March 2019

Saturday, April 30, 2016

04 April 2016

Cold, cold, cold! April has begun cold and we are waiting for warmer weather. So, we stay inside at night after work and read. I am reading the New Testament (finished the Old Testament last month), Johnathan Neville’s book The Lost City of Zarahemla and the 1840 Nauvoo edition of the Book of Mormon.

We have been to Burlington with the Moons and the Lymans to dinner and the movies. We ate at Applebees and say the movie “Eddie the Eagle”. Then the next week we ate at The Muddy River next to the Mississippi in Burlington with the Shaws and finally back to Applebees with the O’Brians and another movie “A Miracle from Heaven”.

We have enjoyed General Conference last week end in our apartment and this week end we went to church here in Nauvoo since the Peoria Stake is having stake conference this week end.

One more week before the 2 week spring cleaning at the temple, we have planned a trip to Missouri (Adam-ondi-Ahman) then on to Springfield, Illinois.

Dr. Dunn (local chiropractor and historian) gave a great presentation on “Joseph Smith’s physical image”. He greatly adds to the persona of the prophet and what image depiction have been made of the prophet.

The Temple Spring Break is here! For the first week, we scheduled a trip to historical sights in Missouri with Dr. Dunn. The two day bus ride took us to Adam-ondi-ahmen, Liberty, Independence, Far West and KC temple. We also visited the Community of Christ church in Independence as well as many other interesting sites.

We gained an amazing insight to the importance of each location including the prophecies and movement of the saints as they were expelled from Missouri.

Then of Thursday of the first week after returning late Wednesday night, we packed up for a three day trip to Springfield, Il to visit the historical sites of Abraham Lincoln. Again, it was amazing how much we learned about the life of Lincoln by visiting the Lincoln Museum, Old Capital, his home, tomb, and New Salem where he worked and self studied to become a layer.

After two full days of touring we traveled to Valley City, Il to a remote area known as Zelph mound (where Joseph Smith identified a white lamanite buried within a large mound).

The week has been packed with new information found in this area. I am pleased to say we have a wealth of knowledge by touring this week.

This next week we are preparing for the arrival of the 32 new temple missionary couples. The Cluffs and the Streulings will be our couples to host. We will get them housed and fed and then trained to the assignment of the temple. Once this is done then we can certainly use their assistance for the up-coming high volume of patrons we anticipate for the summer months.

A very large storm came through last night with heavy rain and lightning. Some areas near here had considerable sized hail and tornado touchdowns. We were sheltered in our car in the underground parking lot at the temple.

The new temple missionaries are arriving today and will be her for six months. The Cluffs and the Struelings are our couples we are assigned to assist in helping move in to their apartments. This week we will help Pres. McArthur in the training at the Nauvoo Temple.

The first of May starts the summer season for the temple. Dawn and I will be endowment coordinators on 2^nd and 4^th Saturdays and baptistery coordinators on Thursdays.

The new Temple Missionaries are here!

Missouri Tour Group

The Big Muddy restaurant

Deer Run

Dobsons

Farewell Williams

Farewell Allreds

Hello Lincoln Museum

Meal in Springfield, Missouri

President Lincoln

Golf in Flint Hills Burlington, Iowa

Geese Family in the Spring

Illinois farmland

Sisters from Galesburg

Rabbit in Illinois

Opossum did not make it across the road!

Galesburg train yard

Hump loading train cars

Dr. Dunn at Adam-ondi-Ahman

Russells on tour

Spring Hill

Dunn Tour Bus

Joseph and I at Far West

Far West Temple site

Prophecies at Far West

Grave site of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon

Independence temple site next of Community of Christ Temple

Kansas City Temple

The Lincoln Family

Lincoln's home in Springfield, Illinois

New Salem, Illinois

Lincoln's Tomb

Zelf Mound in Valley City, Illinois

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

03 March 2016

The month of March is so welcomed. I have been hoping for a weather change and warmer days. So far no snow and the days are longer and warmer. We have had one horrific hail storm and heavy rain but no snow. (A tornado alert came with the storm).

The trees are budding out and we have one daffodil bloomed out. The tulips are all up and ready for business.

I have had my “night” game camera out getting photos of the local night life. Raccoon, bunnies, and deer eating off the lawn are all captured on my camera. I am hoping for skunks and opossum to frequent the back door of our apartment.

Dawn has a birthday this month and we have celebrated by going to “Women of Ireland” in Fairfield on St. Patrick’s day. It was a great performance of song, dance and aerobatics. We also had a wonderful meal at a Turkish restaurant.

Our group activities this month has included Bro. Wright, author of a book on the symbols of the temple. It was well done. We are looking forward to hearing from Reid Moon on rare church books.

Another guest speaker we are privileged to here is Susan Easton Black Durrant. She is a BYU professor of church history who is married to George Durrant and spends time here collecting information on church history. She is an outstanding speaker and very enjoyable to listen to.

We are starting to jog outside in the mornings if it is not too cold. If it is freezing we jog at Motley Gym.

We spent Easter Sunday in Galesburg and after church had dinner with the Dobsons. They have been very nice to us and we stay with them on occasion.

The geese are starting to pair up and we are seeing more and more game in the mornings. Hopefully it will become spring soon.

Lemon Pie

Starting to snow outside

Tulip tree in bloom

up close

The Grekels have arrived

Mississippi in the spring

Joseph and Brigham planning to go west

Seeing more rabbits

geese are pairing up

Tomb of the Joseph Smith parents

My night camera

Fairfield Community Theater

Fairfield is full of large protestant churches

Ready for the Prairie Fire burning

Beware of Prairie Fires!

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

02 February 2016

Is it winter or is it spring? This month has been one day of warm and then record cold. The birds are confused as to stay or go! We have also celebrated this month in reaching our ½ way mark on our mission to Nauvoo.

The saints exited Nauvoo under mob pressure the 6th of February 1847. We attended a reenactment of the event as we walked down Parley Street to the Mississippi river.

We also celebrated our 15^th year anniversary. Can you believe it has been that many years since Dawn and I have been together.

Many things have happened this month.

In the temple: we continue to serve a full schedule at the temple. Both Dawn and I have been mentors for new recruits. We are now trained to be coordinators for initiatory and baptistery.

We have had get-togethers at the Arrival Center. Dane Chapman gave us history of his restored home. We celebrated Valentine’s Day with games and food.

Then last night we celebrated “Leap Year Day” at the Stake Center. The Bakers and Russells presented the program at our monthly joint FHE. Bro and Sister Baker gave a quiz on Leap Year history.

We gave a presentation on “The Winter Birds of Nauvoo”.

I have been photographing the birds at our feeder and neighborhood. Along with the reference books obtained off Amazon, I was able to put together a Power Point with sound to include the songs of all the birds. Bro. Lyman added photos of eagles and geese that was most attractive.

We also attended a outing in Quincy, Illinois visiting the historic sites of the saints rescue as they crossed the Mississippi escaping from the Missouri mobs. The Moons accompanied us and we were able to shop at Sam’s Club.

The weather was warm enough to golf and a couple of occasions, however it snowed so heavily one week we could not go to Galesburg to church. This weekend was beautiful and we stayed overnight at Galesburg to attend the Knox College symphony conducted by Dr. Polay. We also had diner with the Dobsons after church.

Thus ends February and into March and it is mighty cold this morning. I set out my “IR” night game camera on the 29^th of February and this morning I have captured a raccoon and deer feeding on our door step late into the night.