Christmas Every Day

  

Heber C. Kimball's home by Al Rounds.  We go past this home each morning on our way to our various assignments.  We love it.

I have been thinking about Christmas being just one week away.  The time has passed so quickly.  But I have also come to one very important conclusion, and it's this: Serving a mission in Nauvoo is Christmas, every...single...day.  How do you feel on Christmas morning? Excited? Full of love? Peace? Contentment? Exhaustion?  Well, those are the feelings I have while serving here.  If we have to be away from home on Christmas, this is the best place to be.  

This week for the Light the World campaign, the focus is Light Your Family.  What can you do this week to light your own family?  How can you lift them, serve them and love them more?  Just something to think about.  We can each make a difference in our own small way.

This week we went to see some Christmas lights in Keokuk.  They have what’s called the City of Christmas light display.  We took a large van full of missionaries; the Flanders, Swansons, Dares, President and Sister Lusvardi and us.  It’s one of those displays that you drive through to enjoy the lights. We’ve been to that kind before and they are usually about $30 a carload.  This one was totally free (you could make a donation at the end if you wanted). Each of the displays was donated by some local business, church or family, so they could do it at no cost. That’s what made it all so unique. We had a fun evening  together.

If you'll remember, two weeks ago on December 1st, our mission hosted the Nauvoo Christmas Walk.  We had a repeat performance again on the 15th.  The second go-round was extremely well attended.  The Nauvoo Temple missionaries are back from their three month hiatus, so it was great to be able to have them come.  The event was mostly the same as the first one, with just a few improvements. I appreciated all of the work that the missionaries put in to make it a great night for everyone.

Here are a few pictures from this week: 

Hyrum Smith's farm, on the edge of town to the northeast.

This was a fun home in Nauvoo that has computerized
lights that change colors.

After seeing the lights we made a requested stop at Dairy Queen.
Elder & Sister Dare in the front, Elder & Sister Flanders on the left,
and Elder & Sister Swanson on the right.

With President & Sister Lusvardi

At the City of Christmas in Keokuk, Iowa.

Christmas Walk V.2

It's always a very sad day when they have to cut down a tree
in Historic Nauvoo :0(    This one was next to the Browning Gun Shop.

Short Post

This is one of our favorite Al Rounds paintings of Nauvoo. Heber C. Kimball's home is in the foreground.
Our little home, the Winslow Farr Home, is in the background :0)

This week was very busy in the office and I will be elated when the two secretaries, who have been out of town, return this week!  The mission office work was meant for four secretaries, not two :0)  Scott and I had to teach Priesthood and Relief Society on Sunday so we spent most of our free time preparing for that.  Teaching a lesson based on any Dallin H. Oaks talk is a challenge, and this one was no different…Truth and The Plan from the October General Conference.  We read it numerous times, listened to it, broke it down into bite sized pieces and tried to make it applicable.  It literally took all week for us to figure it out!  We did a lot of praying and trying to listen to the spirit.  In the end we were very blessed and both of our lessons went well.

On Saturday night we had the opportunity to attend a performance of a portion of Handel’s Messiah.  It was held at Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, which is next to the temple.  I was amazed at how wonderful the Nauvoo orchestra was.  For a small community orchestra, it was great.  The choir consisted of members of the community and missionaries.  The Messiah is a beautiful piece of music and the orchestra and choir certainly did it justice. It was a wonderful performance.

So, what have I learned this week?  Well, I have learned that when you are engaged in the Lord’s work, He will give you the strength, knowledge and guidance to accomplish anything He asks.  And that’s the gospel truth! I have seen it in other missionaries and I have experienced it this week.

Merry Christmas!!!

Handel's Messiah
Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral

Scott, Elder Corder and Elder Bingham
went on a little Nauvoo field trip last week.
These stones were from the original Nauvoo Temple
that were excavated when the temple was rebuilt in 2002.

Consolidated Grain and Barge Co. and the Nauvoo-Colusa Grain Elevator
are located on the northwest edge of Nauvoo, along the Mississippi River. 
Locally grown crops, such as corn and soy beans, are brought here and
then loaded on barges to be exported.

Note the barge on the river. Scott was
fascinated by all of this :0)

What?? It's December already??!!

I thought things were busy in November and that December would calm down a bit.  However, I was dead wrong on that assumption.  President Lusvardi wants us to stay busy and happy while we’re serving.  So, we have the month of December packed with activities.  Each day that I serve in the office I come home thoroughly exhausted.  Last week I mentioned that we were preparing to host our annual Christmas Walk in Historic Nauvoo.  Our first event was this last Saturday night so we spent the better part of the week preparing.  It was a great event and the guests seemed to really enjoy themselves.  We had a tree lighting program, a live Nativity, wagon rides, short stories and refreshments.    I helped with a lot of the lighting, especially during the Nativity, and then helped a bit with the refreshments in the Family Living Center.  Scott’s job was to take pictures throughout the night, which he enjoyed.  He loves to document the history of any event :0)   We will repeat it all on the 15^th.

We have three sisters who serve in the mission office with me; Sister Robison is the Mission Secretary, Sister Swanson is in charge of reservations and works with the many groups who visit in the summer, and then Sister Williams takes care of all of the scheduling of where the missionaries serve each week.  Right now both Sister Swanson and Sister Williams are out of town until the middle of next week.  So, as you can see, that leaves just two of us to take care of everything.  It’s a little (actually a lot) stressful to me, but with Sister Robison and help from our Heavenly Father, we will be able to do it. 

I have learned some important lessons this week.  First; with everything being so busy I have been reminded that I have to put first things first, like reading the Book of Mormon.  As soon as I open that book in the morning, I feel a sense of peace come over me that I need throughout the day.  Second; it has been driven home to me how much I need to rely on my Heavenly Father to take me through each step of the day so I use my time wisely and can be inspired how to solve the problems that I encounter.  As an example, for security reasons, we have changed the username and password for our mission blog.  That has required me to know how to help each of the senior missionaries change the information on their phones, tablets, computers, etc.  I didn’t know how to use most of those devices if they weren’t an Apple product.  So, I just said a prayer in my mind and then listened.  The right solutions came every time. I have probably relied more on my Heavenly Father this week than I have at any other time since we’ve been here in Nauvoo. It’s a powerful, yet very humbling feeling.

I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story of this week’s events.

Last Thursday we went with all of the missionaries out to Carthage
and sang around the town square.  Thankfully it wasn't a freezing cold night.

The buildings in Historic Nauvoo are decorated for the holidays.
This is the Seventies Hall.

And this is the inside of the Seventies Hall.

Heber C. Kimball is our next door neighbor.

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with this week's events.
It was taken in the summer during one of our Sunset performances.
Every night I would eat a blue otter pop, and then, as we
entered the stage for the final number, I would walk past the
Nauvoo Brass Band at the back of the stage and stick
out my blue tongue.  I did it every single night that
 we performed.  Just a way to lighten the mood :0)

We set up our few Christmas decorations.
It took us all of a half an hour.

Our humble, little hand-me-down Christmas tree.
It certainly was perfect for our tiny pioneer home.

Everything was set up in the Visitors' Center as we
prepared for the annual "Christmas Walk".

The teamsters were all ready to go.

An evening wagon ride.

Sister Lusvardi played her guitar
in the Old Nauvoo Post Office
as part of the story telling events.

Luminaries on the path to the
Family Living Center for refreshments.

The missionaries stood around the
 balcony and sang, "Light Up the Tree".

Our Nativity cast.
My contribution? The star :0)