D Schedule

Life is about change, and here in Nauvoo that is a principle we see and practice a lot here!  Between May and September there are three major schedules, A, B, and C - that is as long as you are assigned specifically to the sites.  If you are assigned to the Visitor's Center, facilities management, the gardens or teamsters then you have a completely different schedule.  Schedules are posted two weeks at a time, the first week is pretty much set, the second week could change sometimes.  You will have a combination of the different schedules each week.  A is from 8:45-3pm.  B is from 11:45 to 6pm and C is from 9-12 and 3-6.  That way there is always a minimum two missionaries in each site.  In the Fall the amount of visitors we have drops drastically and so does the amount of missionaries we have.  Starting September a lot of the missionaries go home, then starting about April we start getting a lot of new missionaries arriving.  This works because the majority of missionaries here serve for 18 months.  The flux in those numbers means that winter months we are down to a minimum of missionaries to keep everything open and running and so we have D shifts.  A D shift means that five days a week you are on site from 9:45am to 5pm.  Many of the missionaries when we don't have a lot of tours coming in work on humanitarian projects making scarves, hats, stuffed bears, quilts that are then given to people in need. In some of the sites people are doing prep for next year making things that will be given away next year to visitors like bricks, rings, ropes, and cookies.   Others work on personal projects and that is the category I fall into with working on wool carding, spinning, weaving, quilting and working on my dulcimer.  I look like I am moving sometimes with the things I take with me!   No matter what site I am in though I am able to show how to spin, and that is a lot of fun especially with these beautiful fall days when I sit outside and get to enjoy the sunshine.  Sundays Harold and I are what they call "outbound" which means we attend a branch in Mt. Pleasant Iowa which is about an hour from here so we leave about 7:30 in the morning and get back here sometime after 1pm.  Missionaries that are not outbound start church at 7:50 in the morning, because the sites open from 12:30 to 5pm on Sundays.
In addition to the site schedules everyone is assigned one Preparation Day a week, that one is fun because if you get everything done you can go play or visit surrounding areas.  There is a schedule that shows which day you are off, that day rotates every month.  So, if you need a different day than when you are assigned you contact someone on the day

On top of the longer days in the sites we have rendezvous two nights a week, we try to go to the temple at least once a week and there has been a historian here doing a lecture series two nights a week. Pretty evenings sometimes get a walk or bike ride fit in also.   Mornings are preparation for the day, housework, exercise. There is an exercise class on Monday and Friday mornings that I attend, then once a week I get to go play and learn  on  my dulcimer.   Training meetings are Wednesday mornings at 8am then the other days we go walking.  One Sunday evening a month we have District meeting which is a lot of fun and we were just made District leaders, there are four other couples in our district.

We also have special events this time of year,   last week we just finished helping with a community wide celebration called "bootiful Nauvoo"  We got to help with carving the 500 pumpkins that are carved by missionaries and community members which are then used to line the streets of uptown Nauvoo.  Then Saturday evening was a parade, some missionaries (including me)  were in the lead with one of the horse drawn wagons from here fancied up for Halloween with people on the wagon and some of us walking on the sides all doing a dance routine thing we had been taught.  We also had missionaries that did a Chinese style walking dragon.  Lots of community people dressed up in costumes and walked in the parade, plus somebody drove a ghostbuster car!  Along the sides of the roads were food vendors, stores fixed up, missionaries did kettle corn for everyone and little bags of candy for children under the age of 11.  Missionaries made up a lot of the corn in advance and bagged it, along with the bags of candy.  So much fun when people ask us how much, and our answer is that it is free!  I ate way too much Kettle Corn, but boy was it good.  Now we are all preparing for the Christmas Walk in Old Nauvoo that comes up on the 2nd of December!

Now let's throw in a couple more things on top of that schedule.  One is the fantastic fact that we had friends we had not seen in years come visit Nauvoo for a few days and we were able to spend some time with them.  We are helping with the preparation for Christmas in Old Nauvoo, we are in charge of publicity which entailed helping get the flyers made and passed out, plus put up here and in the surrounding communities.   Then on Thursday we were offered the chance to move to a little bit larger home (when so many missionaries go home in the fall there is a little bit of change around in residences)  We had asked a few months ago but were still delightfully surprised.  Our new home is still in what we call "the Flats"  and is a historic home, but will be big enough we can have children come visit us much easier!!!  That said, we found out on Thursday we could move, since Friday is our Pday this month we moved the next day!  We worked on it again Saturday morning and evening and have most of our stuff moved over and put away.  Doing all of my new projects means the amount of things we brought has expanded!    We have two weeks to get everything done, but figure it will only take us a few more days to get everything moved and cleaned, working before and after our other commitments.

Our crazy parade debut!

awesome carvings

between missionaries and people from the community there were 500+ pumpkins carved to line the streets????

I got to serve as wagon narrator last week on an amazingly beautiful day

Noelle's sweet baby!

Elaine and her family were able to come for a few days!

Our new home!

Fall Fun!

I should probably have named this pictures galore!

We got to help clean clean the pioneer cemetery

We went to festivals on Sasturdays with Nauvoo on the Road

Harold made lots of ropes and I spun, played the dulcimer, showed people games from the 1840's and taught people how to walk on stilts!

We played stick pull, but he always won!

Fall colors have come, along with deer and raccoons.  This little fellow was across the street in front of our house.  He thought he was hiding from us in the tree...

They pulled the cotton plants at the Lyon Drug and I have started working it up for spinning.  One little piece makes an amazing amount!

