Nauvoo!!!

(crud.  I just finished posting and realized none of the videos are playing this way.  :(  I will try again in the morning since it is after 2 AM now.  If they don't work, then I will upload them another way and you can check back to see them)

Monday, July 2

I'm not going to lie - Nauvoo is my favorite church site.  Now ... don't get me wrong - I love all of them enough that it is hard to pin me down to just 1.  But the Spirit in Nauvoo is palpable!  You can hear the voices of the Saints here!

Monday morning I got up and went for a walk to watch the sun rise.  Truly, I heard the voice of the Saints as I walked thru the streets.  I got up and headed for the Temple!  (Sessions don't start until 8 AM, or you can rest assured that I would have been in the temple!)  But I walked around the temple and then down the bluff and around the Visitor's Center side of the temple. I still marvel every time I see this building at the miracle that it is.  First that the Saints were able to erect this magnificent structure in the first place! And 2) the first 2 times I visited this site I saw cornerstones and an empty grass field.  And now it is resurrected as a glorious compliment to the testimony of those people!  What a miracle that this building is!

 Selfie!

I didn't know this about an area at the bottom of the bluff below the temple:

Watching the sun come up was breath-taking, and I couldn't stop from singing!  I could truly hear the voice of the Saints whispering their love of this place, and I felt it with every passing foot!

 Another selfie!

Unfortunately, I had a timeline as we were going to go back to Fort Madison to grab a rental car and I needed to be over there at 7.30 AM, so we had to leave at 7 AM to go pick it up.  So I headed back, and showered on my way back to the RV, and then unplugged and headed back over the Mississippi to Fort Madison.  We drove all the way thru Fort Madison to the small shop that was supposed to have the rental car - to find out they were totally out.  :(  Driving the RV everywhere is kinda a pain on the small Nauvoo roads, and there was times I wanted to just make a quick run for this or that.  Nothing with the RV is "quick."  But we stopped and re-stocked up on a food that 4 out of our 5 children could live on -- Kraft Mac-n-Cheese bowels.  With a microwave, and not wanting to boil water to heat up the RV, we bought 48 of these little bowels.  Yeah.  Yuck.  But ... hey ... they are easy.  They also had some amazing donuts and we grabbed some other food that sounded good.  It ended up being a good mid-way point restocking now that we knew what we did and didn't care about eating.

We then went back across the river to Nauvoo and I got in line to get tickets for the day's events that we needed tickets for at the Visitors Center and then we were off!!

I am going to do my best to 1) remember everything and 2) to even become close to putting pics or videos of everything we saw.  We thought the day was going to be me dragging everyone along.  However, we truly ran from one thing to another and the kids didn't grumble because they really were having such a great time!

And the weather was perfect!  It was a bit warm in the sun, and if you really exerted yourself, then you would start to sweat.  But the shade was perfect!  It was a miraculously cool day!

We had tickets for the 10.10 AM wagon ride, so we wanted to stay in the area and started off at the Pioneer games:

Then from there, I had told Gracie she was going to get a diamond ring.  I didn't want to ruin the surprise, so I didn't tell her anything other than that.  Just a good old dad's "You will see!"  So she kept pestering me about the diamond ring, so we ran to the blacksmith's shop!

 

The kids were genuinely excited for their rings.  Miracle: immediately they were catching and feeling the Spirit of this wonderful place that I love!  This was McKay's snap on Snapchat:

And some of Karson's Instagram posts and pics:

Then we were cutting it a little close so we ran across the fields to get to our wagon ride on time.  We got there with just a couple minutes to spare, and we got to pet Bill and (can't remember the other horses name).  But the kids really loved getting to love on them.  But then we went in the other wagon.  :)

 The wagon ride was a fantastic way to kick off the start of the trip!  They got to get a quick glimpse and very nice tour of "this is here, that is there ..."  It is not an in depth tour, but is a great intro to what we would be doing.

After the wagon ride, we had parked by the Cultural Hall, so we grabbed some drinks and a quick snack, and then did the tour of the Cultural Hall.

 My kids were so excited to learn that this was the very stage that their Aunt Anna had performed on.  It made it extra special to the already special Spirit in that building!

 Then we went to the family living center.  You might think my kids were just being good sports and faking interest - they were genuinely interested and asking questions and enthralled at each of the stations!!

 We were about to walk out with the Elder invited us to come over for the barrel-making part.  We semi-reluctantly went over, but it ended up being one of the most interesting parts!  My kids loved this and would go back to watch it all again!

 It was too hot for Abby to leave Lilly in the RV, so she came covertly (everything says no pets - but Lilly is part of the family!) in Karson's purse.  And she was a good girl and was quiet in everything.  :)

The afternoon was warm and so we headed up onto the bluff to grab some ice cream, and ended up doing some shopping in some of the awesome stores.  We found an art store and all of us were in love with so many of the paintings!

