mom and I at the Handcart Station on Saturday.  They were so well prepared for the experience!  Then we saw them at the temple for baptisms Saturday afternoon.  They looked so clean and pure as a group of young temple worthy youth!  Then we saw them at our Sunset show Monday night and we got to speak to their leaders and learn that they were having such a great experience with them.  

At a fireside, the young men all committed to serving missions, and the young women all committed to temple marriages.  How does that sound for those precious leaders to hear of these commitments from 150 of their stake youth?  Well, needless to say, the Stake President was very pleased with bringing this group here to Nauvoo and Carthage for this sacred experience.  

But the sweet tender mercy for mom and me came yesterday morning.  As we were walking up the last part of our hill in front of the temple, at around 6:30am, their buses were just leaving town.  As they saw mom and I walking, they all waved to us from the three buses and four leaders cars.  It gave us the chills and brought tears to our eyes to be able to make this last connection as they were heading back home!

I got home, today, from my handcart assignment at 12:30pm and mom got home from working in the gardens at 1:30pm.  We were grateful for the coolness of the day to get us through these outdoor assignments.  We then prepared for our temple session at 4:00pm.  It has been a great day!    And then we got this precious picture of our newest grandson, and a recording of piano recitals of Bobby and Jacob!  Best day ever!

Is this the picture of an angel? Named Levi!