Our Nauvoo: 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.