Nauvoo Tidbits and Treasures: November 2022

November 28th 2022

Giving Thanks!

It 's been a fun week with many social gatherings.

Monday was a dinner with a group of people who choose to eat only plant based whole foods which we (me mostly) try to embrace, although very imperfectly. I made a version of the green bean casserole which was pretty tasty, if I say so myself. Nothing is ever as yummy as recipes with lots of crispy fried, and creamy ingredients but I have been trying to retrain my palate and really enjoy mostly plant food.

Tuesday we had a pie night gathering which the Cunninghams, a senior couple here, organized and hosted.

Brother Cunningham had a stroke 15 years ago and was told he would never walk or talk again. This is their second mission. His right arm is paralyzed and hangs at his side. He speaks and walks very slowly but he is still able to serve in the temple. He can't do everything but he can do many things. His wife is spunky and energetic and loves to serve. They are such an inspiration to anyone who knows them. We are very grateful we got to experience Nauvoo with them. They came in May and stay until February.

He was told that singing comes easier than speaking so they sung a song for us and you would never know he had a challenge with speaking. It was very tender and sweet to witness that.

We sang thanksgiving songs together, played a mad lib game, shared what we were grateful for, ate pie and enjoyed each other's company immensely!

Wednesday was a busy temple day.

Thursday 150 or so Nauvoo senior couple missionaries met at the pageant building and enjoyed a feast. There was so much good food and good company! We all miss being with family but this week has been a pretty nice substitute.

Friday and Saturday very busy and beautiful days at the temple. I was doing initiatory and a temple name came through, Gertrude Mary, which is my mother's name. She has been on the other side for 43 years and I am the same age as she was when she died. There is a line that is said about having joy in your posterity and I got to say that for this Gertrude Mary and as I did I was filled with love from my mom. She does have joy in her posterity through me and my children and grandchildren. It was such a sweet tender thing to experience. I give much thanks to my Savior for making eternal families possible.

Now I'm going to put in a lot of pictures of people you don't know but we love them and want to have these memories to look back on in the years to come.

Scott and Kris Cunningham and us

They had a picture booth set up at the missionary dinner

Pam and Scott Mayberry. One of the new couples

Kris and Charles Zaugg, old timers like us

Susan and Steve Giles, newbies

Nancy and Gaylen Rees, they came in May

with the summer couples but get to stay until February.

Sherwood and Lynette Cook, lovely old timers

Us and Brenda and Alan Werrett, old timers and our Sunday buddies

Perry and Diane Coffman.

Friends from Nebraska and FM missionaries.

Lots of yummy pies

Singing together

Most of the temple missionaries, two couples from the temple presidency on the far right and a few extras that needed love, which was all Sister Cunningham's doing.

A fun cheese ball someone brought instead of pie

Thanksgiving dinner at the pageant building

So much food!

November 21st 2022

Miracles

We had some visitors come to see us and Nauvoo last week. Lesa and Rob Browning from our shift in the Bountiful temple came to see Nauvoo since we are here. It was great to see them and get to visit a little bit. We of course were working everyday in the temple but we got to go out to eat after and they spent their days enjoying the beauty and spirit of Nauvoo. Rob's 3rd great grandfather was John Browning of the gun shop here in Nauvoo. They participated in an endowment session and then Dave took them on a tour of the temple even up to the bell tower, which happened to be at 7 pm so they experienced the bell in a big way. We enjoyed our time with them and were happy they would make the trip.

We have three Thanksgiving events this week, so there will be plenty of social time to enjoy this holiday.

We had a tender miracle in the temple on Saturday. I work in the office with my sweet friend Emmie. She is 20 years old and is a service missionary here. Patrons come to the office with their phones to have names printed off. We just need the bar code and we can scan them and they are printed. Saturday morning we had several patrons who wanted names printed but we couldn't get the computer to communicate with the printer. It would always show a failure sign. We had to tell several people that we were so sorry but we couldn't print their names and they would be disappointed but understand. I called the SLC support system and was put on hold for nearly 30 minutes.

An elderly sister came and asked to print one name, her deceased niece. When we told her of the problem she started to weep and said "I came all the way from St Louis to take her to the temple and that's all I want to do." She wasn't sure how to get her information on her phone so Emmie took it and got it all set up and after doing so we realized that her niece needed all the ordinances, baptism, confirmation, initiatory and endowment. Fortunately, our recorder and Temple President were in the office trying to resolve the printing issue. They told her that if she was able to do the initiatory and endowment, we would make sure the baptism and confirmations were done this same day. It is preferred to do them in order but as long as they are done in the same day it works.

