Well this has been about the most exciting week in Nauvoo. Conference was wonderful and we loved watching it and hearing the talks. But what was soooo exciting is, well you'll just never guess. Friday, President Monson came to Nauvoo. Would you believe it. He came to the temple and spoke to all the temple missionaries. It was just such a neat experience. He said he decided he wanted to go so left his counselors in charge. He said, "I can do that". Dad was at the recommend desk and was not able to attend. However Pres. Monson stopped by the recommend desk and shook his hand and encaged him in conversation. How cool is that. We met in the Assembly Room. Dad said he didn't ask to see his recommend. He came with his Daughter, Sister Dibb and Granddaughter. He just spoke to us very informally but did tell us to take each day and enjoy it and make use of it or you will wind up with a lot of empty yesterday's. He did tell us our children will be blessed because we are serving a mission.

The corn is as high.......

Dad and I were out walking and I said that corn is as high as an elephant's eye and it looks like it's climbing clear up to the sky (Oklahoma). It really is high as you can see. The crop is having problems this year thou because it has been so cool. We're hoping for a warmer September so the corn will be good. This is field corn and it could be bad if it doesn't ripen like it should. If you can't feed the animals we can't eat them.

We are winding down. Can you believe we'll be home in just over 7 weeks. The time is sure going fast.

Nauvoo Car Show

Today was Nauvoo's annual Classic car show at the Grape Festival. The festival began Friday at 5. Since we work at the temple in the morning we went over to see what goodies they might have. We had heard about the onion haystack's so we checked them out. We debated whether to eat there or come home and have leftovers. We ran into some other missionaries and decided to stay and try out the fare. Well I had barbeque beef brisket. It was really good. Dad had a brat which wasn't so good. I bought a haystack and that was really good. It is very thinly sliced onion deep fried and stacked up and served with ketchup. But better than that we went over after to our Friday evening destination and had Annie's lemon custard. She only has lemon on Friday. The other couple we were with had never been there. Oh Annie's custard is sooo good. Two other couples joined us.

Sunday was the car show. They had over 450 classic cars. They have a lot of classic car shows in the midwest.
This was unbelievable. These cars and motorcycles are parked in back of our apartment in our parking lot. They had to drive down our drive way to get there. We were eating dinner along with 10 other missionaries. We were having our Parley Street break the fast dinner. We couldn't believe all at once a truck, 9 motorcycles and a car came down our drive was and parked. At least they parked in a neat row. Two more cars parked in our drive way.

This is in front of our house. All the streets were full of cars. They take their car shows seriously. Of course the car show was just across the street. We did drop by as we were going for our walk and took a few pictures. It was over by then but a lot of cars had not left yet.

Fireflies flying

We are enjoying the fire flies. What fun it is to walk along the streets in the evening and after dark and see these little lightening bugs. We see little lights all over. What fun. If you get really close and we do the light it green and you can see their little bodies light. We enjoy them for about two months and then they are gone. Would love to have a picture but don't know how that could happen.

Julie and Terrell with temple in the background
Swiss Belle's from Midway Utah
Gaylene and Mom at Frederick G Williams Memorial
Tracy and John, Jesse, Holly Shannon and Mark

This has been a very full week. Pageant started this week and we are really busy in the temple as they are at the sights. We have more people in Nauvoo this year. I suspect that could be because gas is not so expensive $4.00 last year as compared to $2.35 this year. We love it. And the people who come love it. Pres. Hinckley said everyone should experience Nauvoo sometime in there life and I fully agree with thim.

We have enjoyed family this year. Tracy and John and family came June 17 for a few days. While the older kids did Baptisms for the dead Mark and I went around to some of the sights. We had a great time together. He told me he wanted to live here. He really liked it. We had a good time while they were here. The BYU Ballroom dancers were here and they were great. We also went to Sunset by the Mississippi which is always fun. Also went to High Hopes and Riverboats, a musical put on by the Young Performing Missionaries. They also went to Rendezvous In Old Nauvoo and they did the Wilderness Trek.

The following week Gaylene came to see us. We really enjoyed her. She came so we could have our P-day together. We went to Hannibal (found a great quilt store there) then to Quincy to see Frederick G Williams memorial marker and had dinner. We also saw Sunset (never tire of seeing Sunset). The Swiss Bell's from Midway, Utah were in town when Gaylene was here so we got to see them too.We enjoyed having Gaylene in the temple with us. Then the following week Julie and Terrell came. We met them in the temple on Saturday and then went to Sunset. That actually is a fun thing to do on the 4th of July. It is very patriotic. We could have gone to see fireworks but Julie chose Sunset. Sunday night we went to the Sociable and watched the pageant core cast present "Our Story Goes On". They left Monday morning, much too short. Thank you all for coming. I think all will agree it is really beautiful here.

