Carthage Jail Sociable

Today was a rather unusual day.  A  couple of weeks ago I was asked to do some research on the Carthage Jail in preparation for a "Sociable" (Nauvoo word for a Fireside with all the missionaries in the Mission) scheduled for today, February 23.  In our site book, (which gives all the history we are to use in our tours) for the Carthage Jail, it states that once the jail was deactivated and sold to individuals, it was purchased by one James Monroe Browning in 1871.  The site book states that he was not related to Johnathan Browning, the  famous gunmaker who joined the Church in 1842 and moved to Nauvoo.   I have questioned this and found through help of the senior missionaries at the Family Search Center that he lived near Carthage and was 11 years old at the time of the Martyrdom and purchased the Jail when he was 38 in 1871 and lived there for 30  years. He was always cordial to visitors who stopped and asked to see the Martyrdom room, but never appeared interested in the Church. (of course there were no Church members in Carthage nor Nauvoo until the 1930's).
It turns out that he is a direct NEPHEW of Johnathan Browning!!  This was a big surprise to everyone.
 The organizers of the Sociable asked me if I would present my research findings in today's meeting.
I was very surprised to find that I shared the program  with Craig Dunn, a local historian that has written several books on Nauvoo, and Susan Easton Black Durrant who is now a Temple Missionary  who has written more than 120 books on Church History while she was at BYU.
It was a very enjoyable experience, and humbling to be on such a program.
I so love being a Missionary here in Nauvoo.  Every day presents experiences which strengthen my testimony of the truthfulness of this the restored Gospel.  I have had so many witnesses of the instrumentality of Joseph Smith in this restoration.  How humbling to walk in the very places where so much of what he did occurred.  I can almost picture him, and others as they struggled to make Nauvoo and the Church the doctrinal marvel that it is today.