May 7, 2015 - Thursday

Here we are arriving at another Thursday evening.  Mom and I have had a busy day, again.  We had our morning workout and devotional, took our walk in the country setting and got to the Visitors Center by 9:00am.  That's when we had our first guests and tour for the day.  It is becoming more common for people to come to the jail earlier in the day even though we post a 10:00am opening.  But we are happy to accommodate them at the earlier hour!

Our tours went very well today and I had some great people.  I love to have the young families come on the tour as well as the teenage youth.  These wonderful people are the future leadership of the church and I get to teach them a little more about the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum and the events that took place here in Carthage.

While in the Martyrdom room this afternoon, we had a downpour and lightening and thunder that caught everyone's attention in that room.  The storm lasted about 10 minutes and we must have received several inches of rain in that short amount of time.  As we drove to Nauvoo through the country roads, the farmers fields were all sitting in pools of water.  The ground was saturated.  That is the irrigation system at its best!  And here is a picture of that residue from this downpour;

The clouds are just amazing here!

Tonight we had our Rendezvous Play.  We had about 50 or so in the audience and several from the Carthage tours.  It was also the last performance of Elder and Sister Wright who head home this coming Monday.... (I'm a little jealous!)  Their home is in Inkom, Idaho.  They were emotional as the cast sang to them one last time and it was touching to mom and I to see them take their final curtain calls.... (that's play talk for last performance)  Here is their picture;

Elder Wright always has a wonderful smile on his face and is such a very kind and gentle man.  He was very emotional during the song... We've met some of the best people in the Church here!

Well, it's almost 10:00pm and I need to call it a day.  There is a farewell mission breakfast tomorrow for these two missionaries and it starts at 6:45am. All the mission is expected to be there and we will have almost 200 in attendance.  Mom and I will be in a tribute skit with them.  They asked all Idahoans to participate.....  fun times!

Have a great evening and thank you for following our blog!

May 6, 2015 - Wednesday

Mom and I enjoyed a much needed day off from the mission focus to regenerate our bodies and minds.  We first had the mission training meeting this morning in Nauvoo at 7:45am.  That got us up and going at 5:00am this morning and we left Carthage at 6:10am to be there on time, (which is about 10 minutes early for me!).  Then, we were able to make the 9:00am temple session.  

The temple reopened this week on Monday after being closed for two weeks.  The temple workers are now at the maximum count for the summer season, so the temple has been able to extend the hours of service.  After the session we dropped by the mail room .... no mail today .... (sad face)..... And then we drove to Keokuk for some grocery shopping.  The Carthage missionaries are responsible for orange juice for the monthly breakfast so we picked up our supply at Aldi's.... 4.5 gallons! 

After dropping off the groceries and changing from our temple clothes, we drove to Quincy for some additional supplies.  We try to make the Sam's Club run twice a month and stock up.  This time we started getting supplies for the Sathre's visit coming up the first week in June!!  We can't wait.

Now, for one of the best parts of the day, we got word, late this afternoon, that the food truck sale was finalized with the check being dropped off at the deli.  Josie had the distinct honor of making the deposit and all of us had a massive and collective sigh of relief!  Thank you Heavenly Father!  Miracles really do happen and we have seen them come to our family regularly!!  This has taken such a load off all of us... yea!!!

Right before we attended our Sunset practice in Nauvoo, we stopped by the mail room and happy days!  We got mail, and that was the other best part of the day!!

And our final activity tonight was participating in the summer "Sunset" practice.  The best part of these practices is that we get to come home earlier than we do with the Rendezvous play.  So tonight, on the way home, this picture presented itself to us;

A most beautiful sunset over the Mississippi River as we were driving on the back roads toward Carthage.  This is a view looking toward Nauvoo, and over the well watered fields of corn and rye.  We must have received upwards of 4 to 6 inches of rain the last few days.  Today was a cooler day but no rain so far.  

It has been a load lightening day for all of us.  We got home just after 8:30pm and are ready for bed! 

I appreciate you checking in with us tonight! 

May 5, 2015 - Tuesday

This turned out to be a great day for our family.  Mom and I got word late this morning that we had been given an offer on our mobile food truck and we were all celebrating.  The deal should be completed tomorrow and will give us all a wonderful boost....

After our morning devotional and workout, we took a walk and I saw these beautiful clouds.  Last night we had some pretty magnificent thunder storms and lightning shows all around us.  The rain came down in buckets and the crops in the area got their irrigation water.   That is how the farmers water their fields in this area of the country, through steady rain storms.  There are no irrigation systems in place other than Mother Nature!  Then, we get the residue of these storms with the clouds I have pictured here;

 

The day at the Visitors Center was slow today.  Perhaps leading up to Mothers Day, the guests will be lower in number, and then we should start seeing some larger groups coming in.  The guests we had today were wonderful.  Mom had 4 visitors who did not know anything about the Church or the significance of Carthage and Joseph and Hyrum.  She took great advantage of the opportunity and handed out 3 copies of the Book of Mormon, and shared her strong testimony and conviction of this great book.  

