June 9, 2016 - Thursday in Nauvoo

Today marked the 91st anniversary of my mom's birth in 1925, who died in 1995.  I have mentioned her before here in the blog.  She was a significant person in my life growing up and taking on the challenges of life.  It was a nice call I got today from one of our daughters who wanted to make my mom's favorite meal for her children as a tribute to my mom, their grandmother and great grandmother.  

She sure enjoyed baking apple pies from Sam Ewall's orchards near our home in the mountains at Mile High Park.  And I think she enjoyed roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding but that may have been more of my step fathers favorite.  However, her "pink" salad continues to be a favorite of mine, and she loved the Mothers Taffy sandwich cookies!  I always looked forward to finding her stash of these cookies when I would visit her in my later adult years.  Happy Birthday to our mom!  Jackie, Doug and I, along with our families miss you, and we look forward to seeing you again!

Mom and I both worked at the Handcart Station today.  We had our first trek at 9:00am, following our training meeting this morning at 7:30am with Elder Schwitzer of the Seventy.  He is in charge of the Missionary Medical Department for the worldwide health of all currently serving missionaries.  He was at the first missionary medical training that mom and I attended back in October 2014, in Salt Lake City, prior to our trip to the Philippines.  However, we are sure he does not remember us...  

It seems that we are getting a few extra visits from Salt Lake to help us stay better focused on the work here in Nauvoo.  I am not sure how far off the previous mission leaders have strayed, but there is a real emphasis on following the current mission president with the changes he is implementing.  I did like Elder Schwitzer's message on learning how to receive revelation.  Have you noticed how that has become a major theme in the last few General Conferences?

He related an experience he had when serving as a mission president in Russia.  He was giving a temple recommend interview to an older Russian sister.  As he asked the questions, she responded by repeating the question as an answer... I thought this was insightful to the testimony of this humble sister!  He also shared a poem that he learned in Primary.  He prefaced quoting this poem by saying it was the only thing he could repeat from his memory in Primary since he was somewhat of a young rebel...  He said the Primary teacher would hold up the poem and look right at his group of Primary friends... here is that poem;

"Clowns in the circus are funny as heck,

But

Clowns in the Church house are a pain in the neck!" 

After the meeting , mom and I rushed to the handcart site and got the handcarts ready for the groups.  We had four groups today.  Three were families, and one group was made up of two young men, who live here in Nauvoo, and wanted to do something "fun" today.  After we got them each off on their treks, mom and I waited for other groups to come.  About 11:00am I notice this animal trotting down the road.... can you see what it is?

A Red Fox sauntering by the Handcart Station today

I could not believe it at first, so I crossed the creek and on the other side, about 30 yards away, he was looking right at me!  But he was somewhat hidden through the trees.  Then he started trotting up the road and I caught this picture.  I have blown it up as big as I can to better see this seldom seen animal!

We got off our shift at about 1:00pm, just as it was hitting the low 90's.  We headed home to our 68 degree temperature, inside, and what a wonderful relief!  We had our dinner around 2:00pm and we both got in a nap before the Sunset stage show tonight.  

I got a picture of the drummer that the Lasher's got to enjoy last week.  He started playing the drums in 9th grade!  That was only about 5 years ago, and he is exceptional, and he is getting better every day!  Here is a picture of him in the middle of the drum solo during the song, "When the Saints go Marching In";

Nauvoo Brass Band Drummer

This young man plays the drums with extreme passion and is so much fun to watch!  I absolutely love this part of the show!  My mom had to put up with me "drumming" all over the house when I played in elementary school, but I never played like this young man plays!  (Although I dreamed about it)!

We have had a great day and we are preparing for another training meeting tomorrow with Elder Schwitzer.  We meet with him at 7:30am, so we are making sure we are well rested.  Still no Levi, but Amy gets to sleep in tomorrow, and reports to the hospital at 9:30am to be induced.  Precious family!  We are praying for your safe and healthy delivery both Amy and Levi!!!