July 2, 2016 - Saturday in Nauvoo

The Holiday weekend for the 4th of July is finally here....  It is great fun to be in the busiest month of the year here in Nauvoo.  Mom and I were both up early to begin our day.  We were serving at the Handcart Station, and our first group of trekkers arrived at 7:00am.  That meant that we had to be there by 6:30am so that ruled out our morning walk and exercise.  We made sure we had our devotional and prayers to best prepare us for the days activities.  And what a great day we have had!

We love working at the handcart site.  Families and groups come in for their scheduled trek times and most are filled with anticipation and excitement.  The families usually experience some of the children pouting when they aren't assigned certain roles in the handcart positions.  They sometimes hold back their enthusiasm for going on the trek, and that makes it fun and challenging for us to rally them into an attitude of what we have come to call the, "Best Day Ever", attitude.  Even as they come in excited to go together and experience the trek, they almost always return back into the Handcart Station wanting to go again.  

A youth group on the last leg of their trek

Imagine the experience of the Saints crossing the plains!

Mom and I had three of our senior missionary visiting families come to the trek site today.  We marveled at their wonderful families and felt the love they had for them being here with them.  It was a sweet reminder of how we felt when each of our family members sacrificed their time and efforts to come all the way to Nauvoo to see us.  The feelings of love and gratitude and being uplifted by our families for their efforts is indescribable!  The song, "The Wind Beneath My Wings", comes to mind!

Today we also wanted to include a few pictures from home.  Whenever we get these precious pictures, we are reminded as to why we are serving this mission and the blessing that it is to all of us.  You see, sacrificing our time and our talents, (as limited as they may be), has been one of the choicest blessings mom and I have experienced together in almost 40 years of marriage.  We can never take the phrase, "families can be together forever", lightly or passively again.  It is the ultimate reward for our focus of who we are and who we can become!  The song, "Love at Home", comes to mind!  Here are those pictures;

Watching Levi grow

Cambry can't wait to teach Levi how to make cookies with Grandpa!

Isaac, you are the BEST brother ever!  Thanks for being my BIG brother!

You wait, Callie, one day I'm going to rough you up!  I love you!

Courtney, tell me more about John Hinkle...

Zac at Scout Camp - 12 merit badges!! Congratulations, Zac!!!

Zac working on one of his 12 merit badges at Scout Camp 2016

Macie checking out a new visitor;  "you talkin to me?"

Faith and Macie - "you mess with me you're messin with both of us"

Beautiful Kenzie - the dress only "enhances" my make-up

Levi receiving mommy kisses - wait until Granny gets you!

Our final activity was the Rendezvous Play tonight.  We had just one show because the City of Nauvoo had a fireworks show scheduled for 9:00pm.  There were 120 people stuffed into the Cultural Hall.  It was the first time that the Editor had no place to sit! 

Well, the rain must have scared the city officials, and they postponed the show until next...... Sunday?  Looks like most of the Mormons won't be attending.  As it turns out, the evening tonight was cloudy and no rain.  It would have been a perfect evening for the show!  There is a principle here that we need to remember; "faith precedes the miracle".... as a community event, if they just had the faith of our precious Laura Walton, the show would have gone on without consideration for postponement!