Nauvoo Exodus Re-enactment

Today, Feb. 8, 2014, we had a re-enactment of the Exodus of the population of Nauvoo, which began on Feb. 4, 1846.  It was a very sober event, thinking of the feelings of the Saints as they drove their wagons down Parley St. to the Mississippi River and then waiting in line as the ferries took them across one by one.  The weather cooperated in helping us feel the discomfort they must have felt as the waited such a long time for their turn to cross.  The temperature was 14 degrees F.  and a light snow was falling and a stiff breeze took the wind chill  down.  Fortunately we have clothes to ward off the cold, which the early Saints did not.  They must have froze terribly while they waited, and worse when they finally got over to Montrose where they did not even have a home to protect them from the elements.  Only a tent or to get under their wagon, as the wagon was so loaded they could not get in it.

 We assembled at the Family Living Center, at 6:30 am. about 1 1/2 miles from the river, and had a nice breakfast and a program reciting excerpts from several of the Saint's journals.  Then we went outside and walked along side of the wagons to the River.  I was part of the Nauvoo Legion, which at that time numbered about 4 to 5 thousand. We marched in front of the group of missionaries and local and visiting members who came, some from Utah, etc. just for this re-enactment, and when we got to the River we had a flag raising ceremony and another program, and sang Come Come Ye Saints.  A very touching experience.

 There were  about 350 people total who walked in the procession

 They carried flags representing every nation that was in the original group.

After the program many of them went out on the ice of the Mississippi River, which is still frozen over and covered with a lot of snow from the two heavy storms that have come through in the last two weeks. Sister Ririe even ventured out onto the ice!
Experiences like this continue to keep us humbly thankful for the peace we enjoy today as compared to the lawless mob attacks the they lived with,and for the comforts of today compared to their constant struggling with not enough food, not enough clothing,or shelter, etc.  We must not take what we have for granted, but must be ever more greatful and dedicated to their memory and sacrifice.
After the events we staffed our assigned sites for visits.  During one of my tours at the Brickyard I discussed with a group from Utah, how we could honor what they did, in our lives today. Very thought provoking and emotional interchange was had.
It is our greatest desire that our children, our grandchildren, our nieces and nephews, and our brothers and sister honor their covenants and live up to the legacy these faithful Saints left for us to follow.  In that only, is true happiness found.
We love this mission!

Our Amazing District!

                                                     This is our Awesome Don Carlos District

       We planned a neat meeting at the Willard Richards home.  Remember Willard Richards was an apostle and was with the Prophet in Carthage jail when he was martyred.  The amazing prophecy Joseph made to Willard was, Willard you will see bullets flying on both sides and your friends dying on your left and right, but you will not have a hole in your garment. (He made that prophecy about a year before the martyrdom) That is exactly what happened.  He was a big 300# man, and the room was very small, but he and John Taylor survived.  He without a hole in his garment (a little nick on his ear) and it was a miracle John Taylor survived.  He had 4 bullet wounds and survived to be our third Prophet.  The law of two witnesses came into play here.  If we didn't have their testimonies, we would only have the mobs account of what transpired in Carthage.  Joseph sent all of the other apostles on missions so they wouldn't be involved.
      His home is now a Bed and Breakfast, down on the flats where all of the old Nauvoo sites are.....The owners were so gracious to allow us to  have our meeting there and gave us a very interesting tour.  The folks in our districts are the Gifford's, the Russell's and the Mayne's.  We love our district, they are amazing people.  They inspires us to be better.  As District leaders we meet each month and have a training on a topic that comes through the Zone leaders from the Mission President. It is always a challenge to find interesting ways to teach people who are giants in the Gospel.  We feel they should be teaching us....and they do!  We are so lucky to be here and are learning so much!

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.