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.

Fred's Assigned to Facilities Management

As of this week I have been assigned to Facilities Management. This is the group that takes care of all the church properties in Nauvoo. This includes everything from mowing lawns and taking care of gardens to repairing and painting buildings, plumbing work, construction projects, automotive repair and maintenance, electrical work, and heating and air condition along with warehousing to support those functions. 

They have heavy equipment such as big front end loaders, dump trucks, back hoes, fork lifts, boom lifts, cherry pickers, pavement rollers, skidsters and a fleet of pick up trucks equipped with a myriad of different functioning beds and trailers. There are very nicely equipped shops for each area such as cabinet and wood working, welding, painting, automotive, electrical, etc. They also have several green houses. It is surprising how many people, trades and the amount of equipment that is required to support them in maintaining the old Nauvoo. Its like a totally self supporting community.

I have been assigned to a construction crew which also does all the cement work. Right now we are doing a retaining wall, flat work and a concrete bench over 100 feet long which sits at the base of the retaining wall at the Nauvoo pageant site. This work must be completed before the performers arrive to start practicing for the pageant which runs during the month of July. Some of my tasks have included assembling and dissembling forms, hauling gravel in a dump truck, doing some excavating work using a skidster, setting rebar and helping with finishing concrete. It is surprising what one can learn and do here at our age.

Facilities Management Logo

You can see from the photos that the apparel for facilities missionaries is different. We ware denim pants and light blue shirts and a baseball type hat. The shirts and hats have the Facilities Management Logo embroidered on them. FM gives us the hat. We have to buy the shirts and pants. There is a full-time FM employee who's wife does the embroidering for free. 

I will still be serving as a site missionary with Ann on Sundays.

Nauvoo Spring Sunsets

Sunsets on the Mississippi are spectacular. Here are a few photos taken last evening after we completed our site assignments. These were taken at the end of Parley Street where the pioneers crossed the Mississippi that cold
February in 1846

Ron Schilling Visit

Ron Schilling with Fred in the Stoddard Home

We had a pleasant surprise yesterday. I had just arrived at my assigned site at the Stoddard Home and Tin Shop. I wasn't there ten minutes when four people came into the site. Ron Schilling who is a volunteer at the Layton Bishops Storehouse, came with his daughter, son and son-in-law. It was good to see Ron. We enjoyed so much working with him and the other volunteers and missionaries at the storehouse. That was a very enjoyable missionary experience. Bob Wall at the storehouse had notified that Ron was coming April 19. However, we wondered if we had missed connecting with him. Ann was assigned to the Lyon Drug site, so I sent Ron over there to see here, too.

One of the young sister missionaries who is assigned to this mission is Sister Newell. She is the daughter of Lloyd Newell who gives the "Spoke Word" on the Tabernacle Choir broadcasts. Anyway, she and her companion were assigned to the Sarah Grainger Kimball home today with Ann. Sister Newell indicated that the choir will be performing concerts in the Chicago area in June this year.

First Rendezvous Show

These are our performance costumes

This week we performed in our first Rendezvous shows. So far we haven't been given any big parts. However, I had a very short line in one of the shows. Until the summer schedule starts, our cast will be performing two nights a week. There are now three casts. Once the summer season starts (Memorial Day), we will do two shows on two nights then one performance of Sunset on the Mississippi followed by one night off and then repeat the cycle.

Wednesday just as we were leaving for a practice prior to the show we were having a major thunder storm ( which resulted in about five inches of rain and a 20 foot rise in the Mississippi River), a bolt of lightening took out our power. We managed to put together some temporary lighting for the practice. However, we didn't think we would be able to put on the show.

People starting arriving for the show shortly before the scheduled starting time. The lights were still out and we were trying to decide whether or not we would have to cancel the show. President Gililland came in with a guest from Germany just at starting time. He said we needed to put on the show. Just as soon as he said that, the power came on and we were able to do the show.

This past week we increased the number of missionaries here in Nauvoo. We had 20 young sister missionaries come. Half of those are new and half are returning. Young sister missionaries who are called to the Nauvoo mission come for six months during the spring through the fall. They are then sent to other missions throughout the country to do regular proselyting work. Then the next spring they return for the last six months of their mission.

Just this past weekend, we had 44 more senior missionaries arrive (20 couples and 4 sisters). There have also been Temple missionaries arriving just in time for the busy summer season. The temple has shut down until the 29 April for some maintenance and for training the new temple missionaries. The temple missionaries serve under the temple president. With the surge in both senior missionaries and temple missionaries, we now fill the chapel and half of the cultural hall for sacrament meeting.

The senior sisters call this the 30 pound mission. Because of the way the period dresses are cut with what looks like the waist line being around their hip, it makes them look 30 pounds heavier than they really are.

Kevin called tonight. Noah got on the phone to tell us that he received the Aaronic Priesthood today and was ordained a Deacon. He told us that he was real nervous about his interview with his bishop because he thought that he would have to pass some kind of test. Noah is really excited to be a Deacon and to be able to attend priesthood meeting with his dad. 

Some Site Assignments

Post Office and Merryweather Dry Goods Store

Working as site missionaries is both a great opportunity and spiritual experience. Including the temple and old cemetery, there are about 30 different sites one can visit here in Nauvoo that are owned and maintained by the church. There are several more when you add in those sites that are owned by the Community of Christ Church (formerly the Reorganized Church). President Hinckley indicated that the two most sacred sites in the Nauvoo area are the temple and the old cemetery.

Outside the Brickyard

Sylvester Stoddard Tin Shop

Each of our sites have at least two missionaries assigned to it each day.

Assignments are rotated so that all the missionaries have an opportunity of conducting a tour and explaining what went on there and/or how it was used or its significance. During the busy time of the year, there may be more missionaries assigned to some of the more popular sites such as the Johnathan Browning Home and Gun Shop and the Webb Brothers Blacksmith Wainwright Shop to accommodate the number of visitors. Usually there will be two sisters or two elders assigned to work together. Sometimes we will be able to work at a site as a couple. Ann learned to make bread in brick bustle ovens.

Ann in Scovil Bakery

Each site has information with a least two spiritual messages intertwined with the history or explanation of the function of the site. You can feel the spirit as you make the spiritual comparison or testify to what was done or the purpose, etc. When you do, you know that the spirit is connecting with those or someone in the group. The messages are not memorized but presented as the spirit dictates.

Fred making minature horse shoes

So far we have already met people from several foreign countries states. Some of the countries represented are Australia, Japan, Italy, Germany, England and Norway. Some of the U.S. visitors we've met have come from the states of Washington, California, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Utah, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Conneticut, and Ohio. We have even met people from Layton, Utah. We even met a girl who worked in the Crazy 8 childrens clothing store in the Layton Mall with our daughter-in-law, Lisa.

Ann outside the Pendleton Log School

Our preparation day is Saturday. All the senior missionaries get a preparation day during the week but not on the same day. We may have performances on our preparation day that requires that we have all of our needed temporal affairs taken care of so that we are available for our assigned cast performance.

 One of the special opportunities of being here is that we are able to attend the Nauvoo Temple at least weekly on our preparation day. Depending on how our assignments fall we may be able to attend more often.