Nauvoo, Hebrew meaning City Beautiful

In April, my parents began serving in the Nauvoo, Illinois Mission and we couldn't be happier for them!  My dad had served in Illinois as an 19 year old missionary and it's always been his dream to again serve here.   It has been so rewarding to hear their experiences and pure JOY while serving.

Here they are in April in the Missionary Training Center.

Just like most trips, I was giddy about our planned trip to Nauvoo to visit my parents on their mission.  Tyler and I had hoped and planned to go and Aubrey kept making it known that she too would LOVE to go.  She had recently been reading some church historical fiction and was loving it!  So we decided to take her along with us as a special treat (that of course, now we’ve had to promise a “Dad/Mom trip” to each of them.  In fact, with Kauai still in their fond memory, when we told the rest of the kids we were taking Aubrey on a trip with us, they said they were fine with it as long as it wasn’t Kauai!!  We took Aubrey out of school one day for a surprise lunch and pulled up the email from the airlines, acting confused about the details of the information.  She squealed with delight when she saw her name headed to St. Louis!  And we were excited to share this experience with her at this pivotal time in her life. 

Bonnie and Kerry were coming out to CA anyway to join us for a Yosemite trip with Brandon and Amy’s family, coming up from Texas.  And so it worked perfectly that they would be here to watch the other kids at home.  We changed our flight path last minute (due to my incessant nagging that we stay longer!) to go through Dallas and arrived in Nauvoo twelve hours earlier.  This did result in a small “white lie” J I had to tell my Dad on our way to the airport on Friday.  We landed in Dallas and Brandon, Kara and Lindsey picked us up.  We had to stop at Rudy’s a BBQ since we were in Texas and all’!!  We had a fantastic brisket sandwich and some yummy baked beans.  Aubrey and Kara were so happy to see each other, catch up, and enjoy "sissy sauce" at our late night dinner.

After that we stopped at a fun shaved ice place where we were treated to one of our Hawaiian treats, a pina colada with ice cream on the bottom and sweetened cream poured over the top.  By the time we got to their home it was eleven o clock.  But that didn’t stop us from staying up way too late!  We toured their new beautiful home and talked until 3 am.  Aubrey also was up way too late, she and Josh were talking ALL night. 

 This made for an early morning (5:30) and Aubrey trying ALL day to catch up on her sleep!  She slept in the plane, in the shuttle to get the rental car, in the rental car office, and in the car itself!  I think it was a good lesson to learn…why our bodies need sleep! We were first offered a Fiat as our rental car.  It looked like a roller skate on wheels, I was so glad when Tyler went in and got something bigger.

 We made it to St. Louis and drove to the Gateway Arch. 

  It was beautiful!  It sits in a pretty park and stands 630 feet tall.  We waited in line for about 20 minutes and went inside to see the museum and gift shop.  It was very well done and I wish we would have had time to go to the top (although my mom and sister say it is cramped and over-rated).  We took some photos (met another couple who was headed also to Nauvoo to visit their mom on her mission) and got on our way.  We ate lunch at a nearby sandwich place and then began our drive to Nauvoo.  The drive was a little tricky as there are many small roads and cities.  It took us 3 ½ hours to get there.  My dad was done for the day and my mom was giving tours in the Brigham Young home.  We walked in and asked her for a tour, it was so fun to see her reaction and hear her scream!  She gave us the tour of that home and we went to find my dad.  He was in the shower, but we went in and Aubrey called out, “Grandpa!?!?”.  It was so fun to surprise them both!!   

Here is their cute house.

We went to a nearby town, across the Mississippi River to get some groceries and dinner at the KFC.  Then we rushed back to Nauvoo enjoyed this beautiful sunset and gorgeous Nauvoo temple.  

 This beautiful bronze sculpture, entitled "Calm as a Summer's Morning" or "Prophet's Last Ride" stands across from the Nauvoo Temple on a hill overlooking the Mississippi River.  It has this inscription below: 

On June 24, 1844, Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, left Nauvoo 

for Carthage on what would be their final ride. They were required to appear in court to answer charges for “causing a riot.”This bronze equestrian monument depicts the brothers beginning that fateful journey. Not far from the location of the bronze statue near the temple, Joseph turned and said, “This is the loveliest place and the best people under the heavens; little do they know the trials that await them.”As they neared Carthage, Joseph said to the company, “I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am calm as a summer’s morning. I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me, ‘He was murdered in cold blood.’” His prophecy came true three days later when he and his beloved brother Hyrum were killed while awaiting trial in the Carthage Jail.

With this beautiful temple as the backdrop we went over to the stage and field area to enjoy some music and Aubrey even got in a little square-dancing.  We then were so blessed (I really do feel that way.  The show only goes a few weeks of the year and our "stars aligned".) to be able to watch the Nauvoo Pageant.  It was amazing!!  Honestly, the talent and spirit of the show was so great!! The show began with the bagpipes playing Praise to the Man as they enter the stage.  It was awesome!