We have been given the part of George and Agatha in Rendezvous, the nightly play we are in twice a week.  It goes on 6 nights a week, year round.  Each cast performs two nights a week.  We are starting to feel a little more comfortable in our roles, so that makes it a lot more fun!  Yes, we are a major part of the comedy relief in the performance, in case you can't tell from the pictures.

Favorite picture of this post though is probably Julie Stokes coming and spending two days with me. We got to see the sites, she was able to see us practice for Rendezvous and we got to plant tulips in the flower gardens. So grateful for good friends!  Come see us!!!

Lists

So many things we do and experienced!  So it calls for us a list I do believe.
Nauvoo on The Road.  We went and played for a day at a pumpkin festival, well we went and helped with the booth anyway.  Elder Spradlin was doing the rope making, I worked with different games, spinning, weaving and my dulcimer.

Yes he won even one handed!

I have been playing in the gardens before I go on sites.  Right now it is time to take out the summer plants and get ready for planting for next Spring.

Sister Johnson and her husband are assigned to the gardens so I get to play with both of them!

I finished the quilt for O!!  I call it caddywampus.  Kind of a fun crazy quilt for a baby!

Played around a lot with the Spinning Wheel.

Then made crazy messes in the kitchen dying the yarn.

 But got some amazing colors from poke berries, black beans, black walnuts and Marigolds

Our friends the Bradshaws came and visited to surprise Harold for his birthday and that was super fun.  Hopefully they send us a picture, because the one we have has our eyes closed.  Morning and Evening walks have us seeing Deer and raccoon. I also collected chestnuts from the chestnut tree and have them stored so they can sweeten.  Picked Persimmons and learned that when they are really ripe they are yummy, when they are not, they make your mouth feel horrible!

Our shifts are changing with the seasons, so sometimes we are in the sites from 10-5,  when there are not a lot of visitors then we spend time doing a variety of projects, for me that means spinning, weaving, quilting,  and of course my dulcimer!  

We are now playing George and Agatha in the Rendezvous performances, so hopefully by next week I can have a few good shots of that. 

 Getting ready for the Halloween festivities.

Sundays we serve in the Mt. Pleasant Branch, it is about an hour away and is a Spanish/English branch.  That makes it a happy day for both of us!

crookedest avenue

Parley street was the main road used as an exit from Nauvoo by the early saints.  As you walk down the end of it there are signs showing quotes from their journals about how they felt and what they experienced.  At the end then is this wagon up on a small float  that shows how they would have crossed during the summer, or when the river was not frozen.  A sister went with us and did a photo shoot the other week and we took these two pictures down there.  Living here in our lovely home with plenty to eat, running water and clothes to wear it is hard to even fathom their lives and the sacrifices that they made.

We have been assigned now to do "outbound"  it means that we go to Mt. Pleasant, a town about an hour away for our Sunday meetings.  It is super exciting for me because it is an English/Spanish branch.  It means that I get to go to Sunday School in a Spanish class, and Elder Spradlin goes to the English class.  I also get to help with translation during Relief Society and Sacrament.  Not only do I love the people we are getting to meet there, but I also enjoy having the opportunity to work with my Spanish!  

Our preparation days get all sorts of things thrown in on them, from shopping, to extra play rehearsals, to practice spinning.  Last week we went to Burlington which is about 45 minutes away since we had never been there before.  We found the crookedest avenue in the US while there.  Fun to walk down, then of course we walked back up so we could drive down it!

The times for us on site has changes, with shorter hours, so we have had more time to do other things.  Amazing how fast the time fills up.  We have been able to go to the Temple about twice a week now.  I was given a bicycle so early morning rides are delightful and Elder Spradlin is getting back into his running.  On sites people are starting to work on humanitarian projects and I am busy trying to finish my quilt, so hopefully in the next two weeks I will be able to post a picture of the finished project.

Scoville Bakery and the joy of learning

I should probably have pictures of the neat things in the bakery like the sifter or the apple peeler, but since the cookies are one of the important things that we share....  I always tell people when I give them one that for the next couple of minutes I am one of the sweetest people in Nauvoo.  Then I tell them I hope they have a sweet day in Nauvoo.  Corny but true!!  The stairs down into the basement where we have freezers with the cookies are crazy steep.  

I have started learning how to spin wool from a sister here and so that is the newest excitement in my life.  It is definitely going to take a lot of practice to get it right, but am definitely enjoying the process.  Next  I plan on learning how to work on the big looms.  I figure there are so many skills that we talk about here that I want to absorb everything I can. 

 The Young Performing Missionaries gave their final presentation Sunday evening and have now left for home.  The fall slow down has begun so there will be many changes.  Each time of year here in Nauvoo comes with it's own challenges and blessings.  About half the missionaries finish and go home here in the next month or two, so that makes for a large change.  I am looking forward to learning lots of new things during this part of the year. 

 We have been asked to play Agatha and George in the Rendezvous performance for our cast and are working diligently on our parts.  They are the comedy relief and somewhat over the top.  It does mean that I get to climb the pole on the stage which I think is a hoot.  Have thought about putting a little bit of a southern twist on my lines...we shall see, first I just need to get them all down.  The missionaries that do those parts now finish their missions and leave the first week of September. 

So much fun watching all the performances that come.  This was part of Vocal Points last performance.There are also lots of other lectures and performances that go on throughout the rest of the year.  

Tonight there was a presentation and slide show on MesoAmerica and findings that support the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.  Since some of it's focus was GUATEMALA and the Salama valley, we definitely enjoyed it!