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| Nauvoo Temple at night, after the pageant |
Marshall and I were sitting down in the audience at the Sunset on the Mississippi variety show this past Friday in Historic Nauvoo, enjoying the jazz band and skits and the sweltering heat of the midwest. Halfway through the show, the emcee announced that the band was going to play In the Mood and that audience members were invited to come up and dance...Oh how I wanted to go up with Marshall! I turned to him and asked him if he wanted to. "Only if you drag me up." A few moments went by and I knew that if I passed this chance, I would regret it for the rest of the evening. So I told him we were going and we got up and ran to the stage.
The last time we swung danced like this was a year and a half ago, and it was long due that we did it again. With the adrenaline pumping through me like a racehorse, I followed Marshall's lead as he led me through some fun swing moves, trying to hold on so that our sweaty hands wouldn't slip. As we were dancing he said to me, "Okay the next move will be a back flip, so just follow my lead." All I could do was laugh inside and next thing I knew, I was upside down and our youth in the audience were cheering. It was just lots of fun. Needless to say, this moment was my favorite part of our trip to Nauvoo.
We were asked to be one of the leaders for our church's annual youth conference trip for kids ages 14-18 who live in our area. We left Lawrence on Thursday, July 16th, 2015 and returned on Saturday the 18th. Approximately 120 youth and 11 adults boarded 3 charter buses for Nauvoo, Illinois, a historic town that played a major role in the history of our church between the years of 1839-1846.
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| On our way!! |
My second favorite memory from our trip was finding the names and details about my direct ancestors who lived and owned land in Nauvoo in the 19th century. I didn't realize I had over 20 direct descendants who lived there!
In order to find this out, Marshall and I went to the Land and Records building in Old Nauvoo and searched for the names of our ancestors who were around during those years. Once we were done, the cute elderly missionaries working there burned a CD for both of us with ALL of the records they had on each of the family names. It was fun talking with the ladies there and I found out that the lady who helped me is an ice dancer and drives two hours to Davenport to ice skate once a week while she is on her mission! So cool! I love meeting people who have a real love for ice skating. Anyways, I really wanted to go to the cemetery to see if I could find a gravestone, but time got away from us and it just didn't happen. But that's okay because finding direct lineage to this town was cool enough for me for one trip.
After our trip to the Land and Records building, we realized we were running late for our carriage ride ticket, so we ran from one end of the town to the other in efforts to catch our ride. It doesn't seem like much, but it was probably 100% humidity and over 90 degrees F already, so we looked as though we had ran through a sprinkler when we were finished...but we made it on time with minutes to spare:
Honestly, it was so neat to see the youth on the trip be so wonderful and mature. We gave them lots of freedom and did not assign leaders to be with them all the time, only to check in via cell phone periodically throughout the day...that is, if your cell phone worked up there. Mine did not. But all my kids survived anyways :). We also had a wonderful bus driver, Donald, who was so flexible and patient with our scheduling and pick-ups and the kids all loved him. At the end of our trip, we gave him a few gifts and he received them with gratitude and said that our kids were so good and "Jesus was with us." It was a really neat experience for me and I know for kids as well.
As I was reminded of all of the many sacrifices these people made in Nauvoo because of their faith in God, I was humbled and reminded how I ought to live up to my privileges and show gratitude for my comfortable and blessed life. If my great-great-great-great grandparents could do such hard things, so can I!
Other Fun Memories from Our Trip:
I had so much fun watching Marshall interact with the kids on the trip. He is amazing with teenagers and I know he made an impact on them, especially the ones he was over. This is a picture of him telling jokes on the bus ride home. He was also the "official roll-call" guy for our bus, and did a fantastic job getting the attention of 50 rambunctious teens.
Statue of Brigham Young and Joseph Smith, looking
west towards Utah.
It wasn't until I saw the Mississippi River literally run into the road that I realized how close to the river Nauvoo actually was. It's no wonder they were able to cross the frozen Mississippi to begin their journey west in February 1846. It was also a perfect photo op.
If you look carefully, you can see the Nauvoo Temple in the background.
We went to go see the Nauvoo Pageant on Thursday and the British Pageant on Friday. On Thursday it down-poured an hour before it began, leaving the ground super muddy and swampy, but the rain stopped and we were able to see the show. Halfway through the performance, the rain dumped on us again and they paused the pageant for a 10-minute break to allow the rain to pass. As we were waiting, our kids were singing in the rain some very happy songs. It was so happy to hear teenagers being pleasant and cheerful during a torrential rainstorm. Luckily the rain eventually passed and the stars came out, allowing us to finish watching the very moving performance.
British Pageant Scene. Loved all the colors!
Our kids got to meet the actor who played Joseph Smith.
They thought that was pretty neat.
When Marshall and I were engaged, he was in Basic Training and we were apart, without the ability to use cell phones on a regular basis, for three months. We wrote letters to each other on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, and just the other day I stumbled upon them and read them. I am so grateful we were apart and had to write our feelings to each other. Now I have a record of what I was feeling when we were apart, and they are hand-written. This experience made me appreciate the vignette we watched on Friday titled Letters from Emma to Joseph. Here we heard snippets of the letters they wrote to each other during the 1840s when Joseph was in hiding or in prison. I felt like I could relate just a smidge because I had myself written to my darling, albeit not under harsh circumstances.
Some of our kids at the brickyard
After our long drive home, I was exhausted! But I could still smile,
especially next to Lisa Mitchell, the president of our group's
young women. She is always a shining star and wonderful with the kids!
One more thing has been checked off my bucket list!
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