After this, we had gotten tickets to the Broadway style show back inside the Visitor's Center called "The Promise".  It was unbelievable!  It demonstrated the Spirit of the Saints so well for the time period.  The singing and dancing was amazing, and kept the kids (even Nate) totally enthralled.

I kept hearing Anna (and since talking to my kids, they all said they kept hearing her too!) in the singing, and I know her Spirit was near.  More than once I had to wipe at my eyes.

And then a miracle happened!  At the very end, when a normal audience would have called for an Encore, the performance Elders and Sisters whipped out their name-tags, clipped them on, and Elder jumped down and played a note, and then acapella they began singing the most beautiful rendition of "I know Heavenly Father loves me!"  Not just any song, but one of Anna's favorite songs!  What a miracle!  I was sobbing uncontrollably.  Anna was so near, and I felt of her love for this place!  As I immediately tried to duck my head and hide my crying, I looked over to see Karson a few seats away from me in the same state.  And then I see my kids doing the same!  It wasn't just me - Anna was there.  The Spirit was as strong as any place on earth in that moment.  The veil was so thin.  Gracie (who can barely remember Anna) told me that she was crying because she could hear Aunt Anna.

Our kids did A.M.A.Z.I.N.G and we knocked out almost half of the sites in Nauvoo on Monday!  I know that we missed pictures and places ... but ... hey ... we did our best!  And we were pretty enthralled as well, and sometimes I would catch myself and say "Crud.  I haven't taken a picture of an hour!"  1st world (and 21st Century) problems, right?

But by almost 5, all of us were beat!  And the weather was warm, but totally manageable.  So we headed back to our camp site, hooked up and the kids started playing.  Nate has been playing with these small throwing knifes and loves to throw them at the tree over and over and over.  And loose them pretty frequently.  But loves to play with them.  He rarely gets them to stick, so one of the times he did we had to grab a pic.

 I helped the boys rig up some fishing poles, and they were off to the lake.  We quickly found that these little tiny fish would sit and nibble on a line.  So while the boys did the "official" fishing, the others put some extra hooks and tied a bit of line and played with the little fish off the edge of the dock.

 I thought it was just a funny site so I had to grab some pics.

Then I decided I was being a stick in the mud, so I ran back up to camp, inflated the kayaks, and brought them down to the kids.  I was worried they would tip them and the lake is kinda nasty.  Definitely not a swimming lake.  However, the kids were hooked!  There is a little island out in the middle and immediately the kids were off exploring with the kayaks and found every nook of the lake.  They took turns until they figured out they could get 2 kids onto the kayak.  And then they all stayed out until the sun went down (over 2 hours).

 On the other side of the island, McKay and Nate caught a fish.  It was a small black crappy maybe 5 inches in length.  But to the kids ... this was they were enthralled.  I am a terrible dad and should take these kids fishing more often I guess .... :p  I am just spoiled that McKay is such an amazing older brother and is so good with the kids and always so patient with them!  This is truly a special miracle to both of us as parents, but especially to me as a father since he picks up a lot of the slack for me.

They truly stayed out on the lake until the sun went down.

Then we made them come back to camp and shower and get ready for bed.  No one likes the camp showers.  They aren't bad ... but they aren't like showering at home.  Mostly they are just really hot, whereas showering in the RV is cramped, but is more like showering at home.  So in the process they used all of the water in the clean tank, and filled the water in the grey tank.  So at 9.30 PM we drove down the hill, and were in the midst of emptying the tanks and filling the clean water, when Nate accidentally bashes his face on the water pump he was playing in and comes crying with a bleeding mouth bleeding everywhere.  As McKay and I try to empty and fill, Karson consoles Nate.  Just as Nate is settling down, Matt starts hollering after a wasp stings him on the ankle!  Everything is an adventure on an epic trip like this!!!  :)

Tuesday, July 3
I got up early again to go and explore the other half of Nauvoo.  I noted that again this morning that there was far more people out walking than there was cars on the streets.  I am not the only one who hears the voices of the Saints as the sun comes up!

I headed down Parley St on my way to the "Trail of Hope."  There are a line of plaques that line the beautiful grass pastures along Parley St as it heads towards the river.  When the Saints were forced to leave Nauvoo in 1848, they lined their wagons up and they went all the way up Parley St.  Then they all crossed over the frozen river on their way to their intermediate stop of Winter Quarters.  My heart ached for these faithful saints that were being driven, yet again, from this beautiful place they had toiled over for 9 years.

I stopped and read each plaque, and took a picture of each, but will just include this one.  It describes pretty much the feelings of my heart and what I heard the Saints whispering this morning:

I walked all the way to the water, and then saw the Brigham and Joseph statue at the water.  I went into the monument and counted the name of all of the Saints that died after leaving Nauvoo.  Over 1,800 names were on that wall!  I didn't get pictures, but vowed that on the way out, this would be one of the stops as we left Wednesday.