Then, mom and I had an evening off from driving into Nauvoo.  We stayed close to home and had some sweet calls from some of our children.  I had sent to me this morning, a video of our grandson, Jacob, in a school presentation for Cinco de Mayo.  He performed in a dance with the other 1st graders and he was a star!  He looked so good in that video that I had to call him and tell him so!  Nice job Jacob!  Your dancing took a lot of courage and you were such a good dancer!

We also got word from Josie and Tom that they are planning a trip out to see us during the first week of June.  We are both so excited to have family come and visit with us!!  My arms ache for the chance to hug and squeeze them and rough them up!  We can't wait!

This has been a great day for us out here in the mission field!  Thank you for checking in with us!

May 4, 2015 - Monday

It was a restless night for some reason last night.  I felt pretty tired this morning, perhaps because I needed to be at the Visitors Center by 7:15am for an early event.  We set up a seminary teacher to pod cast her lesson about Joseph and Hyrum from the jail back to her students in Washington State.  I was up early and took my usual walk with Helen and about half way the rain started coming.  Mom went back to our house and I continued on my path, and the rain ending up clearing up after a few minutes.   So I was able to get the full walk in and it was sure humid out!  

I got the teacher all set up by 7:30am and went home to get ready for the day.  I came back around 9:00am to help put things away.  Here is a picture of her set up;

We had to use the window, where the Prophet Joseph fell out, for the best signal for the call.  The students had a really neat experience being able to focus on the lesson broadcast from a very sacred room.

I have shown this special photo shot to a few people and thought that you might like to see the window Joseph fell out of from the perspective of the bullet hole where the  mob fired through the door and hit Hyrum.

We got to the Visitors Center by 8:45am and got the center open for our guests.  The first visitors were already in the parking lot by a little before 8am so they were happy we started up earlier for them.  It seems we just keep opening up earlier each day, but this is why we are here, for sure.

There are some wonderful people we are serving with here in the Nauvoo Mission, and here is a picture of two of them.  Sister Olsen is at the piano and Elder Hatch is singing along with her.  She is 83 and serving as a single sister, and she was the first person who had us over for dinner at her house when we settled into our mission the first part of March. Elder Hatch is in our Rendezvous cast and we have sure enjoyed getting to know him and his wife.  

It was a rather slow day as far as visitors coming into the center, but we had some great connections.  The Nauvoo Temple missionaries all arrived over the last two weeks and their ranks swelled to around 80 couples.  They come from all over the United States to serve here in Nauvoo for six months.  There are so many who want to come that the temple missionaries are limited to the length of their missions.  This couple pictured below have a home teacher that all of our family knows well.  It is none other than Dan Daines up in Spokane, Washington!

And we can't forget our play, Rendezvous, performed tonight!  In the midst of a downpour and a thunder and lightening display, we put on a show for all the Young Performing Missionaries who arrived here last Saturday.  They were, by far, the most supportive audience we have performed for and they were loud, cheerful and totally into the show.  I caught a picture of Elder and Sister Hatch having some fun in our cast room that is affectionately called "the Green Room".  This is where we "relax" in between vignettes.  This is such a great group of people!

Sister Hatch is using her knitting needle to "load" Elder Hatch's rifle before a scene that all the men carry their rifles in to perform a vignette called "Willingly". We had two shows tonight so mom and I got home around 10:30pm.  The rain came down hard and put the windshield wipers to hard labor, but we made it home safe and sound.  It made for a long day.  It is a pleasure to serve here in Carthage and we seem to always be on the run.  

Additionally,  I wanted to post this and, again, thank you for checking in with us tonight! We see time going by at a very rapid rate...

May 3, 2015 - Sunday

What a long day today!  We were the chauffeurs for the Carthage missionaries today.  We had two brand new senior couples move in to the apartments near the Visitors Center.  We rode together to the Sacrament meetings and then back this evening to the Zone Conference meeting.  We are racking up the mileage on the van for sure, but it seems better to drive together whenever we can rather than drive separately.  So far this week over the 7 day period, we have traveled back and forth to Nauvoo 11 times for about 500 miles total.  

The couples seem to be anxious to go to work here in Carthage.  They have orientation in Nauvoo on Monday and Tuesday and have site assignments the rest of the week in Nauvoo.  Then we have the teamster missionaries that were out here during the winter who are traveling from Nauvoo to Carthage this week.  It seems like the feeling is we have plenty of gas money with all this missionary travel....

The Zone Conference was interesting but it was a long night for me.  I felt like I could have skipped the meeting and read from the handout that was available after the meeting.  We will have District Meetings next Sunday and it will be my first one as District Leader.  The pace doesn't seem to slow down!

I did get these pictures of the full moon this evening on the way back to Carthage, as it was coming up over the Nauvoo Temple...

And here is one I took this morning as we were getting ready to leave Carthage for our Sacrament Meeting in Nauvoo;

In our testimony meeting this morning we had a full house of over 400 missionaries.  The Temple missionaries, the Young Performing missionaries and the Single sister missionaries all combined with the senior missionaries, to enjoy the Sacrament and to share testimonies.

