Wait for it...wait for it...

It's arrived!  The tourist season is upon us!

Memorial Day is tomorrow and the seasonal tourists are beginning to arrive.  In anticipation of the crowds, we bake 50,000 little molasses cookies to give to guests at the Scovil Bakery! Today we served in the Visitor Center and we had a Youth Conference group of 194 from Memphis, Tennessee.  Things are getting busy!

We began our first of many performances of “Sunset by the Mississippi”.  It’s not as scary as I had anticipated.  I just try not to think about all of the people watching us and how I mess up on just about every dance we do!  Thankfully the Young Performing Missionaries do most of the show and the senior missionaries are a sidelight, or you could call us the comic relief!  There are three casts and we are in the blue cast that will perform Wednesday and Saturday nights in June.  Each month we rotate which days we perform. With the heat, humidity and pioneer clothing things get pretty sweaty backstage :0)

This week we had our first Nauvoo visitors!  Randy and Charlotte Meldrum came with Charlotte’s father, brother and sister-in-law.  It was absolutely the best to have them here and share Nauvoo with them!   We had the chance to go to Carthage as well and enjoy the spirit there. 

Scott was able to serve in the Brickyard a few times this week and learned all about how the pioneers made bricks.  It’s a hard, sweaty job but he has enjoyed it. He had a visitor come by this week that he went to high school with, Larry Fullmer.  So it was fun for him to tell Larry and his wife all about the brickyard.

One day this week I was at the Land and Record office which is where visitors can find information about their ancestors that were here in Nauvoo.  I helped one lady gather over 43 records about her ancestors that were here!  We have information that can only be found here, like if someone owned land, contributed in any way to the building of the Nauvoo Temple, owned a business or died and were buried in the pioneer cemetery, among other things.  It’s a happy moment when we can connect the visitors to their pioneer ancestors.

We served twice at Pioneer Pastimes, which we have done a few times already.  This week though the Nauvoo Brass Band come by and had the kids participate in a little parade.  The kids had so much fun and the band members were great with them, letting them beat on their drums, blow on their trumpets and try to get some kind of sound out of the tuba.

I had the chance to give a tour at the Pendleton Log School in Spanish!  A family from Guatemala came in and the grandparents spoke very little English.  I did the best I could and quickly realized that I need to increase my Nauvoo vocabulary!  But in the end, I was able to share my testimony.  Thankfully I can do that in Spanish and the spirit speaks all languages. 

Just to get an idea of our daily schedules: we have and A, B & C schedule.  A goes from 8:45-3:00, B is 11:45-5:30 and C has a split schedule, 3 ½ hours in the morning and then another 3 hours in the afternoon. Then two nights a week we perform in “Sunset”.  The historic sites are open every day of the week, as well as holidays, like Memorial Day tomorrow. 

Last week I mentioned the fact that we received the dreaded “Golden Ticket” to teach Sunday School.  The topic was the Reign of the Judges, which is hard enough, but the fact that we taught to 200+ people made it a bit more difficult.  Because the crowd is so large we use a PowerPoint to project the scriptures, pictures and videos up on the theater screen (we have Sunday School & Priesthood/RS in the theaters in the Visitor Center).  It’s certainly a different ballgame than teaching a lesson in a home ward. But we’re done with that, so now we just have to anticipate a Golden Ticket to speak in church and teach Priesthood/RS.

That about sums up our week.  Each day gets busier and busier as the visitors arrive.  We love it though.  There’s nothing like sharing Nauvoo with the people who come.  There are some visitors who come here because it’s their destination spot, they’re visiting church history sites.  But there are also people who come that have no idea why they are here.  They just "felt" like they should stop by or remember coming here as a child on a school field trip and wanted to see it again because of the way they felt when they were here long ago.  Hmmm. “…the Holy Ghost…shall bring all things to your remembrance…”

Just the view on my morning walk.

A pioneer grave in a small cemetery in Iowa.

At the Brickyard with Randy and Charlotte. 
We loved having them visit!

At Pioneer Pastimes.

With Larry Fullmer at the Brickyard.

The Young Performing Missionaries did a mini concert for us that was phenomenal!

The Nauvoo Brass Band with the kids at Pioneer Pastimes.

