June 5, 2016 - Sunday in Nauvoo

It was a beautiful Sabbath Day here in Nauvoo.  We got to share it with our precious family as we attended the missionary ward at 7:50am.  It was so much fun to be together on this special day of fasting, and partaking of the Sacrament together, and participating in other Sabbath Day activities.  We had our breakfast for lunch meal, and then went to the Old Nauvoo Pioneer cemetery, where Mary was able to find her ancestors grave marker.  That was a special blessing to gather around the marker!  And I even got to hold precious Faith!

Faith taking a Sabbath Day nap... in Grandpa's arms!

Here are some sweet pictures of the breakfast for lunch activity.  Looks like we had a good reception for the food fare, and Grandpa remembered how to make the special pancakes for the kids!  Loaded with whipped cream!

Breakfast of Champions!

And here are some pictures around the temple before our meetings, and then, again, after our meetings.  I had Bobby and Jacob walk to the Church with me this morning, and Anna joined us on our walk back to the house!  They should sleep very good tonight!

The morning clouds gathering around the temple

Perfectly posed picture

 

Brothers learning about the perfect example of brothers Joseph and Hyrum

After our sweet experience at the Nauvoo Pioneer Cemetery, we drove out to Carthage.  This is such a special place to visit and feel the Spirit of Joseph and Hyrum.  We got there at 12:30pm, just as they were opening.  I quickly got a key and headed into the jail to tell the story of the Martyrdom, while the first visitors were being shown the movie.  I had about a 15 minute head start, to set the stage, for the events of June 25, 26, and 27, 1844.  I also took some pictures to preserve the experience;

Remember the special feeling in the Martyrdom room?

All together for this special day

I could not let Mary pass up an opportunity to play for Joseph and Hyrum

Perhaps a new special feeling between these brothers?

If you look closely at Bobby's tie in the picture with Jacob in front of Joseph and Hyrum, you will notice the "Elder Lasher" name tag!  All the young Lasher's wanted one for future reference and use!  Bobby wore it today because he was dressed as a missionary!

A "cooling off" moment with a frozen pop!

A picture in front of the Mansion House

We enjoyed a busy afternoon walking Parley Street and visiting the Community of Christ visitors area.  The former RLDS run this area, and charge for admission, but we just walked the sites and enjoyed the afternoon breezes. 

What a blessing it is to have the fulness of the Gospel in our lives!  The dilution of the principles of the restored Gospel are all around us.  Sometimes we have been given so much in our lives that we don't fully appreciate what we have and what we have the privilege of sharing.  Every person in the world today needs exactly what the Gospel has to offer.  It is up to us to reach out and share this precious message every single day, until everyone has the chance to accept it or reject it.  Knowing what we know, and having experienced what we have experienced, we hope and pray that more people will be willing to accept this wonderful message.  It will change their lives, no matter what they have, or have not, done.

June 4, 2016 - Saturday Ali's Birthday!

Happy Birthday precious daughter Ali!  We hope you had a great day!  Our day was busy and it started off with early morning prayers and our devotional.  Mom and I worked at the Handcart Station, and we had three groups take the trek today.  And, we had the best assistants with us to keep the crowds under control, and to help keep them very happy.  Here are some pictures for today;

Getting the Handcart Station set up for the day

Let the trek begin!

Handcart helpers

Cruz-in with Grandpa on the 4-wheeler!

The delight to be on the 4-wheeler with Grandpa is in the eyes!

Keeping the handcarts nice and clean!

We had so much fun working together in the Handcart site.  We had our last group come in about 12:15pm and mom and I went out on the trail to make sure all the gates were secured.  We then headed home to make cookies and have a fun afternoon!  Here are some action shots;

Johnny looking for Grandpa to help make cookies

One of the four basic food groups - whipped cream!

The Audition - home version... e - g - g - s ....

We had a great afternoon!  Then, Bobby and Jacob and I walked down to the Sunset stage to save seats on the front row of the outdoor amphitheater.  All the kids loved the Sunset show and especially the Audition.  Jacob wanted so badly to have his picture taken with one of the performing missionaries.  But he was so shy and could hardly look at him when he came to invite Jacob and his siblings to join the kids parade...

