Saturday, May 27, 2017 – Nauvoo Temple, Carthage Visitor’s Center, “Sunset by the Mississippi”

Early Saturday morning Jared, Tere, Kyle, Sis. Johnson & I attended an endowment session at the Nauvoo Temple.  All endowment session are special but this morning Sis. Johnson and I got to attend with our grandson, Kyle. Back in Mesa, AZ part of his preparation to leave on his Service Mission was to receive his own endowments.  Of course we were not able to attend with him but this morning we were. In fact, this was only Kyle’s second time to do an endowment session and his first time to go through as a proxy for the dead. 

After our session we asked permission to go to the basement and see the baptistery. One of the sisters in the recorder’s office took us on a short tour. Of all of the Temples in operation today, the Nauvoo Temple has the largest baptismal font of any other.  It is truly impressive. Since the modern rebuilt temple has the exact same “Footprint” as the Nauvoo Temple of the 1840’s, President Gordon B. Hinckley insisted that the rebuilt baptistery be the same as the original.

 While we were in the basement we walked over to the spiral staircase in the southwest corner of the Temple. The staircase is very impressive, we got to look up six floors to the very top and it makes me feel like I’m spinning.

Next Sis. Johnson & I along with Jared & Tere and their sons drove to Carthage and took the Carthage Jail Tour. For me the Carthage Jail tour is a sacred and moving experience each time I take it. Even more so now since Pres. Hall changed the format of the tour and now everything in the tour is focused on feeling the Spirit that testifies that this is the place, the “Martyrdom Room” is the very place that Joseph and his brother Hyrum testified with their blood of the truthfulness of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And, that the Book of Mormon is indeed a divinely inspired testament of the Savior and contains the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 This evening Sis. Johnson and I performed in the season opener of “Sunset by the Mississippi” on the outdoor “Sunset” stage. We get to perform with the multi talented YPM’s (Young performing Missionaries) who can not only sing, dance and act but many of them also play musical instruments. They make the whole show great. 

In tonight’s “Sunset by the Mississippi” performance, Sis. Johnson and I, along with the other Seniors had a few problems with our timing, cues and routines but we will get better with practice. The summer season of “Sunset” shows lasts seven weeks. Maybe we will get it right by then!