I then walked on down Water St and down to where the Joseph Smith log home and Joseph Smith Mansion and the Smith Family cemetery and the Red Brick Store.  I learned a **lot** as I walked along and red about each of these places.  I am fascinated now with learning more about the heritage of Joseph Smith.  I want to learn more about the years after Joseph died.  I want to know about Joseph Smith III, the son that Emma was carrying when Joseph was killed and Emma's years after 1844.  

As I walked the Smith Family cemetery, there was a special Spirit there.  And yet, it is different.  It just felt un-dedicated to me.  I love that place, and yet it leaves you feeling hollow.  In looking back at my pictures, I see a lot of pics of the plaques, but no selfies.  Maybe that tells you a little about how I was feeling.

I then walked back to camp, showered, and then rallied the troops for another day!  We were out of clothes again!  The boys had burned thru a bunch of their clothes and I think the humidity (i.e. sweat generator) had made us all want to shower more.  So we headed into town at 8, did laundry until 9, and then headed down to the Community of Christ's visitor's center down on Water St.  

Once there, we watched the video.  Just confusion!  So much good intention, but so much hollow confusion!  McKay and I could have made a better video.

We headed outside and already by 9.30 the day was warmer and much more miserable than Monday.  This made me recognize how much of a miracle Monday was!  Most of the tour between the multiple homes was walking, and inside each of the different buildings they barely ran the AC.  So even inside the structures we were still dripping sweat.  I think we were so hot that even outside the structures, we didn't take pictures!

We walked by the Nauvoo House.  Seeing this building was to me a testimony of how much Joseph loved Emma.  For so many years of their lives they had spent their home in holding guest.  Joseph was going to make sure that Emma didn't have to share their home anymore.  But then he died before this could be completed.

Then we stopped by the graves.  It was hot, this was outside, our tour-guide was a nice girl, but didn't speak much English (Asian as a first language).  Then into the log cabin.  We had enough people and the quarters were small enough that it was cramped.  And since it wasn't AC'd well enough, then everyone kinda just had the attitude of "hurry along."  Plus the tours are just awkward since they lack the Spirit.

The thing that angered me was not just that I was uncomfortable with the heat, but the lack of AC meant that the heat and humidity was just sitting their rotting the many original Smith family artifacts that were inside the buildings.  I wanted to shout and shake the people "Take care of these precious things!"  As terrible as it sounds, I will be praying for the bankruptcy of the Church of Christ so that the Church can start reclaiming some of these sites!  Oh how I would love to see these buildings cared for properly.

We went from there to the "Mansion."  Again - awkward tour, way too many people for such a small space, too hot and humid, and just frustrating to see how poorly this original building with so much history and meaning was being kept.  

Then we moved from there to the Red Brick Store.  This was a recreation in the original location, and because it had a store in the bottom part, then it was actually AC'd correctly.  Frustrating!  Here we could take some pictures, so I grabbed some of the kids.

The kids were anxious to go back to where "the Church was true".  This held 3 very important meanings: 1) the Spirit was there!!!  It was a miracle to see how much the kids could pick this out! 2) the tours were fun, exciting and engaging.  And that I am sure had a lot to do with #1 as well, but .... and 3) we KNEW it was true because they had AC!!!!  :)

We then hit the Lucy Mac Smith home, the Brickyard (gotta get our brick!), Post Office, Print Shop, John Taylor's home, and a few others and got to listen to the performing Elder and Sisters on the street corner for a few minutes until we hit our heat quota for the day!  We were all hungry for lunch!! 

We had lunch in a little Cafe up on top of the bluff.  We then hit the yummy fudge shop on our way back to the camp site.

We cranked the AC and McKay and I crashed out for an hour-long nap, while the other kids relaxed while Karson read something her Dad had sent her.

When we woke up, we got ready, and headed for the temple.  I had called that morning to make all of the appointments that we had wanted to, and we were so glad that we had!

On the way to the temple, we had another amazing miracle!  The whole time we were here, our kids have been **really** interested in what was the **actual restored** and what was recreation.  Every time someone would say "this is the real floor that Joseph Smith stood on" or "this house is 90% original" the kids would breath it in.  And each time they would be told "this was a re-creation of the original in the exact location" there was kind-of a let-down sigh.  This has led our kids to ask multiple times if they had relatives that lived in Nauvoo.  They wanted to know if **they** were "authentic."  So Karson had asked Papa, and he had sent us something.  I knew with my parents being the pioneers (converts) in my family that I didn't have any.  That didn't make me love it any less or feel any less authentic.  But my kids hearts were turning to their parents.  This wasn't even the miracle that I was referring to yet (but is a pretty cool miracle nonetheless).