Jacob and the Young Performing Missionaries!

Anna was the brave girl to go up on stage with mom

Anna meeting Sister Hatch

The fun begins on the front row of Sunset!

We had a full day and it has been so good to be with the family.  I got to play ball with the grand-kids and we took several walks together.  We enjoyed the trek station and the Sunset performance.  And we even got caught in a downpour on the walk home!  Memories that will not be soon forgotten by this Grandpa!

President David O McKay was so inspired when he taught us that; "no other success can compensate for failure in the home".  That is something that we need to work on every single day as parents and grandparents and other family members and friends!  We are thankful every day for our precious family!

June 3, 2014 - Friday in Nauvoo

What a busy day!  We started off with an early morning devotional and prayers, before mom had to leave for her wagon assignment.  She worked early as the wagon narrator and I worked the late shift at the Blacksmith shop.  Mary took the opportunity to attend the Nauvoo Temple 9:00am endowment session, and the rest of us joined mom's 9:30am wagon ride.  Here is an action shot of the world's best narrator;

What a great narrator!

Three generations of Lasher's on the wagon ride!

There is one pretty girl checking out another pretty girl!

After the wagon ride, I had about an hour to spend with Bob and the kids before I needed to report to the Blacksmith shop... So we went to some fun sites together.  The wagon shot is in front of the Browning Gun shop and the games are being played at the Pioneer Pastimes site.

Third generation pioneers in Nauvoo!

Two big brothers helping Johnny focus on his next shot!

Anna taking some steps on the stilts!

Then Bobby and I took some time together at the Blacksmith shop.  I wanted to share some time with him and then trade off with Jacob.  What I did not expect was how busy we would be!  Over 300 came for tours between noon and 5:30pm.  And there were only two of us working.  I did not sit down until 5:45pm and then only for a minute because I needed to change into the Rendezvous clothing.  Mom picked me up at 5:55pm and we raced to the 6:00pm dress rehearsal.    

Tonight, the family got to see two shows with Granny and Grandpa playing some fun roles.  The second show was the same as the first except the Pa and Jimmy part was in place for the summer season.  The kids got to see what Grandpa did last summer when he played the Pa part.  Fun times!  Action shots!

Bobby III in the Blacksmith shop making horseshoes! 

And tonight we had the Rendezvous Play.  As we gathered for our pre-show meeting, Sister Lowe asked Bobby to give the opening prayer for our cast.  He immediately stood up and gave a wonderful prayer!  I was so proud of him to pray in front of doens of grandparent aged senior missionaries!!

We had one good audience at the 7:00pm show and an outstanding audience at the8:15pm show.  It was so much fun to have the family stay for both shows!  The kids were all tired but we paid a little heavier price for getting them down so late.  Jacob rode home with us and he was so excited that he got to stay up so late.  He said something to the effect that this was the latest he had ever stayed up!  Here is a great show shot;

Priceless memories!

We got to introduce our precious family to many friends in our cast.  They were so kind to us as they told the kids how much they loved us.  Sister Black took this picture with my camera and jumped at the chance to help us record this wonderful memory!

A very happy Grandpa strolling with his grandchildren

 It has been a wonderful day with our precious family.  It is so good to have them here with us!  There is no place we would rather be than with our family, and we are so grateful that we have the privilege of serving this mission together for the benefit of our eternal family unit!  Take a look at this playful angel at 10:00pm tonight;

The discovery girl at the feeding table during prayers!

OK Grandpa, I will smile!

June 2, 2016 - Thursday in Nauvoo

It was so good to wake up to these precious grandchildren sleeping in our living room!  They were out cold, this morning, after arriving yesterday evening... We got them all settled in, last night, with their sleeping bags and blankets and full tummies.  We all slept great!  Here is what I saw this morning;

Johnny, Jacob and Anna at 5:30am this morning

Johnny woke up and snagged a chocolate chip muffin!

