Cast Party

 Just in case you think we don't have fun on our mission....Here are some pictures from our cast party we had after a session at the Temple!  We came back to our house to have a crepe party!!  So fun...we also honored a couple from our cast who are leaving the first part of February  The Boyer's
 

                                                        The Boyer's  Leaving in February

Today we are serving together at the Lucy Mack Smith home.  When Joseph Noble left to go west, Brigham Young purchased his home and had it deeded to Lucy Mack Smith.  He wanted to take care of Mother Smith and provided her with a home and a carriage.  Her daughter Lucy and her husband Arthur Millilken lived with Lucy in this home for a few years.  Lucy had arthritis and was unable to go west with the Saints.

Here is Mom sitting on a little bench..she calls it a "time out bench"  (Ha)  This is upstairs where the rest of the family slept!

Because Lucy had arthritis, she couldn't go upstairs, so this is called a lying in room...a small sleeping area right in the kitchen and living area...I can just see her enjoying being in the middle of things, with the cooking and children playing around her..a great idea..She was a tiny lady, Becky could just fit in that tiny bed!

There is a great spirit in this house.  Lucy was an amazing woman...never lost faith in the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, or in the fact that her son was truly a prophet of God who translated the Book of Mormon by the power of the Holy Ghost.  

Looking out the front door of the Lucy Mack Smith home is this house right across the street.  This is where the General Authorities stay when in Nauvoo...Which is pretty often actually.  It is humble, but nice and built in the style of the day.  

This stairway is the most steep in Nauvoo, it's like climbing a ladder..no wonder Lucy never went up there.  Her daughter and her family had rooms upstairs to sleep and a living room area...cute little cozy house.

 We have had a lot of WINTER!!  The above photo was taken out our front door .  Our apartment faces a large two acre grassy field that abuts a forest where about 20 deer and wild turkey , etc. live. They are hungry.  Also we have a bird feeder and down below is a picture that we took out of our living room window , of a husband and wife Red Cardinal that come every day.  They are beautiful.  I wish I could get a better picture of them.

 This picture above is a model that we have in the main Visitor Center showing Nauvoo in 1845-6.  The Temple is seen in the upper left.  At about the upper far right we see the area where Parley St. meets the Mississippi River.  It is hard to see exactly in this picture, but I put it here to give perspective to the picture below.  The west end of Parley St. is where the Saints left from in February 1846 to cross the River to begin the famous Exodus west to the Rocky Mountains.  We will be holding a reenactment of this Exodus in about three weeks, and Sis. Ririe and I will be participating.  At first they crossed their wagons on small ferrys, which was hard to do because of the cold winter weather, there was so much ice in the river that a couple of the ferrys capsized over the several days.  Then it got even colder making it much more difficult for the ferrys.  But it turned out to be a great blessing in disguise because the river actually froze over, (which it hardly ever did)  and became so thick that it  made it possible to actually drive the wagons over.  The slow, tedious process of ferrying had wagons lined up all the way along  Parley St. and backed up clear up into town, waiting their turn. This frozen river allowed all the wagons that were ready to cross to do so immediately, which allowed about 500 to cross.  This winter became one of those unusual ones that was so cold ( the high for a couple of days was minus 2)  This froze the river all the way across.  Some said that even a snow mobile could easily cross it.   The picture below shows me venturing out on the ice. This is the same identical place that the Exodus took place at the west end of Parley St. where the ferry dock was in 1846. ( I wanted to go farther but "Mom wouldn't let me"-- and kept screaming at me to stop.-spoil sport!!)

 This picture below is a close-up that she took at the same time.  See how safe it looks?  I know I cudda gone a lot farther--doggon!

We will give more information about the Exodus reenactment in a few  weeks.

Various photos of Nauvoo

 Having just figured out how to put pictures on our blog that have been sent to us from other missionaries, we will post them all now, as we can't figure out how to not use them all.

 This series is of a tour that I was giving at the Times and Seasons/ Nauvoo Neighbor building.  They were taken by Elder Germer, my companion for the day.  This whole building ( as most of the sites we give tours in )  is the actual 175 year old building, not a replica.

 The first thing we do is explain to the guests that the "compositor" is the chief person in the print shop. He composes the story to be printed, at the composing table, a heavy ,solid marble table, taking type from the case.  The capitol letters he takes from the "upper case" and the small letters from the "lower case" behind him.  The type is placed in a composing stick and then transferred to the "galley", which is the "column" of the newspaper.  After a sentence or two are formed in the galley, then the compositor stops and inks and prints a preliminary copy of that set to date.  He then has someone else proof read to make sure that if there are errors, they can be corrected immediately.  This is very important to do now, rather than wait until the whole column is finished, as each piece of type is a different size and if an error is detected the whole phrase must be totally dismantled to  make space for the correct type size.  (We often mention that it is also instructive that as we detect errors (sins) in our own lives, it is so much easier to correct them sooner than later,  when habits have been formed and we then have to invoke the Atonement of Jesus Christ with its attending remorse and disruption of our lives.)

 We also explain several printing terms, such as moveable type verses stereotypes, Quioning a phrase, furniture, spacers, minding your P's and Q's, dingbats, the chase (cutting to the chase).  In the photos above and below we can see the case which contains all the type, behind me to the right.  On top of the case can be seen the lower and upper cases. Immediately behind me can be seen a rack containing all the furniture.  To the far left can be seen the press.  This is a true antique 1840 press.  To the right (out of the picture) is an 1830 press.  These are not the actual presses used in the building in the 1840's, but are true functioning antiques of the period.