  On Sunday, we got up early as church began at 8:00 am. It was a very full congregation made up by many of the missionaries who were serving there so they could get out to their stations for the day. We had our additional two hours of Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood in the Visitor Center to accommodate everyone. Aubrey had been practicing her Grandpa's favorite hymn, a song sung to Joseph Smith right before his martyrdom, "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief".  She began singing it with him, but was overcome with emotion.  It was a special moment that I have on video of the two of them tearfully singing a song dear to both of their hearts.  Afterward, we went back to the house and had lunch.

We then visited several of the local sites in Historic Nauvoo.  

We were the luckiest tourist there having our own two personal tour guides!!!

We visited the Sarah Granger Kimball home, 

where we saw the rocking chair that Brigham Young built. 

 These homes have very straight and narrow stairs, bless these older missionaries and their knees!!

At the Family Living Center where we my mom gave us the tour (including bread, candle, shawl, and rug making) and Ed helped us make a rope. We also were fascinated to learn about barrel making.

We then went to the brickyard where we learned how bricks were made to build the local homes. We were able to take away a couple of souvenir Nauvoo bricks. We then visited the Scoville bakery where they made cakes, breads, and now the missionaries make and serve gingerbread cookies. Next we visited the Old Nauvoo Burial grounds where we saw a lot of locals were buried including many children. These parents who had already been through so much must have been so heart broken to lose little ones, most of the headstones listed their age in years, but also month and day.

Interestingly, the average life span during these times was 38 for men and 40 for women!

There was a special spirit at this cute, little cemetery. I loved this statue there.

The plaque reads, "This is the first Nauvoo City Cemetery, it was the city's burial ground from 1842 to the early 1900s. Many of those buried here were pioneers of the city who came as converts of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and accepted Joseph Smith as a prophet of God."

 There were beautiful fields of crops surrounding it, including this field of flowers that Aubrey loved!

My parents had a meeting, so we went to visit the beautiful, two acre Monument to Women behind the Visitor Center.  It was so quiet and we were all alone, able to enjoy the gorgeous gardens and sculptures, many of which were cast by Tyler’s Uncle, Neil Hadlock.

We went back and had dinner and then headed off to the “Trail of Hope”.  Little did I know that this experience would be one of my very favorites from our trip.  (This link shared many of the details and even a pdf of the plaques.) Along Parley street (which is the street the pioneers traveled down as they began their journey west) are thirty markers with quotes from their journal and letters. One of my favorites (as I can only imagine as a mother leaving my home) is this one by Bathseba Smith, "My last act in that precious spot was to tidy the rooms, sweep up the floor, and set the broom in its accustomed place behind the door.  Then with emotions in my heart...I gently closed the door and faced an unknown future, faced it with faith in God and no less assurance of the ultimate establishment of the Gospel in the west and of it's true, enduring principles, that I had felt in those trying scenes in Missiouri."  During the summer a group of Young Performing missionaries re-enact characters, telling their story in first person, who had traveled down this road to the Mississippi. It was a special evening with the beautiful Nauvoo temple lit up on the hill and the road and vignettes only lit by torches and lanterns.  The spirit of these sweet saints and all they sacrificed, lit up by the occasional fire-fly made it even more magical.

Monday morning Aubrey and I got up early and walked with my dad down to work at 6:20 am to watch the horses get harnessed and hooked up to the wagons. It was a beautiful morning and was neat to see that my dad gets to walk down to the stable each morning past the beautiful temple.

Tyler joined them as they were starting.

It was fun to watch these horses go in order to the labeled stalls to get grained, combed, and harnessed for the day. 


The horses are huge Belgian breeds and are beautiful. It’s clear the teamsters enjoy what they are doing and working with the horses. They take great care of them.  Two of the horses are named, "Nephi" and "Lehi". On the way down, Rachelle lost cell phone in the grass below temple. We said a prayer and paced where she had been and found it after a few minutes.Thank goodness the sprinklers didn't come on, the lawn mower guy didn't make it to that part of the lawn and for answered prayers.

At 8:45 we went to the Visitors center and got in line to ride the carriage where my dad was the narrator. It was fun to hear about the area, stories he told, and spirit he feels as he shares the information and his testimony. This was a ride more of the beaten path where we saw inspiration point and Dan Jones gulley. We then followed my dad and got on the wagon where his friend Sister Ballard was the narrator. She did a great job and told of a lot of things as we drove around the town looking at the sites. This is the tour of old Nauvoo where we saw some of the homes, burial site of Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum currently owned and run by the Community of Christ Church. One of the more interesting stories was Heber C Kimball’s home where a descendant had purchased the home in the 1960’s and had so many visitors want to see the home that he contacted the Church and this started the Nauvoo Restoration Incorporated which began the process of acquiring and restoring sites in Nauvoo.

