We started our week with this production, called Songs of the Heart at the former Community of Christ Visitor's Center. It was really lovely, and heart felt. It's amazing how touching music can be. In fact in listening to the Sunday School lesson on Follow Him today, the guest pointed out that when the Kings at the time of Elijah, went to ask for his guidance, he called a minstrel, to help him prepare to receive revelation to share with the 3 kings as they went to war. I thought that was super interesting.
After the production we met up with this couple who we'd run into at the Old Visitor's Center that morning. They are from Arizona. Later in the week we went back to the Old Visitor's Center again to find out exactly where Philo's land was and realized that the auditorium in which we had joined the Missionary Fireside last Sunday, is right on the spot where he lived.
Next. we headed over to see the churches new acquisitions, including the cabin Joseph was living in when his house and yard were full of malaria victims, and the mansion house too. There was one other, shown here that was not finished until after the saints left Nauvoo.
We asked around where we could find frames in Nauvoo, and were sent to Eborn Books, where they had none, and then to a store named Berlin's, which turned out to be an antique store, where I got a lot of well-priced items in addition to the frames for the Crumps. I also met this lovely gal, who had served a mission in England as a Young Woman, that was fun too. She said that she served in Hyde Park, which is where my Great Grandfather Thomas Clark first heard the gospel.
Later in the day we stopped by this bag piping exhibition, which is good since we ended up missing the Scottish Festival at home.
Then we went to see the Nauvoo Pageant that night,
I loved how they built the wood framed and fabric covered temple as part of the pageant.
which ended with the lighting of the real Nauvoo temple.
On Wednesday morning we went to print the pictures I had AI'ed for the Crumps as a Thank You. I put the pictures into the frames on the way back across the Mississippi. I was able to give the pictures I'd done to LaVern when we met up for our fun day. The first item on our list was shopping for antiques.
We drove down to Hamilton, just south of Nauvoo to go to a couple of antique stores. The proprietor of the first one was testy and grumpy too. But the prices were great and we managed to both get Treasures.
We were beyond delight when we looked over and saw the Shurtz. We'd just seen them in June at the Finnish Mission Reunion and Mid-Summer Celebration, but they had not known at that time that they'd be coming here. I guess they'd been at a family reunion somewhere in the south, and one of their kids. who lives in Utah said they'd be stopping in Nauvoo for a couple of days, so Jane and Steve decided to join them ... what are the chances?
We got back in time to go to an endowment session at the Nauvoo temple, our first time to do so. We figured out that we had gone to Nauvoo 3 times before. In 1983, when Ben was a baby, along with Scott's folks, then in 1998, when we continued on to New York Church Sites, where Trevor Baptized Spencer in the Susquehanna River, and then in 2002, when Becca got a bee in her bonnet that we all needed to go to the Nauvoo Temple Open House. Thank Goodness for amazing children.
We drove into Keokuk to have dinner after the temple.
That night we headed back to the Pageant area to see the British Pageant ... and here are our bag piping friends again.
As well as our Finnish Mission friends. Our seats were just a row apart.
The British Pageant portrayed the first Apostles who came to England to teach the gospel, and were met at the docks with this sign, that was a slogan being used for a man's political campaign but was the perfect backdrop for what would happen as the missionaries taught the people.
It really was a beautiful pageant, definitely my favorite of the two.
They even had a May Pole.
At the end all of the senior missionaries joined them in the wings, you can see Ron and LaVern basically in the middle here.
Here's the grand finale just before they lit the temple.
On Thursday, we drove back over to Nauvoo and met these Sisters who were at Lucy Mack Smith's house. The smaller Sister is from England. So fun to visit about our upcoming mission.
Then in the other room was LaVern, as she does a portrayal of Lucy Mack Smith. She is really great at doing these vignettes, I guess all that acting we did at Mosida helped her hone her skills, and they had one more year that we did, as they ended up being directors and serving a 3rd year.
I had her pose looking out the window afterward, so I could do a companion piece to the AI'ed one I did of her as Sarah Granger Kimball.
Then it was time to say goodbye, we would not see them again, before leaving town.
I like these two as a pair, and I think I will print them off and put them in matching frames as my souvenir of Nauvoo.
We went to the New Visitor's Center across from the temple, and saw the beautiful Tiffany Stained Glass window, which is about the age of our house. What a stunning center piece. We also saw a huge model of old Nauvoo and a movie.
It was so fun to drive by the temple every time we went anywhere. I really do have a special feeling about this temple, even though none of my ancestors went through it. Dad has 10 ancestors who went through this temple for their endowments. I did look up my great grandmother, Sarah Neal Clark, and found a story in her stories, where her daughter said that Sarah's Mother Amelia Brittingham, my Jewish Great-Great grandmother, who lived in St. Louis was actually living in Nauvoo at the time of Joseph and Hyrum's martyrdom.
Later we went to another show, that Ron had gotten us tickets for, at the Cultural Hall, and was called Sisters in Zion. In the middle here, we have a young sister portraying Sarah Granger Kimball.
So, Dad checked out his relationship to her.
We were up and off for an hour and a half drive to the Rutledge Flea Market on Friday Morning.
It started 65 years ago as a swap for guns and animals ... both of which were still there.
It was kind of crazy, but unfortunately there wasn't much in the way of antiques. It's just good that we were stopping at antique malls along the way, and I did find the things I was looking for for the store.
These dinosaurs were pretty cool.
As was this outlaw cut out face board at the Jesse James Mall, so Dad can pose as a different kind of historic figure than those we had focused on all week.
We didn't take nary a picture of our last day driving, Saturday ... but we got home around 8!!
In the meantime McKenna was busy winning first place for her engineering in designing this bridge. Thanks for posting Bri.
And Emily sent a video of Bekie at her Cheer Camp, which I screen shotted. I talked to her on the phone and she said she had a blast.
I also got a chance to talk to Ben today on their new house phone. What a smart guy he is. I asked him if a new friend of his had told him something, and he said, "He's pretty quiet, he only talks about 20% of the time and is quiet 80% of the time." Not bad for a 7 year old, and since I quantify things the same way, it makes me feel connected.
Because we got home earlier than expected, I didn't teach my primary class and got to go to a lovely RS meeting. Dad was pretty involved in the creation of a new ward today in the stake, which meant I saw very little of him.
It was a wonderful and memorable week. We are so grateful for the sacrifices our ancestors made for us. I in particular am very grateful for the Gospel Plan, that I have been taught my whole life. I know that without it, I would not be as happy a person as I am. I am basically grateful that Heavenly Father shared the play book with us, so that if we choose, we can find joy, not just in the life to come, but in this life as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment