Sunday, April 17, 2016 – Lennie & Christi, Dinner with the Skinners, Young Single Sisters Missionaries, Mindy & Dan are expecting their fifth child in Oct.

Sacrament meeting started at 7:50 this morning which meant we had to start our drive in from Carthage at 7:10am. After the block of meetings Sis. Johnson and I didn’t have time to drive back to our home in Carthage; we had to start our shift at 12:30 as tour guides in the historic “Lucy Mack Smith” home so we ate a sack lunch at one of the picnic table on the grounds of Historic Old Nauvoo. It was a wonderful setting for a Sunday Picnic. 

Our first tour we gave at the Lucy Mack Smith Home was with Lennie & Christi Starks. Today is their last day in Nauvoo. They fly home tomorrow out of Chicago. We had a good time with them while they were here for the past 3 days. This was my first experience at the Lucy Mack Smith home. Sis. Johnson has been assigned to this home a couple of time before so she was experienced and did a great job leading the tours. 

 

In case you didn’t know, Lucy Mack Smith was the mother of the Prophet Joseph Smith and she was one of his strongest supporters. On one occasion Lucy and some fellow Saints were waiting to board a boat in Buffalo bound for the Fairport Harbor in Ohio, she was asked, “Is the Book of Mormon true?”  Without hesitation, she replied, “That book was brought forth by the power of God and translated by the gift of the Holy Ghost; and if I could make my voice sound as loud as the trumpet of Michael the Archangel I would declare the truth from land to land, and from sea to sea, and the echo should reach to every isle, until every member of the family of Adam should be left without excuse.  For I do testify that God has revealed himself to man again in these last days.”

This evening we had dinner with Elder Lynn & Sis. Joyce Skinner from Pima, AZ. (Elder Skinner is Shirl Butler’s Brother-in-law, back in the Alma Ward, our home Ward.) We really appreciated the dinner invitation because, once again, it’s too far to drive back to Carthage for dinner and then return to Nauvoo 30 minutes later for our mission fireside. It’s about a 50 mile round trip for us.

This evening was another amazing mission-wide spiritual event. Last week 22 young single Sister Missionaries arrived in our mission. This evening we had a mission fireside (Firesides are called “Sociables” here) and all of the young single sisters introduced themselves. About half of the sisters are new missionaries straight out of the MTC in Provo. The other half were here last summer for the tourist season but for the last 6 months they’ve been “Out-bound”.  That means they were re-located to other missions all over the States to be regular proselyting missionaries. Now that they have returned, tonight’s “Sociable” was a chance for each of these wonderful Sister Missionaries to report to all of us, the Senior Couple Missionaries, their experiences, challenges and successes they had while they were gone. 

This evening was another amazing mission-wide spiritual event. Last week 22 young single Sister Missionaries arrived in our mission. This evening we had a mission fireside (Firesides are called “Sociables” here) and all of the young single sisters introduced themselves. About half of the sisters are new missionaries straight out of the MTC in Provo. The other half were here last summer for the tourist season but for the last 6 months they’ve been “Out-bound”.  That means they were re-located to other missions all over the States to be regular proselyting missionaries. Now that they have returned, tonight’s “Sociable” was a chance for each of these wonderful Sister Missionaries to report to all of us, the Senior Couple Missionaries, their experiences, challenges and successes they had while they were gone.