A Senior Mission

President Smith is the second counselor in the temple presidency.  He was sent by the church many years ago to go to Russia and see if he could find a way to open the country for the church to begin missionary work.  It took several years, but he did get the government to give permission and he became the first mission president over the former USSR. 

A fairly wealthy couple retired from their employment and their stake president called them in and said that he felt impressed that they should serve a senior mission.  They were surprised, but went home and considered the matter.  They turned in their mission papers and the church called them to Russia.  Neither of them spoke Russian and knew how cold it is in Russia and turned down the call.  They did not want to go to Russia.  A year later, their stake president called them in again and expressed his feeling that they should serve a mission.  Would they please submit mission papers.  They did and they were called to Russia.  For those of you who are not members of the church, the chances of the brethren making assignments. to have all of this information available during their assignments, are  impossible.  That’s why we know The Lord is in charge of calls. 

This time, the couple packed their bags and went to Moscow where President Smith (not knowing any of the history) asked them to take an interpreter and travel through Siberia, stopping at prison camps and preaching the gospel as they went.  It was very cold, but they began their assignment.  After visiting five camps over a period of 4 months, the wife became very impatient with having to go through an interpreter.  They arrived at the sixth camp and before anyone could say anything, she said, “Does anyone here speak English?”  A voice from the back of the room said, “I do.”  He came forward.  He was dirty, disheveled, unshaven and was their own son who had been estranged from his parents for several years.  He had traveled to Russia and because of his inadequate ability to communicate in Russian and his inexperience with Russian laws, had gotten himself arrested and sent to Siberia.  He had been there for a year and a half.  President Smith was able to resolve the legal difficulties for their son so that he could return to the United States.  The missionary couple finished their mission grateful to have their son restored to them and wishing they had not waited a year to serve.

Monday night out to dinner

The Nilsons and the Thompsons

Wayne and the McBrides

Maybe this is only funny to us but here is the story.  Karen McBride said that Sister Taylor said that there was a great Chinese Restaurant in Keokuk, Iowa (30 minutes away)  She wasn't sure of the name so she tried to call her, but got no answer.  We decided to start driving and call her later.  Another carload of missionaries was also on the way to Keokuk to eat at the Chinese Restaurant.  We tried to call it up on Jim McBride's wonderphone but Karen couldn't work it and we sat in the backseat of the car laughting ourselves silly listening to them try to find this restaurant.  We finally got to Keokuk and got Sister Taylor on the phone.  She was in Ft. Madison at the Chinese Restaurant which is closed on Mondays - Ft. Madison is 30 minutes the other way from Nauvoo.  We stayed in Keokuk and found a restaurant and ate dinner.  It was not that great, but by then we were hungry.  We laughed about the fact that the Taylors went one direction and we went the opposite direction.

Acres and acres of green grass

Wouldn't you love to be a five-year-old and take off running?

We are enjoying the Canada geese.  There are large numbers of them.

Block Party

Our host and hostess, Elder and Sister Pearce and Jim McBride

The Nelsons

We found out that the Allens know the Leishmans.  It is a small world!

Our neighbors invited us to dinner.  There are three couples in their building and two couples in ours.  We enjoyed our dinner and getting to know them better.

Sunday night

Don't ask me how long it took me to learn to thread it, or how to let the presser foot down!!!

Wayne and I went for a walk to try to work off some of the good food.  Then I played with my new sewing machine while Wayne tried to make the router work.  We still don't have both computers on the internet, neither can we make the printer work.  He ordered one from Best Buy and it wouldn't work.  After working on it for an hour and a half, he solved the problem by ordering another one from Amazon.com.  The cable company was supposed to do this, but we made two appointments with them and the guy didn't show up either time.  We didn't want to stay home and wait for him.  Besides, Wayne says, "I can do it myself."

Inside the Visitor's Center

This is the Visitor's Center - There are two auditoriums, and many displays.

This statue is larger than life and as you examine it, it unfolds like the scriptures.

