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| Fred & Ann with Sister & Elder Hufstetler at Carthage |
The Community of Christ Church (formerly the Reorganized Church) held a commemoration ceremony at the Smith family cemetery here in Nauvoo at noon. In the morning, we hauled 200 folding chairs from the facilities warehouse to the cemetery for them to use. Their program was interesting. Our mission president gave the opening prayer, the temple president gave the closing prayer, the young performing missionaries sang, our Nauvoo missionary brass band played, the BYU Vocal Point singing group who are here performing for two weeks sang. The only person from The Community of Christ Church to participate on their program was Lachlan Mackay. He gave a talk.
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| Nauvoo missionary brass band at Carthage |
Following the program at 1:00 p.m., some of us from facilities loaded up the chairs and hauled them to Carthage for "our" commemoration program which started at 5:00 p.m.After setting up the chairs, we hurried back to Nauvoo to shower, clean up, change into suits and ties and get Ann.
We picked up another senior missionary couple from Layton (the Hufstetlers) drove back to Carthage for the program. There must have been about 500 people for the program. Many of them were there when we were setting up chairs. We took our own chairs and had a good spot in front but off to the side. It was over cast and the temperature was in the low 70s. Not long after the program started ,the sun came out and it got hot. By the time the program ended, my shirt was sopping wet and I was perspiring like crazy.
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| Nauvoo Mission President Gilliland at Carthage |
However, the program was good. The brass band performed some numbers, the young performing missionaries and the BYU Vocal Point sang and President Gililland spoke. He spoke about the first vision along with other events in Joseph and Hyrum lives.
Since coming to Nauvoo and feeling the spirit here, we have gained a stronger appreciation and testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith J.r and what he did. We have certainly been greatly blessed because of the work he performed.
Following the commemoration at Carthage, we drove on down to Quincy where we pickup some grocery items before heading back to Nauvoo. It has been a long but good day
