Sunday, September 25, 2016 – F&T Meeting, Carthage Visitor’s Center, District Meeting

This morning we were on our way to church a half hour later than usual. Of course. . . that was because we now live in Nauvoo, not in Carthage and our commute to church on Sunday morning is only 3 minutes instead of 33 minutes.

This afternoon we were assigned to be tour guides in the Carthage Visitor’s Center. This was our second time to get to give tours in Carthage. And, it is a real pleasure. We enjoy the people, the tours, and the church history that makes Carthage such a sacred and hallowed spot. Today Sis. Johnson did all of the tour commentary and I got to fill in as needed and bear my testimony at the end of each the tour. Sis. Johnson does an excellent job of bringing the spirit of the Lord to the tour. Everyone knows and understands by the end of the tour just why the Carthage Jail is so special to us as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

One of our tours had two couples that weren’t members of the LDS faith. This doesn’t happen very often and it was a special time for us, as tour guides, to share our faith and testimonies of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. After the tour was over I got to talk to one of the couple for fifteen minutes about our church’s history, our beliefs and in particular about Joseph Smith’s first vision. These opportunities are rare and I enjoyed speaking to the visitors. I know they felt the spirit very much.

Tonight we had our monthly District meeting. Since we are no longer in Carthage we are in a new

District here in Nauvoo named the Samuel Smith District. Elder & Sis. Jensen are our District leaders. We work with Sis. Jensen daily at FM, she’s the main secretary and receptionist at FM. District meetings always include dinner and tonight’s dinner very yummy and it was special because today was Fast Sunday and we broke our fast at the Jensen’s home. The dinner was great, the meeting was great and the company was the best of all. We are already good friends with all of the members of our new district.

 

Saturday, September 24, 2016 – P’day Shopping, Women’s Conference

This morning we were off early to do our P-day (Preparation Day) shopping. We drove south 25 miles to Keokuk, Iowa.  Keokuk is on the other side of the Mississippi River and has a population of about 11,000. It is the county seat of Lee County and it is the closest large town to Nauvoo. We like shopping there because it has a large selection of different kinds of stores.  Especially all of the grocery stores we have to choose from including Hy-Vee, Save-A-Lot and Wal-Mart. 

This evening we got to watch Women’s Conference on the internet.  Sis. Johnson and I enjoyed the session, talks and music a lot. We are still busily setting up our new home so it is very refreshing to sit down and enjoy a break from our work and listen to our leaders teach us. Now, we are looking forward to next weekend and General Conference.

 

Friday, September 23, 2016 – Work in Nauvoo and Carthage, Passed Inspection!

Sis. Johnson and I put in long hard days of work today. This time I worked in Carthage and Sis. Johnson worked in Nauvoo with Richard Hancock. Richard is our new boss, he is FM’s Horticulturalist. Also working with Sis. Johnson and Richard was another Senior couple, the Nagel’s. Together they cleaned up and took apart flower beds at several locations including the Lyon Drug and the Memorial to the Pioneers at the end of the trail of hope. They pulled some of the ornamental grass from around the Temple grounds and took them back to the greenhouses for propagation for next spring’s planting.

I spent my whole day watering and cleaning at the Carthage Visitor’s Center and mowing at the Bushnell House. Either Sis. Johnson or I will be coming back to Carthage about twice a week to clean, water, rake, prune and mow.

 

While I was at Carthage, Sis. Hopkin, came by our old house to do an inspection. Her job is to see that every Senior couple that moves out of a house, leaves it “Better than they found it.” Thankfully, all our hard work “Deep Cleaning” yesterday paid off, we passed with flying colors.

 

Next, two Sisters from FM’s “Conservation” department came to inspect our old house. Their job is to inventory every single item in the house and verify that everything that was there when we moved in is still there when we moved out. Since all of the mission houses are furnished, they had a very long check list of things they had to find. They had to count all of the furniture, pots & pans, plates, bowls, cups, cooking utensils and even every knife, spoon and fork.

