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!

Take his Yoke

What an amazing Week!  I have to be careful with that comment, because I think I might repeat it way too many times.  This week though has had lots of special moments.  Friday morning we had the farewell breakfast for those missionaries going home.  Never seen a place set up so fast for an activity, or cleaned up so fast at the end.  Magical what about 300 missionaries can do together!  The Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith family is having their family reunion this week in Nauvoo and Elder Ballard, of the Quorum of the Twelve is here.  Yesterday afternoon was a special closed meeting for all of the missionaries and we were able to hear him speak.  What a treasure to hear the words of an Apostle of the Lord.  To hear his testimony of Jesus Christ and love of the Gospel.  To top it off, when he finished and they started to take him out the side door, instead he detoured down and came out to shake hands with us as he was leaving.  Elder Spradlin and I both had the opportunity to be with him, listen to his counsel and to shake hands with him.  When I realized that we were going to get too, my eyes just started filling with joy.


Today I worked in the Post Office and Dry Goods store.  Letters were expensive to send at 6 cents for up to 30 miles, and a quarter for up to 400 miles.  They were charged by the page, so you made that paper count for sure!

Take Christ's Yoke  The burden is light, because we become stronger as we become more like Christ.  We will pass through the trials and will become stronger as we leave behind the things in life that would weigh us down.  So much to learn in everything around us! 

We heard Vocal Point perform on Thursday night, then when we were on duty in the Visitor's Center on Friday  they came in to ask if they could warm up in one of the theaters.  Oh yes, excited!  No problem from me letting them use one of the stages, thinking  I would get to peak in and listen.  They were fine with that, but then we kept having visitors come in - something about being a missionary and serving.  

One of the neat parts of working in the homes in the central part of Nauvoo is walking out and hearing the band and getting to watch the Young Performing Missionaries.  Leap Frog Anyone?

This is one of my favorite quotes I have read here.  I think if everyone would apply it - we could change the world.

Most Reverent

Having Laryngitis the last few days in Nauvoo has made things interesting to say the least!  It started Tuesday night, and by Wednesday morning a whisper is all that was coming out.  I know they are short on having enough missionaries in the sites, so I just asked to switch to a home that had less visitors.  No problem!  I still ended up helping with a couple of tours and giving about four.  It was funny, I used hand gestures and spoke very softly, the tour in turn was whispering back to me when they had comments or questions.  Amazing what we express with the tone of our voice.  The tours were great.  Nothing wrong with lowering our voices for sure.
Thursday was harder when I got sent to Family Living Center, figured I would just be able to do the counting, but we had tremendous numbers of guests coming in, especially when it began to rain outside.  I ended up doing tours on spinning and weaving by using some sign language, demonstrating and pointing to a couple of signs.  The groups were so sweet, appreciative and helpful.  We just keep smiling away!
Today is our prep day and so I am able to give it a rest, poor Elder Spradlin - he keeps trying to ask me questions, and not getting much answer from me!  Lemon, Honey, Ginger and cayenne all make for good friends and soon I will be back up to full speed.  Grateful that laryngitis didn't stop us from being able to go to the temple!
Tuesday morning I had a question on my heart, and I wanted understanding.  I felt that if I asked, the Lord would send me the answers I needed. The name of a specific sister came to my mind, when I went to my site, that was the Sister I ended up working with, and I had only been with her one other time in the last two months.  She did have what I needed to hear, in fact it was super neat as she shared with me stories of her ancestors and what they had written in their journals while they were here in Nauvoo. In the afternoon a Sister I had not seen in years showed up on my site and as we bore testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel and the importance of holding on to the truths the Gospel brings we were both strengthened.  My question of the morning led to me being in the frame of mind to hear the needs of my sister in the afternoon.  Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers.  He knows our needs and wants us to reach out to Him, but we have to be ready to Reach and to grow.
Wednesday morning for our Mission Training meeting They had the Core Cast from the pageant come in and do two of the Vignettes, One of them was on the missionaries who left to go teach the Gospel in England from here and the other was the King Follet sermon given by Joseph Smith.  Then they sang.  It was amazing, feel so blessed by all of the opportunities we have here.
Lehi's Dream showed a terrible darkness covering the Earth, we have that today in so many ways with the confusion, chaos, strife around us.  We must do as he admonished by holding tight to the Rod and not ever losing our focus on  the Plan our Heavenly Father has given.  It is all about change and growth but by the pattern we have been given in the Plan of Salvation.

Keeping focus

This amazing photo that Jaci took last week typifies to me a lot of Nauvoo.  We look back at the people who lived here in Nauvoo and we talk about the sacrifices they made and dedication that  they had.  The history in itself is interesting, but how we look at, assimilate and apply the information is what is important.  Learning from history, means applying the information to ourselves.

FOCUS:   I see her focused in this picture.  The saints were focused on the Temple, their covenants with God, family, living the Gospel and following the Prophet.  We need to keep our focus and not let the trials and distractions of the world sidetrack us.  The problems of today are different, but without the focus we will be lost in the process.

TREASURING.  She is treasuring and caring for the stuffed animal, the same as we need to cherish and care for all of those around us.

In each site I learn more,  the families who lost their children -with an infancy death rate of 40%  most lives here had were touched with loss and grief.  The knowledge that families will be together forever and that this earth life is just a step helps us recognize the hope and joy in being together again, although we still grieve and sorrow here.

I pull weeds in some of the yards, sometimes as an assignment.  Makes me contemplate the pernicious things like Dandelions which in the garden are a weed, but some people harvest them to eat.  We need to take care with what we are nourishing or yanking out of our lives.  Some of those weeds take a lot of effort to get pulled out, just like the flowers take a lot of nurturing to survive.  Making sure we have our focus on Heavenly Father and his plan helps us to more easily recognize the good from the bad in our lives.  We also have to be continually ready to repent and change in order to keep our lives ready.

The early Saints had the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a Prophet and twelve Apostles.  Being human they made mistakes just like we do, but they treasured the Gospel and their covenants with God..  We also today have a Prophet and 12 apostles on the earth that testify of Jesus Christ and we likewise need to follow them and hold the Gospel dear.