We have had a great week. Monday a couple here that owns the Adventure Zone and also some vacation Villas invited the Temple Missionaries for a barbeque and to see "Emma, My Story". They are great people, furnished the meal for all the missionaries, about 140 of us all together. Pageant opened Tuesday night. It was pouring rain. They delayed it for awhile then decided to go ahead. I couldn't believe they went ahead and did it. This is done outside. They wouldn't let them go up in the light tours so they didn't have spotlights but people stayed and got soaking wet but the show went on. We went to it Friday night. It was so good. It is so inspirational. I am so grateful for those early saints and the great sacrifices they made. What an inspiration they are to me. Like I said the temple has been very busy which has been great. Our greatest joy on this mission is serving in the Temple.

Just a big bunch of turtles ( I counted from 57 - 61)
A spring day in Nauvoo
A Great Blue Heron about to take off. He looks drunk to me

This has been a fun week. We're getting a lot of rain and it has caused some flooding here. That isn't what was fun just thought you would like to know. Cultural Hall and Brigham's home got flooded. I guess over 3 inches following 3 inches just a couple of days prior can do that. We had a lake by the side of our house but it is gone now at least for the time being.

Sunset was the BYU Ballroom dancers. They were incredible. What beauty and the costumes outstanding. What a blessing it is to live here where we can enjoy such marvelous entertainment and it doesn't cost anything. We will see them at least once more while they are here.

Saturday at the temple was a great day. Dad and I are initiatory coordinators on

Saturday afternoon. Well Saturday Gracia Jones came in. She is the first descendent of Joseph and Emma Smith to join the church. She lives in St. George. She was doing smith family names. Now is that exciting or what. I told her I was a great, great, great granddaughter of Frederick G Williams and she said oh he's one of my hero's. They named a son after him. Oh it's so fun to rub shoulders with these special people.

We 're doing well and loving it. Everyday I get to see the temple. Five days a week I get to work in the temple. Everyday I look out over the mighty Mississippi, I can even see it from my apartment. Everyday i get to walk the streets where Joseph and Emma walked and all those early saints that sacrifices so much. The spirit here is great. What a blessing this mission is in our lives. We are loving it.

A National Cemetery in Ft. Madison
Gary in front of the round barn
Leah in the Iron and Lace shop
This is the guy with his arrowhead collection but his wood is beautiful

We had our first P-Day activity with the new missionaries. Our P-day is Wednesday and we have 10 couples. Six couples were able to join us and we had a good time. I planned this activity and now they want to know what I am going to do next. Ha! someone else can plan the next one. I am going to have a planning party and give them ideas. They think I'm the Cruise director. NOT. Anyway we went to Bentonsport, saw a demo on pottery making and blacksmithing at the Iron and Lace shop. She had just made an oven with pottery and we got to taste some of her bread she had made in it. Delicious I must say, enough so I bought an oven. Now I'm starting to worry how we're going to get everything home. Then we went to see the Indian Museum where I had arranged for the owner to be open so we could see all his indian artifacts (mostly arrowheads) and the beautiful wood inlay he makes to display it on. The wood is what I enjoy seeing and he is a very interesting guy. He rides his bike 20 miles every Sunday to go to his church then comes back and opens his museum. He raises his own fruits and veggies and fishes. Then we went to Bonaparte to Bonaparte's Retreat for lunch. They named the place after the song "Bonaparte's Retreat" that is a very old song. One of our new missionaries has the sheet music for it at home. She was very excited. They had the sheet music in a frame there. Then we went on a tour of the Wickfield Round Barn. It was built in 1918 and is 4 stories. What a place that would have been raising all our kids. It had 8 bedroom in it. It only had one shower and one toilet so that could have been a problem, but a great place to have parties and dances on the top floor. We finished up our day in Cantril where we went to the Dutchman Store. It is run by the Mennonite's and has everything from shoes, clothes, fabric, clocks, tools, plants, food (much of which is in bulk). It is a fun place to shop and you can pick up things you never find anyplace else. All in all we had a very good day.