So on the way to the temple Karson recounts that she had spent the last hour reading the journal that her Dad (Papa) had sent us.  John Loveless was our kids 4th great-grandfather.  He lived in Nauvoo, knew the prophet, and served here to protect the Saints.  In his journal, he writes of hearing of the Prophets death and seeing his bullet-riddled body.  He talked about how mad this made him.  Then she recounted to the kids how she had felt this man's love for his Prophet, for the Saints, and for this place.  He stayed here in Nauvoo to help defend it after the Prophets death, but ultimately was part of that Trail of Hope that I had just walked this morning!  She explained thru tears about how his journal had cried that he wished that he and his boys had had the strength of Sampson to defend their people and this beautiful place!

This made it **so** real for all of us!  The kids were enthralled!  Our hearts were full as we entered this beautiful Temple, which stood as such an amazing testimony for these saints - which now we literally felt a part of!

We parked the RV in the parking lot of the Church.  We kicked on the generator and AC, and I gave Matt very specific instructions that if the AC stopped for any reason to lock the RV, grab his brother and Lilly, and head to the Visitor's Center which was just 1 block west.  We then locked them into the RV with the AC going and the Xbox setup and multiple phones to watch movies on, and headed to the temple!  

First, Abby and Grace did baptisms with McKay performing them.  They all got dressed, and then we did the confirmations.  Before doing the baptisms, the Temple President came down and spoke to the kids.  He showed them chain mail and how it 1) protected the wearer, but also 2) how it linked everything together.  He had us link arms as the 5 of us sat on the bench and showed us how we were stronger linked together.

We had kind of a tight schedule and the temple workers were **soo** kind to help us to meet our goal of getting everything done that we wanted to.  So we hugged the girls and sent them to join their brothers in the RV.  

Then McKay, Karson, and I headed upstairs, changed, and headed into an Endowment session.  Karson and I were asked to be the witness couple, and that was very special for us.  One of the really neat things about the Endowment session in the Nauvoo temple is that you move rooms just as you would for a live session.  This gave McKay (and all of us) greater insight into the sessions that are single-room.

We spent a few minutes in the Celestial Room visiting, but then we hurried off to our last goal of the night.  We headed to the Sealing office.  Then we got ushered into a Sealing Room and got to do a big pile of Sealings for family names that Papa had given us.  The veil was thin as we felt that again we were really a part of this!  

McKay has been really into things being "full circle."  (He even mentioned it himself in his guest blog previously.)  This was a very "full circle" in many, many ways.  1) he has done a lot of baptismal work on all sides of it.  He has very actively gone to the Gilbert temple for years on his own, with friends, with youth groups, and with his sisters.  Recently, he has done a fair number of endowment sessions and even in multiple temples.  But with this being his first Sealings, he has now done all of the ordinances of the temple.  Before doing them, he told me more than once that he was really nervous to do them.  I am not sure why this is what he was nervous about .... but ... he said he was.  Now he had done them (see below to see what he thought).  2) he did all of this in 1, straight, 4-hour block.  3) these were family names, and he had just learned about an ancestor who was so valiant and loyal - qualities that he exhibits a lot.  So his heart was "full circle" in now doing ordinances for some other family members.

As we walked out of the temple, moments before the below picture, McKay said "The Sealing Room is the happiest place in all of the temple!  It is the happiest place anywhere!" He has the whole vision.  He can see the whole Plan.  And we told him that that was truly "full circle".  He sees all of it now.

How great is the Plan of Salvation that binds families together!  I know that it is so true!  What an amazing miracle this whole trip as been!

We got back to find the kids all safe and sound (I seriously was stressing the entire time we were in the temple).  They did say that a Police Officer had stopped and told them we needed to move the RV when we got back.  The kids told him we were in the temple, and Abby said "He was super chill."  

Karson snapped this picture on the way home.  It was the most amazing sunset as we came down from the bluff back to our campsite.  Of course the picture doesn't do it full justice, but ... it will have to do. 

We got back, ate, and settled the kids in.  As we ate, the kids were now full swing.  They were throwing questions at Karson and I truly faster than we could answer them.  In all of the the things of the trip, this is one of the greatest miracles: I will forever remember all of us huddled in a small space together, hanging on every word.  Feeling the Spirit of this place.  As we talked of names like Smith, Cowdry, Rigdon, Whitney, Taylor, Woodruff, Loveless, and so, so, so many more ... My kids know all of these names.  They have walked in their homes, gotten to know how they lived.  It has brought the Gospel alive in ways we had only dreamed.  As we sat and talked history, the Gospel, the Temple - all interwoven, my heart is full tonight because of the blessing this is TO ME that my kids know and love these people and these places.  This truly is a "beautiful place"!