Saturday, May 14, 2016 – Storm, Washed the car, Museum, Pot Luck

Last night a very strong storm blew through central Illinois. High winds tore branches, stick and leaves from the trees and we had over an inch of rain. This morning Sis. Johnson and I started early to clean all of the debris from the grounds of the visitor’s center to make it presentable when the first guests start to arrive. 

Since it is our P-day (Preparation Day) we washed our car. We drive a lot of farm roads between Carthage and Nauvoo all week so you can imagine our car gets splattered with a lot of bugs. The car really needed the bath. I discovered yesterday that the storage shed has a “Shop Vac” hidden back in the corner. I also found everything else we needed like extension cords, scrub brushes, hoses, spray nozzles, etc.

 

After lunch Sis. Johnson and I went across the street from the Carthage Jail to see the Hancock County Historical Society & Kibbe Museum. We’ve heard a lot about it so we decided to use our P-day afternoon for a tour. It was very good and worth the price of admission. Well . . . admission was free but there was a donation box for visitors to donate if they wanted to and we did. We enjoyed the museum a lot but there was too much to see in just one afternoon. We’ll be going back.

The museum had a lot of history about Hancock County, Carthage is the county seat. It had sections on Carthage College, natural history, Indian culture of the area, geology, WW I and WW II. It also had a lot of 19^th century displays on medicine, farm tools, mortuaries, and typical family & home life, etc. One section was devoted to the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum with a lot of very old photographs and stories I’ve never seen or heard of before. The display was very good.

There was a whole wing dedicated to Abraham Lincoln and the many times he visited Carthage. Those visits included his days as a lawyer from the 1830’s through his campaign for president as well as a stop by Lincoln’s funeral train after his assassination. I had no idea Carthage was such a popular place.

This evening before our “Sunset by the Mississippi” practice about 20 of the Elders and Sisters that were in the MTC with us had a pot luck dinner at Elder & Sis. Andrus’ home. It is hard to believe but it’s been 7 weeks (almost 2 months) since we entered the MTC together. We had a good meal with good friends.