Zelph Mound

These photos are all out of order, but we don't know how to put them in order.  Sorry.

 6: Here I am standing on top looking along the length of the Mound. You can see a depression in the middle of it.  This is where the State of Illinois did a partial archeology dig on the Mound and removed about 10 by 15 feet of the top.

 3:  This is as we are closer to the Mound, about 300 feet up from the river

 1: This is the entrance to the trail at the road next to the Illinois river where the Zions camp had ferried across and camped for the night June 2, 1834.   Sis. Ririe is on the trail

 2:  This is the mound from a distance as we hiked up to it.

 4:  This is as we are right in front of the mound.: the left side.

 Duplicate photo.  Sorry.

 7:  This is a closer photo of the depression of  the archeology dig that was done by the state.  They didn't do more because they didn't have enough money, but they found a lot of skeletons and artifacts.

Duplicate photo.  Sorry.

 Today, March 28, was our preparation day and we went to see the Zelph Mound which is about 1 1/2 hours south of here on the Illinois River.  On June 2, 1834 Joseph Smith and about 150 men camped here as they were on their way to Missouri with "Zions Camp".  While there, Joseph had a vision wherein he saw a short history of a Lamanite warrior that was killed in this spot in one of the final battles of the Lamanites in this area. His name was Zelph and in an earlier battle he had his thigh bone broken and then in this last battle he had become so righteous that the "curse" was leaving him and he had become a white Lamanite. The Lord "allowed" him to die in this battle so he could "return home", and he had an arrow in his spine. Joseph told the men where to dig and when they dug about  two feet deep they uncovered a skeleton with arrowhead in his spine and a thigh bone that was broken but healed with an osseous callous.

5: The photo to the right is the right side of the Mound and should be up next to #4

Nauvoo Miracle, continued

 This series of photos show a portion of the Old Nauvoo burial ground and the small burial spot for James Nathaniel Barlow, found by the Spirit and Revelation.  In the 1840's the entrance to the cemetery was at this far corner of the cemetery.  Israel Barlow quickly entered the cemetery and buried the child just inside the entrance rather than go deeper inside.  There was no official record of him doing this and therefore the location was lost until Elizabeth Hemple found it by the Spirit's promptings the day we were there with her.

Nauvoo Miracles

Today March 16, Sis. Ririe and I served in the Brigham Young Home historic site.  This is one of the best sites for us to give tours, as it is such an historic place. The whole building is authentic  from the 1840's built by Brigham Young himself in 1843. There is a special feeling there, because of all the spiritual things that happened there.
We continued those "special things" today as we served together there.
A few months ago we were walking through the Old Nauvoo Cemetery as we sometimes do for the special feelings we feel there.  We were the only ones in the cemetery, but then we noticed that at the far corner, there was another couple there.  We watched them from a distance and then we noticed that the woman was sobbing.  We uncomfortably approached them to evaluated the difficulty.   We started talking to them and she said they had come from St. Louis and were trying to find the burial place of an ancestor. The ancestor was Israel Barlow's child named James Nathaniel Barlow.  There was an article that came out in the Ensign, July, 2009 entitled "Daddy, Do Not Leave Me Here".   They had been directed to another city cemetery, but she did not "feel right" anywhere there. But when she came to the Old Nauvoo cemetery and walked all around it she was led to this spot and the overwhelming feeling came over her that THIS  was the spot. I told her about Elder Mengel who has been researching the cemeteries and mapping the graves.  They met the next day and he told her that the place she was standing was not possible to be the correct location because it was out of the boundary of the cemetery proper. She said, "I don't know why, but  I feel the Spirit telling me that this is the correct place."  Elder Mengel had her use the dowsing technique and it verified that there indeed was a small grave.  We wrote an article about this  and have submitted it to the Ensign for publication as a follow-up to the above article from 2009.
    Today she came back to Nauvoo for a visit to put some flowers on the grave.  She had hoped to see us but did not remember our name or know if we were still here.  She just felt prompted to go directly to the Brigham Young home for a tour.  And what a surprise to see us open the door and greet her.  We enjoyed a great reunion of sorts. She is still single, but had her boy friend with her.  She is active in track and field and is trying out for the Olympic team in the hammer throw.  Quite a lady!  We got hold of Elder Mengel, with whom we are co-authoring the article on finding the grave.  He came down to the home and we all had a good time.  He gave her a copy of the article we have submitted to the Ensign magazine about her ancestors.
These "coincidents" happen quite frequently to us and other missionaries.  We call them Nauvoo Miracles!