Wednesday, November 23, 2016 – Mission-wide Training Meeting, Clean the Land & Records Office, Thanksgiving Lunch at FM

This morning’s mission-wide training meeting was very good and informative. Our first speaker was Dr. Rasmussen. The mission presidency has him speak to us about every six months about health and safety issues for the senior missionaries. Especially now that winter is around the corner it is important to remember to be safe around snow and ice, especially “Black Ice” on the sidewalks.

Our next speaker was Jordon Bodily, the Director of FM (Facilities maintenance). He answered a lot of our questions.  In the past month or so we’ve had our weekly training in the historic sites and the same questions always come up, what are the “Historic Artifacts” and how can we tell if an old looking piece is really an artifact or just a teaching tool. Now, with Jordon’s help, we know how to tell a rare antique from a demonstration item and the rules for the care and handling of the artifacts. Today’s meeting was very good.

Back at work, Scott Higley took us on a driving tour of the properties that are owned or rented by the church. These homes, apartment and duplexes are the housing for all of the missionaries here in Nauvoo. In the summer there are over 150 units that the grounds staff and Sis. Johnson and I take care of. 150 homes is a lot considering Nauvoo only has 1100 year round residents. In the summer, the senior couples, the single sister missionaries, the young single sister missionaries, the pageant performers & support personnel, and the young performing missionaries probably represent a third of the total population of Nauvoo. Maintaining the homes and the grounds for all of these people is a huge job.

Today’s cleaning assignment was at the historic “Land and Records” building. There were a lot of flowerbeds to cut down and clean up so we didn’t get it all finished today. And we ran into poison ivy again; the special care and handling it requires always slows us down a bit.

 

Our day at work ended with an FM Pre-Thanksgiving Luncheon for all of the FM missionaries, the FM paid staff and their families. The leaders at FM really know how to put on a good feed. We truly had a happy Pre-Thanksgiving. There was a ton of good food and dessert.

Sis. Johnson and I are very thankful to be working with such a good group of people at FM. Their hard work and dedication is reflected in every single thing they do. Maintaining the grounds, the historic sites, the residences, offices, warehouses, machinery and vehicle pool is a huge job. Their tireless behind the scenes work allows the visitors to this historic place to focus on the message of this sacred and hallowed place. The visitors can feel the spirit when their attention isn’t interrupted by clutter, debris, junk, broken building, un-kept grounds, etc. Sis. Johnson and I really like our assignment here.