 We then move over to the press and let the guests acually move the chase into the coffin, demonstrate how they would have inked it with a dauber and breyer, place a sheet of paper into the tympan under the frisket, roll it under the platen, pull the lever to lower the platen, and then placing the printed paper on the racks on the ceiling of the room to dry for 24 hours before printing the other side of the sheet.  The moveable type would then be removed and cleaned and "carefully" replaced back into the proper slots in the case by the apprentice called the "printer's devil".

 This is when I was serving at pioneer pastimes with Elder and Sister Russell, where children (and adults) play all kinds of authentic games of the 1840's, and  we dress them up in pioneer costumes, like we wear.

 While serving in the Browning Gun home and manufactory, a guest came in with a "monsterous " camera, obviously a professional.  I asked him if he could focus in on a plaque that Jonathan Browning placed on each gun he made. He emailed these pictures to me after he got home.  After Jonathan Browning was baptized in 1842, he was such a stalwart in the Church and so converted that he placed a plaque that read:  "Holiness to the Lord ---our Preservation" on every gun he made.  The plaque is so small and so old on the antique gun that Browning made that it is with great difficulty that anyone has eyes good enough to read it.  Now I have an enlarged print of it to use in the tours, so visitors can appreciate Brownings faith and dedication to the Gospel.

 These photos are of Rendezvoux  where we are singing a song called "Willingly"

 This is a photo of Sis. Ririe and I acting out the part of "Peter and Abigail".  Here, I am about to find  out that she is in the process of getting engaged to someone else(Ezra).

 This was a photo sent me by one of the visitors, where I was giving them a tour in the Family Living Center.  I am explaining how the Saints in Nauvoo made rope.  The fibers in my hand were scratched out of  a tall plant stalk, and then spun (as they would do in spinning yarn from wool) into a twine, which then would be mounted onto a machine they had in Nauvoo in the 1840"s.  And then we make a rope for them to take home.

 This is at the end of the play where I just found out that Sis. Ririe broke off her engagement to "Ezra", and just consented to going with me West.

 The above photo, I am being told that "Mrs. Wallace is here to see me.  She came all the way to Nauvoo from Warsaw.

This is where I "playfully" catch her in a "lie" of  why she came to Nauvoo to see me.

Some Catching up !

I know it has been ages since we've written in this blog, that was because we had issues with our computer, but thanks to Eric Kerns, we have her up and running again!

             I had to include this picture...It is a cruet set I saw in the John Wood home and museum in Quincy, Illinois...I fell in love with it and am looking for one to purchase...so every antique shop I go int, that is my mission to find one to take home...It is very typical of the time period of the mid 1800's...Isn't it beautiful...If you see one call me OK?

This is our Rendezvous cast..(Lucy Mack cast) Everyone but the Ririe's!  We have become like family..We have great fun together!

  We got to go to Springfield, Illinois to the Lincoln museum and Library..Here we are with the first family!
                   We loved the experience and highly recommend the museum for a family trip!

This is at the tomb of Abraham Lincoln..Thought it was funny that everyone must rub Lincoln's nose for good luck...notice the shiny tip of his nose...Inside there are several statures of Lincoln and they are about 2 feet tall and are amazing.  A very reverent place I might add.

                                           Lincoln's tomb inside the building !

                                            One of many statures of Lincoln...He looks so pensive.

             Dallin Oaks speaking at the Visitors Center about the Prophet Joseph.  This was all a part of the Extradition hearing re-enactment...He spoke and gave an amazing testimony of Joseph Smith and then there was an open house afterwards...Both auditoriums in the Visitor Center were full and the stake center (video feed) was full too.  There were lawyers everywhere..Judges too, people from all over the state and even out of state came to attend.  During the day there were scholars presenting in different places in the city about the different aspects of the extradition hearings in the 1840's.   We sat right next to Olene Walker, the past gov. of Utah.  Lot's of dignitaries in town.. The next day in Springfield, Illinois the re-enactment took place and was sponsored by the Lincoln Library and the Illinois State Supreme Court.  Actually was a big deal!

                               I'm opening the Post Office for the day...It is also a Dry good Store

                    This is the way people carried water..we have a standing joke that Mom would ask her son to run some water up to their father working on the temple....Nauvoo's first running water!  HA!

                              Sorting box for the Post Office...One of the first Postmasters was Sidney Rigdon..it was                                                                      on his kitchen table~!

   Served in Nauvoo on the Road, and we went to Donaldson to a jpumpkin celebration...I loved this idea and wish we could do this at our little farm...It is a rubber ducky race...two hand pumps and see who gets their rubber ducky back first...It was great!

                              This young man from New Jersey, Sergio Galvez was amazing.  We connected with him and were amazed at his testimony.  He has been a member for two years and was so thrilled to come to Nauvoo...alone, on the bus...took a taxi from Ft. Madison to Nauvoo !!!  He was documenting everything with his camera...He said that he couldn't believe it was real...He saw things about it on movies, but he is going to tell everyone that Nauvoo is real!  Loved him, he went to the temple 2 or 3 times in the time he was here.  Hope we can stay in touch!

                     This was fun, we went to a High School Football game (homecoming) in Ft. Madison just for fun...what great kids are here in the midwest...clean cut and great kids...This couple are friends who live here in our building ...the Pincocks from Rexburg, Idaho...Really sweet people

                                Elder Ririe and I  served in the Lyon Drug store together...he was a botanical kind of apothecary, and this is his herb garden, he would us the herbs here to concoct a medicine to prescribe to his patients...Isn't it beautiful