Monday, July 17, 2017 – Baptisms for the Dead, Work at Cultural Hall & Browning Gun, Tree trimming, Carthage Jail Tour with N&V and P&B

Early this morning Nathan, Valerie and their daughter Samantha went with Paul and his son Robert to the Nauvoo Temple to do baptism for the dead. They had 16 family names and the children not only were baptized and confirmed for their ancestors but Nathan & Valerie did the initiatory work for them as well. It was a beautiful morning to do saving ordinances in the temple for ancestors.

Sis. Johnson and I had a busy morning at work. We started by moving and re-aligning all of the barriers on Old Main Street in front of the Cultural Hall and the Browning Gunsmith Shop. The barriers are intended to give pedestrians ample space to congregate in and around the historic sites and not have to worry about standing in the street. Unfortunately some people don’t like the barriers and move them all over the place. So occasionally we have to go back and re-align the barriers and the flower pots that go with them.

 

While we were in front of the historic home of Jonathan Browning & Gunsmith Shop we noticed the weeds were back in the flowerbeds with a vengeance. We spent the rest of the morning there weeding the flowerbeds in front and behind Browning Gun.

 While we were in the flower gardens behind the Browning Gun Shop we also did a lot of bush and tree trimming. The reason was to make the view of the Nauvoo Temple unobstructed from the back porch of the Browning home. As the missionaries give tours of the Browning home they are taken to the back yard gardens to see the grave site of the infant daughter of Jonathan & Elizabeth Browning. In the 1840’s, standing by the grave, the view of the Temple reminded the Brownings that Families can be forever through the Sealing ordinances in the Temple and they would someday have their daughter with them again.

After work today Sis. Johnson and I traveled with Nathan & Valerie and Paul & Beth and their families to Carthage to attend the Carthage jail tour. We truly love the Carthage tour. I’ve mentioned this before but I truly believe it bears repeating. The Carthage Jail tour and especially the martyrdom room is one of the most sacred and hallowed places in all of Church History. The Prophet Joseph new we was going to be killed by his enemies when he left Nauvoo for Carthage on that hot June day in 1844. He could have fled the state for safety but rather he chose to seal his testimony of the truthfulness of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ with his blood. En route to Carthage Joseph said: “I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am calm as a summer’s morning. I have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward all men . . . I shall die an innocent man . . .and it shall be said of me ‘He was murdered in cold blood.’”