Time is Flying,,,,,,

We cannot believe how fast our Mission is going.  In a few days, we will have been gone for 4 months.  That means we are about 2/3 of the way through already.  Our weeks fly by, and Sunday to Sunday seems like about three days.

It has been very hot here, in the high 90s and low 100s, with high humidity.  There is this thing called the "heat index" which measures a combination of temperature and humidity, which schools and others use to determine when kids are safe to play outdoors.  Here, the mission has adopted a heat index limit of 105 for our horses to pull wagons.  When the heat index exceeds 105, the wagon and carriage rides are terminated and the horses are wet down and allowed to return to a shady pasture. They have to work too hard and get overheated if they are required to work above that level.  Last week, we surpassed 105 heat index at about 1:30 PM, when the temperature reached 94 and the humidity was 62%.

Nearly every day since, the heat index has exceeded 105, and many of the late afternoon wagon and carriage rides have been cancelled.  Friday, around 5 in the afternoon, the index reached 116, and it was quite muggy and warm.

But all our historic sites (except the Blacksmith shop, where Jerry works one day a week) are air conditioned, and quite comfortable. We have had many wonderful experiences with our visitors, and we know that Nauvoo has been a great place for them to visit. Without exception, the comments we receive are that they wish they had more time here, that a few days is not enough to see and hear all that we offer. Pam and I have seen some of the shows here many times, and we still laugh at the same things....still love to see the performances. 

Mark and Verna Olsen came to visit here this past week.  They enjoyed themselves, and it gave Pam and I the opportunity to catch up on things back home in Idaho, and to share some ice cream with them.

On a serious note, you would all be amazed at how varied our presentations are depending on the visitors.  That is not at all by design....we have a set of historical facts that we present at each site, but we don't memorize a script.  Rather, we are guided as to what we say to each group or family, depending on their individual situation. By way of example, the other day, I was in the Blacksmith shop with about 25 guests, explaining that Brigham Young had stood in this very spot, commissioning Chauncy Webb to build Brigham's wagon to go to Salt Lake. We know that fact from the diaries and journals of these men. It grew very quiet as we were all touched by the sacredness of that place. As I talked about Brigham Young's mission to move the Mormons from Nauvoo to Salt Lake, a women introduced her 19 year old son as one who was about to leave on his mission the following week, and I was guided to talk directly to him about his commitment, about his need to allow himself to be guided in his efforts, and how his commitment toward his mission should be like that of the early Mormons, who left their beloved city of Nauvoo to travel by wagon to the unknown west, leaving nearly all of their earthly possessions behind.  There wasn't a dry eye in the place..... all there felt the sacrifice of those pioneers, and realized how that sacrifice blessed not only them, but so many who followed. That happens a lot here.......

SAMUEL SMITH

Today I will tell you a little about Samuel Smith.  Samuel was a younger brother of Joseph Smith. He is one of the eight witnesses to the Book of Mormon, whose testimony is found in the front of the Book of Mormon.  These eight persons signed a statement indicating they had seen and held the golden plates from which Joseph translated the Book of Mormon. They talk of feeling the pages, feeling the engravings on the pages, and observing the charactors engraved on the pages which had the appearance of "an ancient work and of curious workmanship".

Samuel also had the distinction of being the very first person formally set apart as a missionary for the church.  This occurred in June, 1830. His first mission lasted just three days, and he returned, telling Joseph that his mission had been a failure, because he had met no one who would buy a Book of Mormon from him, and he taught no one about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Little did he know how successful his mission had actually been.  He had loaned a copy of the Book of Mormon to a Methodist minister named John Green, whose wife was a relative of Brigham Young. One account indicates that Brigham Young read that book of Mormon, and shared it with Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards, both of whom ultimately joined the church and held leadership positions. Turns out his mission was not so unsuccessful after all. He served several other missions after that.

When Samuel's brothers, Joseph and Hyrum were arrested in 1844 and taken to Carthage Jail, Samuel tried to get to Carthage to help.  But he was turned away by the mobs, who chased him away and shot at him.  He managed to get away, found a horse, and traveled through the back country into Carthage, only to find that both his brothers had been murdered by the Mob in the Carthage jail. He took the bodies back to his mother, Lucy Mack Smith, and as he walked into his mothers home, he fell into her arms, explaining that he had a dreadful pain in his side, that would not go away.  33 days later, Samuel Smith died from those symptoms.

Lucy Mack Smith has to be the most stalwart woman who ever existed. She had lost her son Alvin who died in New York, she had lost her husband who died in Nauvoo from injuries and illness he received from being driven out of Missouri, she had lost her son Don Carlos from pneumonia at age 24 in Nauvoo, she had lost a daughter in law and several grandchildren, and now, she had lost three more of her sons in the past 33 days. Yet she never lost her testimony of the truth of the Gospel, and of the fact that her son, Joseph, had seen God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, and had received the Golden Plates from an angel just as Joseph claimed.  She once commented that a mother knows her children, and that she knew, beyond any doubt, that Joseph has indeed been called of God, and had seen the things he said he saw.  With the extreme hardship that the Smith family experienced, while all the while remaining true to their claims, no one can say that Joseph Smith was out for personal gain or other false motive. It is inconceivable to me that anyone would undergo what Joseph Smith went through, (months in jail, tarred and feather, beaten, persecuted constantly) unless it was in fact true.   Our experiences here in Nauvoo only increase our personal testimonies.

MORE PICTURES

Here are a few more pictures for your perusal. There is a plant that grows in the Mississippi River called the American Lotus.  It looks like a large lilly pad, and grows a large white flower in mid summer.  We have been watching this growth along the sides of the river, where it is shallow, and have taken one picture each week to track the growth.  We will show the first few pictures in order.  Not real exciting, but this plant went from NOTHING to a solid field of plants, floating on the river, in a few short weeks.  Fun to see it progress almost daily. 

Looking West across the Mississippi.     Just starting to grow these plants........The stump in the foreground is on the river bank.

A week later.......

Another week later...............

Another week later.........flowers almost ready to come out.....we will show those next time.

Here is Pam in front of the Lucy Mack Smith Home, where she is assigned most of the time.

Taken inside the Lucy Mack Smith Home, showing china given as a wedding present in 1796.  Entire set is there, except one saucer is missing. She was too old and ill to travel to Salt Lake on the wagons, so she remained in Nauvoo until her death.

We thank those who are following this blog..... It is nothing like being here, but may give you a feeling for what is here, and why it is an important place.

We are now super excited that in two short weeks, our four daughters will come here to visit us.  We can't wait......what a thrill for us.

Love to all....till next time....

Jerry and Pam aka Mom and Dad aka Grandma and Grandpa