A relief map of Nauvoo with the temple on the hill.

We went inside planning to look at everything on every wall and read every plaque - but they were closing in an hour.  We brushed off the missionaries who wanted to give us a tour and then a sweet sister offered to walk with us.  She had been here for 3 weeks.  The young sister missionaries are called for 18 months.  They spend 6 months in Nauvoo, then 6 months someplace else (all over the US) and then another 6 months in Nauvoo.  What a mission call!!!  We enjoyed her and let her practice on us. 

Friday, May 6

Following in Mother's Footsteps

Fulfillment - my favorite

After our morning shift, we decided to visit the Visitor's Center.  We were attracted by the tulips.  We toured the Monument to Women, a sculpture garden in back of the visitor's center.

Quilt Lovers

These quilts were hanging on the wall of the Pfaff dealer's quilt shop.  They are so pretty, I didn't want to forget them. 

Thursday, May 5

 Sunset on the Mississippi

Got my prescription refilled here and bought a pot of artificial flowers for the kitchen table.

The quilt shop in Nauvoo.

Today is Brent's birthday.  I called him to wish him a happy birthday.  He is going out for Mexican food which is a tradition in his family.  He got a new "smart" phone for his birthday and is very pleased with it.  We have worked three days in the temple.  I took a beautiful picture of a sunset from the steps of the temple, but it doesn't do it justice.  I'd need a super wide angle lens to capture almost everything here.  It is beautiful.  Today was our first P-day (Preparation Day)  We get one day off to do laundry, clean the house or whatever we want.  I've been doing laundry off and on and we cleaned the house yesterday, so we had the whole day.  We drove to Burlington, Iowa where there is a Pfaff Sewing Machine dealer.  Wayne bought me a beautiful one.  It is portable.  I don't have a whole lot of time to sew, but at least now I can do a little.  I found a pattern for a wall hanging of the Nauvoo Temple.  There is a wonderful quilt shop in Nauvoo.  I found the owner is my shift supervisor on Tuesday.  She had the pattern and a beautiful assortment of fabrics.  Burlington is about 25 miles from here.  We visited Wal-Mart and checked out sewing machines there.  We found the Pfaff Dealer and looked them all over.  Then we had lunch at Carlos O'Kelly's Mexican Cafe.  We went back to the Pfaff dealer and bought the machine I wanted and then went to Dairy Queen.  We got home around 2:30.  The next two days we are on the morning shift.  That will be new.  I have a printed brochure of pictures of the inside of the temple, but our printer is not working.  I will scan them and show you how beautiful the building is inside as soon as the router comes and we get things running again.

Sunday, May 1

Church at 8 am - This will be a constant.  It's a good thing I'm a morning person.  We had a wonderful fast and testimony meeting and then left the building to go to the temple.  We dressed in white and then met again in the Assembly Room.  There is a large assembly room on the first floor that is rarely used.  We had another testimony meeting with just the temple missionaries.  The consensus is that we are all grateful to have been called to serve in this great temple and we are in awe of our peers.  This will be a wonderful six months.  We went home and fixed dinner and before sitting down to eat, realized we had a lot of food.  We went upstairs and invited the McBrides to join us.  We had a fun dinner.  Then we went to a "Sunday Sociable".  They don't have firesides here, they call them sociables.  We met in the visitor's center theater, filled it and they turned on the TV and broadcast the program to the other threater.  There were probably 300 - 350 people there.  The curator of the Lincoln Museum in Springfield came and talked about Abraham Lincoln and Joseph Smith.  He drew a parallel in that both were very poor and both were self-taught through reading.  Joseph restored the gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth and Lincoln felt that God was using him to save the union.  Without Lincoln's efforts, who knows where we would all be.  He also brought statistics which I couldn't write down fast enough.  The gist of it is that Lincoln has ceased to be a hero to Americans.  Old folks like us revere him, but young people today know him only as a president and associate him with the Civil War but that is all.  Parents - teach your children about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington and John Adams and real heroes.