Nauvoo Mission 4/2012

 Hi Gang, This has been a pretty typical week in good Old Nauvoo.  Work, performances and P-day activities. On Tuesday for our mission training mtg. we heard from a general authority, Elder Choi of the Seventies.  He and his family also came to our Rendevous performace that night, a lot of the humor went way over their heads, they are from Korea. As you can see I spend some of my time with the jumping jack tamping already hard soil.  The temple is right behind the wrought iron fence.  For P-day we went to Keokuk and watched the 25th Annual reenactment of a civil war battle of Shiloh, Hornet's Nest. It was really quite impressive lots of smoke and loud noise. There were 4 canons that fire

back and forth at each other.  It lasted for about 45 minutes with attacks and retreats on both sides. Lots of emphasis of authenticity in clothing and weapons, a whole bunch of black powder was used also. Saturday we met the Jones (Carol and Blair) family. Bret Tueller was with them, He is married to Carol's grandaughter. They were here for a family reunion. Happy birthday to Theo and Shrader coming up. Rained all day today so things are pretty wet. We miss you all especially the ball games, but really enjoy being here and feeling the spirit.  Love Mom & Dad/ Robert and Susan

Nauvoo Mission

Hi everyone!  Another busy week has gone by.  Dad continues his work on the Clark Store restored into a family history center.  Three general authorities will be coming the middle of May for the opening.  They have been doing the concrete all around the back.  This week I worked in 3 new places, the 70's Hall, the Log Schoolhouse and the John Taylor home.  It's fun to learn about each place and do the tours.  I also got a bad cold this week, but we hear that's normal here in Nauvoo when you first get here.  We had our first week with two performances of the musical "Rendevouz".  The weather here has been cool and rainey.  We are starting to feel more comfortable with everything.  Darrel & Judy Larson called and we got to visit with them on their way to their mission this week.  We also saw a couple we worked with in Bountiful temple.

We send our love to you all, we think of you often and pray for each of you. Love, Mom & Dad, Robert & Susan

Nauvoo MissionAA

Hi gang, all is going well in Old Nauvoo. We have been busy but totally enjoying it. We performed in our first live Rendevouz this week and it went great. It was really fun it is such a great story and super music. We played to a full house and they were great. Today Mom and I worked in the Wainwright, Wheelwright and blacksmith shop together, we got to talk about building wagons and making horseshoes. I was actually working with red hot metal as you can see. Working in the sites helps one to appreciate what those people had to do on a daily basis just to survive. Talk about faith and hard work on a daily basis. We really love this place history is
everywhere. The Clark Store is almost all finished on the inside but there is a lot to do outside. It has been raining here for several days. The Open house is 15-19 May with 3 general authorities coming, so the pressure is on. I will be doing sidewalks and curbing for some time. We miss you all and pray for your well being and success. Keep the cards and letters coming. We have been to the two biggest cities near here and there is not much to do in either. It is good we are keep busy in our work. Love

Nauvoo Mission

 Hi again friends and family!  We had another good week this week with dad working on projects and me working on some new historical sites.  I got to work in the post office and Lyon's Drug store and the Family Living Center.  We also went to the temple this week.  It is so beautiful.  The bottom floor is a replica of the original room where they held their church meetings.  They don't use that part when you go through the endowment.  They have four different rooms you go through with wall paintings as part of the ceremony.  They are in pioneer style, but homey and elegant.  There is such a spirit there especially when you learn about how much they sacrificed to build their temple.  The picture of the sunset is close to our house, we walk down to the river to see it often.  Today we had an Easter program at church with a missionary choir and then Zone Conference this evening with instruction from the Mission Pres.  We continue to practice for our musical programs.  Everything is so much fun because we get to know all the other missionaries and share everything with them.  It is inspirational to learn all the history here and the great work and faith of these people.  We went over to Quincey on p day to shop as there is not much here in Nauvoo to shop in.  We send our love to you all.  Take care and be well and happy!  Love Mom & Dad, Robert & Susan

Hello everyone
from good old
Nauvoo.  We have been through a really busy week, but totally enjoyable.  Lots of song practice for the Rendezvous and Sunset.

These are two musical plays that are performed nightly by the missionaries at Nauvoo.  Rendezvous is a story about Nauvoo, Sunset is a production musical with band and all where the missionaries are the chorus. We are busy learning the music and movement parts. This requires lots of practice time.  Mom started working at the historical sites this week, the Heber C Kimbal home,   Lyon Drug and the Family Living Center (FLC).  I worked out of the carpenter shop, my companion, a former professor at UVU, and I installed a new shower sorround in the young sisters home.  There are 20 young sisters who will arrive on the 11th of April to work the visitors center for the summer. The work we do is  pretty basic and we enjoy it.  The picture above is the back or our home with the rig I get to bring home each night.  The trailer is full of power tools and supplies.  Mom and I work together on Sundays at the sites.  We worked at the FLC today.  I got the tell people about rope making, barrel making (coopering) and pottery.  This site involves participation from the viewers. Besides being interesting to me I really enjoyed meeting the people.  Mom explained candle making, bread making and the spinning process.  We will change sites each Sunday.  We were able to hear most of conference.  The weather here has been perfect and we are getting more comfortable each day.  We send our love to you all.  

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

End of Mission News 10/31/09

Hi Gang, Sorry we have been so long on getting this blog out but things have been moving along fast with full days. The pictures are a small review of the past few days. We started out with our last church meeting in the mission field Sunday, then drove to the mission home in Utica. We had dinner and spent the evening with our mission president and his wife. Monday with left for Don's house in Rock Taven, he come home early and drove us around the area. The highlight was going shopping at the Orange County Choppers store. Don fixed us dinner and we had a great evening with him. Tuesday Don took us into New York City and we saw his work site and met several of the orthodox jews he works with, he then took us into the city. We were able to get a room on the 36th floor of the New York Marriot Marque in Time Square. We spent the whole day walking around the area. It was raining most of the day but not hard. We saw most of the sites and waited in line for tickets for a show. We got great seats for South Pacific at the Lincoln Center, Don joined us and it was magnificent performance. We spent the night in the city and on Wednesday got soaked seeing the 911 site, very touching, every american should see that. We also saw Wall street and the stock exchange. It rained hard all day long, lot of cabs. We got the experience of going to the port authority and taking a bus out to a park and ride to meet Don. Thursday we left early and drove all day to Angola, Ind. Friday we drove down to Nauvoo and spent the night there and saw some sites. Saturday morning we saw more of Nauvoo and then drove to Carthage, very moving place. We then went on the Quincy, Ill, we were able to find the old drug store where August Heidbreder worked as a pharmacist. We also saw the old Heidbreder home where a 5th generation family member still lives. With his help we visited the family grave sites. Took lots of pictures and had a great time seeing the old family stomping grounds. We were able to drive back up to I-80 and are spending the night in Williamsberg, IA. It has been a very busy week with lots of driving, the trip to the historical sites was well the time and delays. Truely a chance of the life time. We are really ready to get home now. Bishop Huefner called us and our homecoming will be on the 22nd of November so don't plan anything. We are planning to be home Monday (Nov. 2) about 7 PM if things change we will call you. Love Mom and Dad