Our Nauvoo: April 2021

Saturday, April 24, 2021

Nauvoo Reopening

Quote of the Week: Cultivate the companionship of good friends. But also seek to broaden your circle. Reach and teach widely, without fear. Enjoy opportunities to learn from others. ~ Russell M. Nelson

First of all please forgive us for not adding new posts to our blog every week. We have been extremely busy planning and preparing for our reopening next week, giving virtual tours and taking on some special assignments. However; know that our thoughts are never far from family and friends.

Nauvoo Reopening

Our long awaited and prayed for announcement from the First Presidency came on Thursday, April 22 ~ yep, the Nauvoo Historic Sites will begin a phased reopening on May 1. We have been anticipating and planning for this moment ever since we arrived on March 10. Now its here and we’re not sure whether we are more excited or more terrified … time will tell!

We really are looking forward to giving tours and meeting with visitors face to face. We will; however, continue to give the virtual tours. We have been overwhelmed with virtual visits from people from all around the world! We even gave a tours last week to a group of Primary children from England. It was such a tender mercy for us as we had visited their ward and Steve even spoke in their ward when we were on our mission give years ago!

Springtime in Nauvoo

Springtime is a special time in Nauvoo. Today the weather is in the seventies and the flowers are all in bloom.

BUT WAIT! Just a few days ago we experienced our first snowfall. Although some thought us a big crazy, our walking group weathered the cold and enjoyed our freezing morning walk.

Heber C. Kimball

This week we have been giving virtual tours through the home of Heber C. and Vilate Kimball. What an amazing family! Heber was ordained an Apostle after having been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for less than two years. His life has given us a greater appreciation and respect not just for Heber, but just as importantly for his wife Vilate who took care of their family while Heber served multiple missions taking him away from his family for months and sometimes even years.

Vilate Kimball

Heber C. Kimball

Joseph Smith said of Heber, “Of the Twelve Apostles chosen in Kirtland…there have been but two [who have not] lifted their heel against me – namely Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball.”

Wilford Woodruff

Wilford Woodruff served as the fourth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between 1889 and his death in 1898. After being ordained an Apostle in 1839, he served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve for more than 50 years. His

Wilford Woodruff

Wilford and Phebe Woodruff ’s home is currently being renovated. The Church’s history department has painstakingly researched to ensure the renovated home will reflect as accurately as possible the way the home looked when they lived here.

Temple City Tour

Next week we will be conducting virtual tours of the Weeks’ home as part of the Temple City Tour. Just in case you want us to be your tour hosts, hold off until Thursday or later. We have a few special assignments this coming week that will make us unavailable for tours.

Nauvoo Temple

Today we took the opportunity to visit the ground of the beautiful Nauvoo Temple.

Missionary Life

For those of you who may think that being on a mission is just like an extended vacation, check out our April calendar. Oh yeah, and there is plenty of time left to fill in a few more days.

We love our mission especially the sweet spirit that exists here in Nauvoo. Let's face it, its the only city on planet earth where every resident wears a missionary name tag and all that goes with it!

Hope you will join us next week in one of our virtual tours. Schedule tours by going to the following link:

https://www.nauvoohistoricsites.org/live/

Until then we simply send you our love from beautiful Nauvoo.

Saturday, April 10, 2021

One Month Anniversary

Quote of the Week: "You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you."

~ Coach John Wooden

Hard to believe, but today is our one month anniversary for being here in beautiful Nauvoo. Flowers are blooming everywhere!

We have never worked so hard; nevertheless, the spirit of Nauvoo and the memory of the sacrifices of the early Saints who lived here, worked here and worshipped together here keeps us going strong.

These are exciting times here in Nauvoo! We are participating in two task forces, both of which are once in a life time opportunities. The first one is a team developing detailed plans for an anticipated reopening of Nauvoo to small group in person tours while at the same time continuing with our live virtual tours around the world. Recently, we have tours to visitors in Norway, Germany, the Philippines and, of course, across the United States.

The second task force we are working on is preparing plans to accommodate Viking Mississippi River Cruise guests beginning in 2022. Viking will be providing their guests with Nauvoo as being one of their on shore excursions. The challenge is merging these guests with our already in person guests and, of course, the continuation of the virtual tours.

Viking is near completion of their new state-of-the-art Viking Mississippi longship, which will accommodate 386 guests in 193 outside staterooms. The new ship looks amazing!

CULTURAL HALL

This past week we have been giving virtual tours of Nauvoo’s Cultural Hall, which we will continue doing through tomorrow so its not too late to sign up!

The hall was a hub for the Saints’ spiritual, cultural, educational, economic and civic activities from 1843 to 1846. Clearly the Saints who worshipped together in Nauvoo also worked and enjoyed leisure time together in the hall.

After the Saints' exodus from Nauvoo this beautiful hall was sold at auction for only $4.47 - such a deal! It was then converted to a private residence with the third floor being removed in 1884.

The Church re-acquired the hall and restoration began in 1977. This work included returning the third-floor in the building. Restoration was completed in 1982.

FAMILY LIVING CENTER

Next week we will be working in the Family Living Center of Historic Nauvoo. While this is not an historic site, it is a joint effort between Historic Nauvoo and the state of Illinois. Its original intent was to provide hands-on experiences for school children and visiting families where people move from activity to activity at their own pace. The activities include churning butter, bread making, carding wool, spinning yarn, rope making, weaving, coopering, candle making and pottery. Should be a fun week for us and we are definitely looking forward to it.

SERVICE PROJECT

Keeping in tune with Nauvoo being a covenant community, we love working on service projects to maintain this beautiful place, which to us, is sacred ground due to the revelations received here by the Prophet Joseph Smith and the many sacrifices of the early Saints. This past week we had the opportunity to clean the Trail of Hope signs. Each sign quotes from the journals of the early saints as they began their exodus from Nauvoo. The trail ends at the edge of the Mississippi River.

More details on the Trail of Hope to follow soon!

MORNING WALKS

We love walking every morning, ok almost every morning, unless its too cold our pouring down rain, which happens a lot! As a side note, we experienced a Nauvoo thunder storm this past week. An early evening lightening bolt was clearly just above our homes. In fact it was so close, it blew out several light bulbs in one of our neighbor’s home!

The sites and sounds of these early morning walks through the streets of beautiful Nauvoo have both a calming and inspiring affect on us as we reflect on the Prophet Joseph, the early Saints and the beauty of nature.