We had been trying all different things to get cards to print, like rebooting all the computers, putting the number in manually rather than scanning but nothing was working. Emmie took this sister's phone, said a prayer and put the number in and it printed on the backup printer! We were all thrilled and amazed! Emmie and this sister wept and hugged. We arranged for her to do the initiatory and endowment, alerting all the check points to let her pass even though the prior ordinances were not done. There are many, we check for prior ordinances at initiatory, name issue, we check again at the chapel, and then at the veil. We didn't want anyone to stop her and tell her she couldn't go on. Emmie met the sister in the celestial room and retrieved the niece's card and escorted the sisters down to the baptistry where Emmie got baptized for the niece and then the proxy Aunt was confirmed for her. Then Emmie brought the niece's name card to office and recorded it and handed it back to the Aunt. So joyful!!

I was so grateful to be a witness to this tender mercy from the Lord. Also, to be a witness of a young women's testimony being solidified of a loving, very aware Father in Heaven who sees the one and will do whatever is necessary to make things work and that she was an instrument in His hands. It is an experience I will cherish.

We went to the Flood Museum here in Nauvoo as a group.

We have several new wonderful faces that have joined us!

Lesa and Rob Browning, dear friends from our temple shift in the Bountiful Temple.

Dave loves to donate blood even when he is on a mission

Some of the beautiful scenery in Nauvoo

Sunrise at the temple

November 4th 2022

Autumn is Awesome!

I need to refer back to my calendar to even know what to report about our life in Nauvoo Illinois working in the temple. There isn't a lot I can report about our temple life other than I feel the happiest when I'm there and serving patrons, helping Heavenly Father get His children back to Him, knowing and feeling it's all because of our Savior's great life, sacrifice and love that makes it all possible. It is honestly one of the best ways to spend our time!

The window replacements still are not complete but we had a miracle with the temple being a total mess on Saturday when our 7 new missionary couples came for training. The celestial room had scaffolding, the chapel had tools all over, we had curtains down and old and new windows everywhere. It was dusty and in disarray. But, Monday when we did more training with the missionaries doing ordinances, it was orderly and clean. It was amazing to see the transformation.

All the remaining windows were put in the Assembly room which is rarely used and temple work goes on and then the workers come in and work while we are done for the day. This means they have to always put away their tools so it will take longer but this way the temple can be open!

The first day open for patrons after the closure, was Tuesday Oct. 25. We had full sessions every hour!

Our winter schedule is as follows: Monday P-day, Tuesday 6 am to 12. Dave is engineering and I was office but they have three other very strong, capable ladies there so I'm back on regular shift work. They were needing more help there so it makes me happy to be where I'm needed most. Wednesday 2 pm to 8pm shift work. Thursday 8am to 2pm shift work. Friday 2pm to 8pm shift work. Then Saturday 7am to 1pm, office and engineering. It's wonderful to be back in the temple full time!

Here in Nauvoo they have a festival called Bootiful Nauvoo. The community, mostly missionaries draw on then carve 500 pumpkins that they line Mullholland Street with. It's quite a sight. They have a costume parade before dark and then light the pumpkins. The missionaries make kettle corn and prepare little bags of it and give it away. It was fun to be involved. I drew on two pumpkins and somebody else carved them. I could only find one on the street though....

We are back to cleaning the temple twice a month and our night was last night. I vacuumed the whole spiral staircase from the 5th floor to the basement and the other front staircase from the 5th floor to the basement of the temple! I'll have to count how many stairs sometime...it was a challenge for me and made my back hurt but I was happy to be able to help clean the house of the Lord!

A cool thing that is happening here is birds. Thousands of red winged black birds fly in unison whirling and swooping making shapes and patterns in the sky. It's so mesmerizing, beautiful and curious. It's usually done at sunset. I googled it and it says they are deciding where to roost together for the night, safety in numbers. It's called murmurations. It probably happens all over but it's especially noticeable here and I'm grateful to have discovered it.

Our time here is running out so we want to appreciate and be aware of all the things of living in beautiful Nauvoo.