Thursday, August 31, 2017 – Update on Sis. Johnson, Lyon Drug & Herb Garden, Jacob Weiler Historic Home

UPDATE ON SISTER JOHNSON – Sis. Johnson is doing much, much better. Today she even put in a hard morning of work with the rest of us.  She still has some swelling, burning and a lot of itching but she isn’t in any pain. Each day since the wasps attacked she has found dozens more stings on her skin. Interestingly these new discoveries are all very small and minor in nature, almost like the wasp that stung her didn’t use much venom. I don’t know if wasps can control the amount of venom they inject but this is another little Nauvoo Miracle. During and after the attack, Sis. Johnson has been very blessed and protected.  

This weekend is the annual Nauvoo Grape festival. It’s a big event and the crowds will be very large. For us too, the mission is expecting better than normal visits to the historic sites. In preparation for the larger crowds, all of us on the FM grounds crew have been working hard weeding and cleaning all of the “High Profile” locations and historic sites. We want to put our best foot forward and have everything look as nice as possible for this community event.  

We started in the back half of Herb Gardens of the Lyon Drug. Last week we cleaned the front half so we didn’t have to spend all morning there but there are always a lot of weeds to pull and I don’t think we will never really be finished. 

Next we weeded and cleaned the William Gheen home, the Yearsley home and we finished up at a new house we’ve not done before, the Jacob Weiler House.

The Jacob Weiler house is significant because it is right on the main highway into Nauvoo and the front is seen be every passing car that comes into town. Richard has a plan this fall for new flowerbeds and that applies to the Jacob Weiler house too. We pulled out the old past bloom iris plants and weeds and replanted  the front of the house with a beautiful variety of perennial flowers that will enhance the beauty of the main highway into Nauvoo.

 We finished mulching the Jacob Weiler home after lunch and the flowerbeds, the house and grounds all look a lot better. This new flowerbed will be a nice “Welcome” sign as visitors enter Nauvoo.

There was a bad accident in the mission this morning. Elder Wayment is one of the Teamsters that works with the horses. While moving the horses this morning, one of the horses was spooked, knocked him down and trampled him. He was flown to Iowa City.  He has a fractured vertebrae, broken ribs, and a hematoma on his sternum.  He has been put in ICU to be monitored. He and Sister Wayment are in need of all of our prayers.