Ahhh, we just love this place...

Even though we have only been here in Nauvoo for a little over a month, there are things I hope never become common place to me and I stop noticing them:

·      The constant sounds of birds calling loudly to one another.

·      Squirrels scampering across the grass and up the trees.

·      Orioles, cardinals, blue jays and woodpeckers.

·      Racoons getting into our garbage at night.

·      Spring magnolia trees in full bloom.

·      Fireflies glowing in the evenings.

·      Feeling the cool, humid air in the mornings.

·      The bright, beautiful sunsets on the Mississippi almost every evening.

·      Barges traveling up and down the Mississippi River.

·      Waiting on the Fort Madison swing bridge for a barge to pass through.

·      Living in an 1843 pioneer home.

·      The view of the Nauvoo temple from everywhere in town.

·      The feeling of love from the other senior missionary couples.

·      The peaceful feeling when I walk into the Visitor Canter.

·      Hearing the Nauvoo bell ring every hour.

·      The feeling of amazement at what the Nauvoo saints accomplished, their ingenuity and complete dedication to the gospel and the Savior.

Here in the mission we have the “Opportunity” to receive three Golden Tickets.  Now, initially that may sound like something right out of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and you’d wait anxiously to receive those Golden tickets.  Well, we do wait anxiously to receive them.  But not for the reason you may think.  One ticket is the assignment to speak in Sacrament Meeting, one to teach Sunday School and one to teach Relief Society/Priesthood.  So, Scott and I received our first Golden Ticket this past week and we will be teaching Sunday School next week on the Reign of the Judges :0)  The scary part is that the Sunday School class includes the entire mission, about 220 people! It’s hard to teach a lesson in an auditorium and not make it a lecture.  So, we have our work cut out for us.

This week Scott served for the first time in the Blacksmith shop.  It didn’t take him long to perfect the making of the mini horseshoes they hand out to guests.  He comes home each day covered in black coal and smells like the fire in the forge.  But he’s loving it.  Some people dream of working in the blacksmith shop in Nauvoo and he has the unique opportunity to actually do it.  This coming week he’ll be in the Brickyard learning to make the Nauvoo bricks, so we’ll see how that goes. 

I was at the Lyon Drug Store, Pendleton Log School and at Pioneer Pastimes this week.  I enjoy Pioneer Pastimes for three reasons; I don’t have to wear my slip or apron and I can roll up my sleeves because it’s so hot, I get to hang out with Scott while we serve there, and I love to watch the kids be totally enthralled with the simple pioneer games like stilts, tug-o-war, stick pull and the climbing bears.  No video games here!

When we arrived here in April the Nauvoo Temple had just closed for cleaning so this week we finally had the chance to go do an endowment session.  Can I just say what a blessing it is to be able to sit in the temple and feel the Savior’s love and the peace that His love brings?! I love being in the temple.

What a twist of events this year because our children got to Skype US for Mothers’ Day!  The internet here leaves a lot to be desired, so we had to Skype Zachary separately since he’s in Montana for the summer, but it made my heart happy to see all of their faces and talk to them.  I can add modern technology to my gratitude list :0)

I don’t know about you, but I think a picture really is worth a thousand words.  So I think I’ll share lots of pictures this week.

Where we have Pioneer Pastimes.

In front of the Visitor Center

Next to the Lyon Drug store

The herb garden at Lyon Drug.

More herbs.

Slaving away at the Blacksmith Shop.

Our first visitor!!  Ben Spence was working about two hours away
and decided to come to see Nauvoo with his work buddy. 
While he was driving down the road he saw our van and called
his mom, Jane, to see if we were really here.  It was so
great to spend some time with him!

Here are the pictures from President Nelson’s visit last week!

Elder Ballard, Sister & President Nelson, President & Sister Irion (He is the Nauvoo Temple President and she is President Nelson's daughter), and Sheri Dew.  President & Sister Lusvardi are in the back photobombing their picture.

This is pretty much all of the missionaries in our mission:
Young Sister Missionaries, Young Performing Missionaries
and the Senior Missionaries.  We are in the top right corner (Scott is wearing a
tan-ish shirt and black vest and my head is barely visible to the left of him.)