Crump Crew in Nauvoo: Just happy to be here...

Sometimes it’s hard to be/feel grateful enough to my Heavenly Father for all he has blessed us with. There are times that I take a second to look around me and realize where we are, here, in Nauvoo, serving a mission. It's hard to describe what it's like here, how it feels and the responsibility of sharing the the spirit of Nauvoo. The people who lived here were dedicated to the Lord, were focused on the temple and their covenants. Each day I learn a little more about them and am inspired by their convictions.

Thursday, I served in the Land and Records Office. I love being there and helping people find more information about their ancestors that were here in Nauvoo. We have records of land that was owned, death and burial records, lists of men who were in the Quorums of the Seventies, temple ordinances, histories that mention Nauvoo residents, records from the Nauvoo Temple Building Committee and more. Almost all of the records we have are not found anywhere else, not even on Google, because the system is very old, and the Church hasn’t invested the time, money or manpower to convert it to a program that can be used with new computer systems. It's a unique place. So I love it when someone comes in and knows they have an ancestor that was here and I can help them find all kinds of information that they didn’t know existed and sometimes we even find out that they also had other ancestors who were here. It’s fun to see how excited they are when they walk away with all kinds of information.

Scott was working in the Blacksmith/Wainwright Shop on Friday when Pres. Lusvardi came in and wanted to learn how to make an actual horseshoe. Elder Owen took him into the blacksmith side of the building and proceeded to teach Pres. Lusvardi (dressed in his white shirt and tie, mind you) how to make a horseshoe. He’s a quick study on most things so it didn’t take him long to figure it out. Scott took pictures of it all. He said it was fun to watch the whole process :0) . Pres. Lusvardi is a very hands on mission president. He helped lay bricks with the facilities management guys, gets around to the sites to participate in tours and when he teaches us in Mission Training he doesn't just stand at the pulpit and preach, he walks around through the missionaries with a microphone, sitting on the floor by people as they answer his questions etc. It's never a dull moment when he's in charge.

This week the temperatures have been in the 90's and the humidity is high. Yesterday the "feels like" temperature reached 105 degrees which means we had to close down Pioneer Pastimes at 2:30 and the horses (wagon and carriage rides) were done for the day. OF course the temperature dropped just enough that we still had to perform in "Sunset by the Mississippi." By the end of the evening we were both dripping wet. But it's fun to see how the crowd loves the play, so we try to do our part, as small as it is.