Thursday, September 22, 2016 – Cleaning our Carthage Home

Today was our “Cleaning Day.” When Senior couples are moved in the mission they are given two days without work assignments to move. The first day is to be used to move all of the couple’s personal items. The second day is to be used for cleaning the house they are leaving. The list of instructions to the Seniors is two pages long and very detail. The instruction sheet starts with this line: “Leave it better than you found it.” Then it outlines with specific instructions what and how to clean. Let me just say that I now have a new appreciation for the term, “Deep Cleaning.”

Again today, we had to do some of our regular chores at the Carthage Visitor’s Center in spite of the fact that we are supposed to have the whole day without any work assignments. Yesterday we had to clean and water everything before we started packing. Today, after seven hours of “deep cleaning” our house, I still had to mow all of the lawns at the visitor’s center.  It made for a long day but we got it done. Sis. Johnson is a trooper. She now has little bruises all over her knees from kneeling and scrubbing tile. But you should see the house, everything is clean, it sparkles.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016 – Move to Haas House in Nauvoo, Six Month mark

Today was our big move day to the “Haas House” in Nauvoo. But before we could pack, we still had to do our grounds keeping chores at the Carthage Visitor’s Center. Sis. Johnson watered all of the flower beds and planters and I cleaned all of the sidewalks. It takes us about an hour and a half and we always try to finish before guest start to arrive around 9:00AM.

The rest of our day was spent packing, loading, unloading and unpacking. Not very interesting but we got it all done by the end of the day. This was our second night in the “Haas House”. Tomorrow morning we drive back to Carthage and we’ll spend the whole day cleaning our old house before we turn in the keys.

Today is the 21^st of September and today is our six month mark since we entered the MTC in Provo, UT. last spring. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been out on our mission for six months already. Time is flying by so fast because we love what we are doing. We love being grounds keepers and caring for this historic place. We love greeting the visitors, sharing our testimonies and being missionaries. We love working with the other seniors and all of the staff at FM. Surprisingly, we love performing in the nightly shows, singing and dancing. And we love serving the Lord. 

Tuesday, September 20, 2016 – Final Day of Work with Sis. Knapp, and Final “Rendezvous”

Another busy day of work on the Nauvoo grounds. This was our last day to work with Sis. Knapp before she and Elder Knapp leave for their home in Chubbuck, ID. She is well liked and everyone will miss her. Now Sis. Johnson and I have some very large shoes to fill. And it will take both of us to take her place, she was that good.

This evening Elder and Sis. Knapp performed in their final show of “Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo.” It was very hard for them to perform as they were so choked up saying the lines through their tear. The parts they play are called “George and Agatha” and it’s one of the funniest vignettes in the whole show. They’ve been playing this part for over a year now and they do a great job each night.

Monday, September 19, 2016 – FM Prayer Meeting, Sis. Knapp, Wood Chips, Carthage

We spent the day working in Nauvoo. By this Friday, Sis. Johnson and I will be completely moved to Nauvoo and working there three out of five days a week. Today and tomorrow our assignment is to learn all we can from Sis. Knapp. We are replacing her in Nauvoo and she and Bro. Knapp are going home in four days.  For the last year and a half, Sis. Knapp has been the missionary in charge of all of the grounds in Nauvoo. She has a wealth of experience and Sis. Johnson and I will have to learn everything from her in just two days. 

In addition to teaching us the “where, how and when” of the Nauvoo grounds, Sis. Knapp also had us helping her completely clean & blow Main Street. Next we cleaned out from under the trees near the Cultural Hall, pulled weeds and cut off suckers. Then we hauled and placed wood chips around the trees near the Cultural Hall.

 

We ate our lunch at our new home in Nauvoo. We are a long way from moved in but it is starting to feel like home. After lunch we still had to do our regular chores on the grounds in Carthage. While Sis. Johnson watered the flower beds and the terracotta planters; I blew and cleaned the parking lot. We did a lot of work today.