Friday, Sept. 15, 2017 – E&S Sims, Path to Pageant Bldg., Ginkgo Biloba Grafts, Elder & Sis. Wilson’s Final Performance

Today was Elder Sims last day at work in FM. He has been a carpenter and has helped out in other departments like HVAC at FM. Elder & Sis. Sims will be leaving for home next Tuesday after having given dedicated service to the Lord here in Nauvoo. We will miss them. But we shouldn’t feel sorry for ourselves because our friends are leaving. Instead we should rejoice in having been their friends for the time we knew them in Nauvoo.

Our first work assignment this morning was right out of left field. Our crew was asked to remove weeds along a walking path out at the Pageant Building three miles east of Nauvoo. Normally Sis. Johnson and I and our grounds crew don’t do anything with the Pageant building but this morning extra help was needed for a YSA conference coming up this weekend.  A lot of weeds needed to be cut down and removed.

It turns out there is a long walking path, about a quarter of a mile long. It starts at the hotel where the Core Pageant staff live in July and goes  to the Pageant building where they rehearse. During Pageant Season they walk this path to and from rehearsals many times a day. In some places the weeds were so overgrown it was hard to see the path. It was a long hard project but we got it done.  

The rest of our day was the usual Friday blowing and cleaning of the Visitor’s Center, the Women’s Garden, Family Living Center, the Cultural Hall and all of Old Main Street. We concluded our day working at two other sites. It was another beautiful day to work in Old Nauvoo.

Tonight in our pre-show cast meeting, our director Sis. Hipple, explained that none of us are professional actors and that the Lord blesses us with talents and abilities we didn’t know we had to fulfill our acting, singing and dancing requirements during our Rendezvous show each night. She quoted Neal A Maxwell. “God does not begin by asking us about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability.” I really like this quote a lot.