Nauvoo Tidbits and Treasures

Monday January 24, 2022

Settling In

Last Tuesday was Dave's 65th birthday! Since we're in Nauvoo, there isn't many places to celebrate so we made our own celebration and some temple friends were kind enough to come over short notice and play a game to celebrate his birthday. We have enjoyed getting to know these good people and feel grateful to be friends with them. It was a fun time. All of us had gotten up at 4 am for the 5 am temple shift but our brains still managed to function well enough.

Wednesday we did our office/ engineer shift and the next morning Dave woke up with a fever, chills, aches and pains. The mission doctor brought over a covid test and Dave stayed home for the next two days. He tested negative twice and felt great for our Saturday shift. We are really grateful to be able to do both types of work: ministering and administering. It's a perfect balance.

Dave has enjoyed settling into a regular routine of preventative maintenance and maintenance tasks. He has repaired a couple of vacuums, cleaned filters and replaced light bulbs. He is also setting up the audio visual system for endowment room 4 (terrestrial room) for the hearing impaired. He is in charge of the daily water analysis of the baptistry, which just for fun information, is the largest font in the whole church. It sits on the exact same footprint as the original temple and has two sets of stairs descending into it because they would do simultaneous baptisms for the dead when the ordinance was restored.

There is a man 90 years of age that is an ordinance worker here in Nauvoo. He and his wife could not have children. Several years into their marriage when they lived in Georgia, they were asked by a local leader to raise four siblings who had lost their parents. They took them on joyfully and raised them in the church. Not all remained active and his wife passed away. He realized he was getting older and would soon be joining her and wanted to give her the gift of these children being sealed to them. He asked the temple recorder what he could do to make this happen. The recorder gave the task to Sister Dewey who is the office leader. She worked through all the family records and arranged the sealing date of the children, one of which had passed away. The day of the sealing everyone was gather who could be there and the proxies of those who couldn't. Unfortunately, the sealing could not be done because the one daughter that had died had been excommunicated with out this father knowing. Now, a letter had to be written and approval from the 1st Presidency given for her work to be done. It was a very sorrowful day. But, the letter was written by sweet Sister Dewey and word came back from Salt Lake and this daughter was baptized and confirmed by proxy by her adopted father, and I got to record it and then put the date stamp on it! In fact, it was the first stamp I did as I started this mission. Then the initiatory was done by Sister Dewey right after I stamped it and then the endowment. Now this long awaited for sealing will be done this week in the Nauvoo temple so that when this dear brother meets his wife, he will be bringing their children with him! I feel so blessed to be aware of this sweet story because I got to work in the temple office. I truly believe families are joined together forever because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, Priesthood power and ordinances of the temple and even though these parents did not bring these children into the world, they certainly raised them up and will enjoy the love and association of family through the eternities.

I can't promise this will be the last time I speak of the cold but I will say this and then try to focus on all the other things. We can't seem to feel warm. I wear many layers in the temple and feel a draft everywhere, that's probably why all the windows are being replaced this spring. I'm sure it will make a huge difference in the temperature of the temple. Our apartment, although very nice is drafty as well. Our fingers and toes are always very cold. I'm sorry to say this makes me grumpy and my bones ache. It makes me reflect on the pioneers often and what they had to endure without any of the creature comforts we have of indoor plumbing and heating and being able to cook with electricity. The temperature is regularly single digits and we stay inside much of our off time from the temple. We anticipate with eagerness the changing of seasons so we'll be able to get out and enjoy this wonderful, beautiful place!