MTC & Nauvoo

 Greetings to all from Nauvoo.  We had a good trip out.  We drove about twelve hours the first day, stopping in York, Nebraska to stay over.  We drove about 7 more hours the next day to Nauvoo.  We drove through miles and miles of beautiful farm lands in Iowa and Nebraska.  We stayed in a room on Main Street Nauvoo Friday night and then were assigned our housing on Saturday.  We met with the mission Pres. and his wife first, did all the paper work and then moved in.  We are staying in the Henry Thomas home right at the bottom part of Nauvoo.  You can see in the picture how great it is! It is an old fashioned two story that is built on an old foundation and the brick and cement basement we use for laundry.  We feel so luck to be in the old Nauvoo area, as many of the missionaries are living up in the town.  Henry Thomas built his home on this spot after he joined the church in the south and traveled with the saints.  He was a wealthy plantation owner who left land to all his slaves and left everything behind.  They had twelve children and his wife died at age 44.  He later traveled to Salt Lake with the saints.  His daughter wrote a history in which she remembers the prophet Joseph well and remembers seeing the dead bodies of Joseph and Hyrum when they brought them back to Nauvoo.  We have been training with the other couples from the MTC.  Dad starts his carpentry work on Wednesday because the other carpenters left and they have lots to get ready for summer.  I am training at some of the historical sites and I start tomorrow at the Heber C. Kimball home.  On Sunday after church we took a tour with the other couples over to Carthage which is always somber and humbling.  It is a holy place to visit.  On Monday we had to sing and read a script for Rondavous, which is a musical play presented each night all year round.  Every senior couple participates.  They just take your MTC group and you learn it and put on the play.  We start rehersals tomorrow--talk about out of your comfort zone!  But you just wouldn't believe how well they turn out.  We have seen two casts now and they are great!  Next we went to the sewing room to get all our clothing checked out.  The lady said that I was an answer to prayers because some of the people come with nothing done.  My two dresses will be plenty for 6 months.  Thanks to Shawna and the other ladies that made my dresses.  We have to travel over to a small town closeby to get two hats for dad at an Amish store.  It brings back memories of New York! We are excited to be here and are excited to get going on our schedules this week.  They say it gets crazy in the summer here.  We send our love to you all.  It seems like we've been gone longer than a week.  We have a fold out bed in our place, so come and stay!  We will keep in touch and remember you all in our prayers!  Much love, Mom & Dad