Mom and I had our morning devotional and prayers together before the family was stirring.  We were ready to report to our Handcart assignment today at 7:30am.  The family joined us at 9:15am and we took the one mile trek together.  At least we started on the one miler before one precious granddaughter had a need to have a potty break.  So we took the half mile trek and still had a sweet experience... take a look;

OK!  Let's do this!

Granny getting the pioneers ready to go!

The wind storm blocked the trail

If the pioneers could see us now!

We had a fun morning, and, before our shift was over, we had another family come to take the one mile trek at about 11:00am.  The family consisted of five girls, under the age of 13, and two grandparents.  I was a little concerned about the grandparents, but the one mile was not to strenuous.  However, when they weren't back within the maximum one hour time frame, Bobby and I went out on the 4-wheeler for a search and rescue.  We found them on the one mile trail, but they kept missing the trail marker to return to the home base and had been circling the hill course on the one mile trail.  They must have gone at least another mile!  

Bobby and I felt like the rescuers must have felt back in 1856.  We found the lost party, and got them safely back to the handcart station.  Sweet experience for Bobby and me to share!

Just getting acquainted with Faith!  She is warming up to me!

Once we closed the handcart site, we came home for lunch and rest.  We then went out to find some sites to experience and share together.  However, the city of Old Nauvoo was alive with lots of visitors so we couldn't do much site seeing together....  And the kids were tired so we came back to the house and rested up for the Sunset show.  I forgot my phone, that was charging in the office, so I did not get some stage pictures of this precious family in the audience!

And the star of the family!

The star and her side kick (in the back row)

Standing ovation for the star!

However, Bob and Mary took some pictures tonight of the Sunset show.  I had to include them here and hope that you can enjoy them with us!  It has been a great day with our family here in Nauvoo!  (However, no Levi yet!)

June 1, 2016 - Wednesday in Nauvoo

Our day began with our morning devotional and prayers.  The morning was cool and we had a few clouds overhead.  We had our weekly training meeting at 7:30am, this morning, so our morning walk was set aside.  Mom had the assignment to work at the FM site and helped with mulching the gardens around the Scovil Bakery.  I worked with Elder Heslop at the Handcart Station.  We had two families sign up today for treks. 

The morning training meeting was a meeting to help the senior missionaries adopt a better attitude of support for the new mission president.  The missionary department sent out its highest ranking non general authority executive to encourage all the senior missionaries to sustain the new president.  We knew our new mission president was making some major changes in the mission, but with Mark Lusvardi's "visit", it is apparent that the, 'obedience challenged', senior missionaries are struggling...  Brother Mark Lusvardi was here last year, about this time, and he gave the same talk, but this year he prefaced his remarks with sustaining the new mission president.  I had no idea there was any other choice, especially for seasoned members of the Church working in a Zion society.

I took a few pictures of the activities of my day;

The grove of trees sheltering the 3 mile trek with an amazing cloud trail

A view of the spire on the temple from the two mile trek

A family trek - pulling together!  The end of the three miler!

The Lasher's Children have arrived at Granny and Grandpa's!

Our site assignments ended at 1:00pm this afternoon.  I quickly headed home to shower and change clothes so that we could run to Keokuk for some final supplies.  Mom was already home and waiting for me.  She was done earlier and had already showered and changed into our missionary clothing. 

The Lasher family finally arrived at 7:30pm Nauvoo time!  Yea!  We were so happy to see and hug everyone.  Then Grandpa got serious about roughing up some grand-kids.  We are so excited and grateful for their safe arrival and for the time will will get to spend with them!!

And, I also had a sweet experience with my grandson Zac.  He is turning twelve on June 13th and he had his Priesthood interview with the Bishop tonight.  However, before his scheduled interview he wanted to talk with me about what to expect from the interview.  He wanted to know what questions the Bishop would ask from my experience. 

This was one of the sweetest and wonderfully special opportunities afforded this Grandpa!  He talked for about 10 minutes and we seemed to be able to address many of his concerns.  I am looking forward to hearing how the interview went!  Congratulations Zac for being a worthy and well prepared young man to receive the Aaronic Priesthood and be ordained to the office of a Deacon!  Granny and Grandpa could not be any more proud of you, and we love you sooooo much!