May 2, 2015 - Saturday

The day started off nice enough that it promised to be a warm day.  But as the day wore on the clouds came and the rains descended.  We enjoyed our workout and preparations for the day and I got over to the Visitors Center about 9:00am with mom to get things going and to receive our first guest.  He was an interesting man and had a lot to talk about.  He is driving a new motor home for his Bishop back home to California.  He picked the motor home up in Indiana and stopped here on his way back.  

He had one interesting story about his recent conversion.  He was down in his luck and was receiving some food assistance from a church food kitchen for his family.  Apparently the serving rotation for this assistance came from an LDS Ward and he came in contact with a fellow who picked him out of the group needing assistance, and befriended him.  He left him a note penned on a napkin to give him a call after one of his visits to the soup kitchen.  From that phone call he was able to make the connection with the church.  He credits and traces his conversion to the Church to that kind note on the napkin, and, after 5 years, he still has that note.  I took a picture;

Then the picture below is of Brother and Sister Willmore.  They are here in the Nauvoo Mission for just a few days to work with the Young Performing Missionaries (YPM'S), who arrived here yesterday.  She is the director of "The Bells on Temple Square" and she is one of the first 'famous' people I have had on a tour!

They were so kind and very attentive while I was with them.  Not a bit of arrogance being so connected with the music of the Church, but filled with love and kindness.  They were very complimentary after the tour. 

Our evening practice for Sunset was interrupted by a rain storm so we came back to Carthage early and beat the storm a little.  We are heading into the Sabbath Day of Fasting and still hoping and praying the mobile unit will sell back at the deli.  There have been so many highs and lows with attempting to sell the unit and we so desire that we are able to finalize the deal.  There is a lot riding on get this sale to be completed.

Thank you for checking in with me tonight.  It has been a good day and a difficult day as we continue to place our trust and faith in what Heavenly Father deems the best for us!  We continue to have wonderful experiences here in Carthage.

May 1, 2015 - Friday

Here we go beginning a new month today.  And today was another beautiful Spring day.  We were up early again this morning ready to work out and enjoy our morning devotional.  We cleaned the jail and took a nice long walk and saw some more of the beauties of our surroundings;

This little critter followed us for half a block on his exercise route.  I was certainly more comfortable on mine!

As part of our morning walk we see these scenes around the edge of town.  The grass is so green and inviting and the warmth of the sunshine is very nice on us as we traverse the roadway early in the mornings.

Mom thinks I may have shown a picture similar to this one,  but it is such an inviting back yard! 

We had some really interesting visitors today and it is has been such a pleasure to guide them through the events associated with the Carthage jail.  On one of my tours we met Mike Carlson's neighbors.  Mike is an artist of unequal talent when it comes to cement work.  Here are some pictures that show just a small part of what he did for us back in Rigby when he poured 87 yards of concrete for our driveway and patio just a few months before we left for the Philippines;

When we found out that they were Mike's neighbors, you can see why we were excited to talk to them.  They love Mike and his family like we do!  

Well, the tour went smooth and after the tour I was talking to them about the mission and how we were getting together tonight as a cast for a weenie roast.  I don't know why I would even bring that up to anyone not associated with the missionary cast, but I did.  He wanted to clarify that I said "weenie" roast and then asked me to come to his car with him.  

Out of the back of his car he pulled out some weenie roasting sticks.  He makes these sticks and had quite a few in his car and he gave me two sets.  And now the rest of the story..... I have pestered mom all week to go out and just buy some roasting sticks, but we just did not want to spend the money.  Then along comes this wonderful couple and supplies us with just what we wanted.... and I have to ask again, does Heavenly Father know our most quiet and private wants and needs, and does He answer those needs just when we need them answered?  My answer is unquestionably, YES!  Here is a picture of those sticks;

We put them to good use tonight!  Our cast has about 54 members and we had an opportunity to have a fun social tonight right in the park at the end of Parley Street in Nauvoo.  This park is right on the edge of the Mississippi River and this is the point that the Saints began their travels west to the Great Salt Lake Valley on February 4, 1846.  Here are some "well seasoned" party animals! -

We had a great time together and I got the nod to get the hotdogs and the buns.  I was able to find our Nathans all beef dogs from the little store just across the street from our home in Carthage.  The store manager had to dig into his suppliers but he finally found them.  Everyone seems very happy with the better quality dog....

The desserts almost did mom and me in.  We have been praying hard the past three weeks to sell the food truck and Ali, Josie, Mom and I have gone without any sweets as part of our "sacrifice", to find a buyer and close the deal.  We were hoping that could have ended tonight because this dessert was soooooooo tempting!  But not really.  We need all the help we can get to secure a buyer and press forward at the deli.  Maybe tomorrow we can close the deal???

All in all, it has been a great day and we feel privileged that we can be here and feel the presence of Hyrum and Joseph and to testify that Joseph was and is the Prophet of the Restoration.

Thank you for joining us tonight!  We even had a greater bonus; we got some mail from our children back home!  We love hearing from them and from our friends, and feeling of your love for us!