To further explore Ed’s teamster responsibilities, we walked down to the oxen when we took a short wagon ride pulled by the oxen. The wagons were 3 feet by 11 feet and would hold almost 2000 pounds of goods.

We met Linda at noon and had a picnic in front of the cultural Hall as we waited to see the show “Anna Amanda”.  These Young Performing Missionaries are darling!!

My mom took us and gave us our own personal tours of the:

·         Heber C Kimball home

·         Browning Home and gunsmith shop

·         Stoddard Tin shop

·         Lyon Drug & Variety Store

·         Wilford Woodruff home

·         Post Office
My mom is in charge of the Tin Shop right now.  Here she is inside of it.

We then dropped my mom off and went to the Church of Christ and took a tour to see where Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum were buried, their first home, and the Mansion Home where they hosted and fed many guests and immigrants. They have really good root beer at the Red Brick Storehouse. The feeling is definitely different in this part of the community.  Even Aubrey noticed the "absence of the Spirit". 

We then went to get a hamburger at Pete’s and then went and saw Ed and Linda perform in Rendezvous. They both did a great job.  I never thought I'd see my dad be in a play, let alone do a high kick!!  It was hilarious and awesome.  My mom was a natural!

Then we went to the British Pageant and had excellent seats on the 5 row. This was the story of missionaries leaving Nauvoo, traveling to the British isles, learning of the conversion of thousands of saints, and then their travels to Nauvoo. This was great to see as we learned about many of the families and characters who were also in the Nauvoo pageant and was nice to get some greater insight and understanding why they were the way they were and what they had been through. The two stories meshed together so well.After the pageant we went down and spoke with some of the actors which was fun as well as some of the family cast members.  This guy was one of my parent's favorites.  He can do the most amazing rooster!!!

 On Tuesday, we woke up early for an 8:00am endowment session in the temple. This temple is so simple, yet absolutely gorgeous. Aubrey met us for a baptismal session at 11:00 in the baptistery. It was so neat that she had gotten herself up, walked over, checked in, and gotten dressed, and was sitting quietly waiting for us in the chapel. We did baptisms for family names which was really nice. The font was gorgeous and there is an amazing stained glass window behind it with John the Baptist baptizing Christ.  Afterward, we walked out and looked up the spiral staircase which was so cool. We then went and some of the historical artifacts like Joseph Smith’s saber, clothes, and the original keys to the temple.  It was like a little museum and so fantastic that Aubrey could be there to see it too.

We then went back to the house and had some lunch before driving over to the Carthedge Jail. Upon arriving we walked through the entrance where there are some statues, and then went into the visitor center where we watched a video. We then toured the jail and saw where Joseph and his brother Hyrum were murdered by a mob.

We then drove back to Nauvoo, did a little shopping at the local stores where Aubrey got a necklace and Rachelle got a sun stone and a Christmas ornaments.

We then rushed to see the last few sites we hadn’t seen including:

·         Lucy Mack Smith home

·         Webb Brothers Blacksmith Shop

·         Print shop

·         Seventies Hall

·         Cultural Hall

We made another stop at the temple.

 After we drove home had dinner before attending the Sunset show that my parents performed in. It was well done with all the senior missionaries and the young performing missionaries.

 

We then finished the day going to the Nauvoo pageant again. While great the first time, it was even better the second time as we had seen the British pageant the night before which had many of the same characters, but was about the missionaries who left Nauvoo to travel to the British Isles and the stories and sacrifices of many of the British people as they converted and traveled to the U.S. We got rained on for a few minutes, but not enough where the show got rained out.

A great way to finish our trip to Nauvoo!

On Wednesday we got up early and Aubrey and Rachelle walked down to the barn to deliver donuts to teamsters. They all loved it and were very appreciative.

 Then we went to say good-bye to my Dad who was already out giving rides.

 Such a cute Dad I have.

 Love this cute girl and so glad we got to experience Nauvoo with her!

We then packed bags, said good-bye to my mom, and left for airport.

On the way out of town stopped at the Mississippi river to see memorial of those who died.

 They have a nice memorial with names of all those who didn’t make it which is nicely done.  

 We drove about 3 hours back to St. Louis and on the way stopped at Pei Wei for a yummy lunch. Afterward, we dropped the car off and took the shuttle to the airport. We had a couple hours to wait so Tyler did a little email and Aubrey and Rachelle read.We flew to Las Vegas and then on to Oakland.  Unlike other rental car experiences, Rachelle got to experience what it’s like to rent a car from an aency where Tyler has status. We just drove up, looked up on the board and found our car. Most experiences are we have to stand in line forever and it’s just not smooth and pleasant.  We then drove the hour and a half home and jumped right back into life.  We had a great trip!
Seeing my parents so happy, productive, and full of the Spirit has been a wonderful blessing and a memory I will always remember.   It’s obvious to us why Joseph Smith would have felt and said, “This is the loveliest place and the best people under the Heavens”.