Summer Schedule Starts

Well, we are ready to go. Practices and dress rehearsals for the additional shows are now over. Starting tomorrow all of the summer shows as well as the summer addition of Rendezvous will begin. All missionaries are on board. 

We have 250 missionaries now. That includes the 20 young sister missionaries (half are returning and half are new) and about 50 young performing Elders and Sisters who are here for the summer season. It does not include those who will still be coming to put on the Nauvoo Pageant during July. Also not included are the temple missionaries who are not part of our mission.

Our days are long and busy. The mission president said that this mission is the hardest working  mission in the church for senior missionaries. I get up at 5:00 a.m. for personal study and exercise before being to work a 7:00 a.m. where I've been working on construction crew which has been doing mostly concrete work. So far, I've been working until 3:30 p.m. By the time I get home, clean up and have dinner, it time to hurry off for one of the performance. They begin at 7:00 p.m. and we have to be there ready to go by 6:30.

Ann puts in a six hour sift at one of the sites each day. Sometimes those go until 6:00 p.m. That doesn't give her much time to eat and be to our show assignment. 

The nights we do Rendezvous we get done about 8:30 unless we have to do two performances then its 9:45. The nights we do Sunset by the Mississippi we are done about 8:30.  Following the shows its home and get ready for bed so we can start over the next day.

My cousin Randy Peterson and his wife Judy  called and stopped yesterday for about 15 minutes as we were getting ready to leave for our Sunset Show. Randy is the Stake President in Naperville which is just outside of Chicago. They were on their way to Quincy for some BYU reunion. It was good to see them. Judy brought me so information she had put together on Grandma Wendrich. They will be back on Father's Day weekend and hopefully we will be able to spend a little more time with them.

June is going to be a busy month in terms of visits. Our daughters Lori and Carrie and their families will be coming for a few days as part of a church history tour they are doing together. Another  cousin Jill Springer called and said that she and her husband Reg would be here about the same time. They are coming for their wedding anniversary. It is also a day or two after Randy and Judy are coming with their daughter who lives in California.

Ann's Family Living Site Assignment

Heating the oven

Ann was assigned to the Family Living Center today. We've had other assignments to that site. However, on this day she made bread in a "Bustle" oven like the pioneers used. The oven is built of bricks as part of the wall in the home.

Mixing The Bread

You first build a fire in the oven. It takes about two hours to get the bricks hot enough to bake. The coals are then removed. If you can then hold your arm in the oven for 15 seconds, the temperature is right for baking bread. If it is too hot, you have to wait for it to cool down for the 15 second test. 


Once the temperature is right, it only take 20 minutes to bake six round loaves. They come out perfect and taste really good.

Kneading the dough

Other activities demonstrated and/or explained in the Family Living Center include spinning of wool, candle making, weaving of rag rugs, rope making, pottery making and barrel making. 

A

Ann Volunteering at Facilities Management

Cleaning Women's Garden Statues

Ann spent today as a volunteer with Facilities Management. She was assigned to the conservation group. Some of their tasks included washing and polishing the statues in Women's Garden next to the visitor's center. The statues represent different phases of a woman's life from a young girl to grandmother.

Another assignment was to paint the supports for the pickets for the new picket fence to replace the old fence around the Heber C. Kimball home. 

Getting Cobwebs & Cleaning Restrooms

Ann painting supports for picket fensing.

A third assignment with the conservation group was to clean the newly remodeled public restroom next to the Browning gun shop.

Tulips in Women's Garden

Facilities Management (FM) has been busy replacing fencing all around old Nauvoo that has been deteriorating. There are lots of projects going trying to get ready for the many tourists who will soon be coming during the summer months.

The FM assignments have made for a nice change from the various site assignments.

Spring Wildlife

Robin eggs in nest

Robin nesting on downstairs porch

 Spring has produced new life in Nauvoo as evidenced by nature and what we see all around Old Nauvoo. Our neighbor down stairs went out one morning to find a robin had made a nest in the basket on her bicycle. She removed it and set it on the porch railing and the robin continued to use the nest.

There are Canadian Geese everywhere along the Mississippi River and here in Nauvoo. With 275 acres of lawn to mow, there is  plenty of space for geese to feed.

Now that Spring has arrived you can see geese everywhere with their little goslings on the lawns feeding in the evenings.










One can see little cotton tail rabbits all over as well as squirrels, raccoons, possums and deer. Since raccoons and possums are nocturnal carnivores, you only see them at night.

Ann Signs Up As Facilities Management Volunteer

At our Early Wednesday mission training meeting this week, they asked for site missionaries who were interested in volunteering  to help Facilities Management to sign up. Ann signed up as a volunteer.

Right now they have extra site missionaries until the summer rush starts and FM needs some extra temporary help to get things ready. So they are assigning site missionaries a couple of days each week to work in FM.

Ann thought that would be good to have both of us on the same schedule on the days she was assigned to FM. A site missionary could have shifts from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. or 12 noon to 6:00 p.m. or even a six hour split shift in between those times. Facilities starts at 7:00 a.m. and goes until at least !:00 p.m. or until 3:30 p.m. if you want to work a full shift, which I usually do.

Ann had one day last week with FM and is scheduled for two days this week. This may give us an opportunity to attend the temple twice this week instead of once in between working and evening shows and practices.

Spring Flowers

PeonieTulips

Spring has finally arrived in Nauvoo.  The tulips, daffodils and blossoms are finally out. Trees are starting to leaf out and the grass is green. Here are some of the flowers and blossoms seen here now. 

All of the flowers are different varieties of tulips.

PeonieTulips

PeonieTulips

Tulips

PeonieTulip

Flowering Cherry and Apple Trees

Large flowering shrub

Flowering Cherry Tree

Monthly Mission Breakfast

Missionaries in line for breakfast. Ann in lower right hand corner

This morning we held our second mission breakfast. Each month on the first Friday, the mission holds a breakfast for the whole mission and invites the full time employees of Facilities Management.

Everyone in the mission is assigned to one of the performing casts. During the late Fall and Winter there are two casts. Then during late Spring and Summer there are more missionaries so they divide up the missionaries into three casts. Each cast performs two nights of the "Rendezvous" show and one night of the ""Sunset by the Mississippi" show each week.

Missionaries eating monthly Friday morning breakfast

Anyway, the missionaries in each cast sigh up to bring items for their cast for the breakfast. So, there is one line of tables filled with breakfast items for each of the casts. The food items are to be there by 6:45 a.m. and the breakfast begins at 7:00 a.m. It is like a big ward dinner. The cultural hall is filled.

Besides being a social gathering, the purpose is to recognize the missionaries who will be going home that month. The missionaries who are leaving get together and come up with a skit. They have been quite cleaver and humorous.