Merry Christmas!

For our Christmas letter this year, we want to share with you the things we are doing on our mission in Nauvoo.  We are very happy to be here and to be serving as missionaries.  We miss our family, but they are all doing well.  We have had 3 new grandchildren this year.  Ammon and Melanee had a little girl, Azure, February 20.  Olivia and Edgar had a little boy, Omar Rafael, May 15.  Tabor and Katie had a little girl, Charlotte Louise, December 4. 

Nauvoo is a beautiful place to be.  There is so much history of the church here.  It is a very spiritual place.  There are many missionaries serving here who have become wonderful friends.  What a wonderful time we're having.



Mark & Coralee and Rod & Chuck

This never happens.  It was only for the picture.  Mark drives the horses for wagon and carriage rides.  This is one of the wagons.  I narrate on the wagon ride every once in a while, but I would not be up on the driver's seat with him, I'd be in the back with a microphone. 

The Land & Records Office where I mostly work

 

 

 

I work three days a week in the Land and Records office.  We have computers and a database with app. 46,000 names in it.  We are continually researching the people who lived here in the 1840's and finding information about them.  When guests come in, we help them find information about their ancestors.  We put all the information, histories, pictures, etc. on a cd for the guests.  We do that at no charge of course.  (It is impossible to spend money in old Nauvoo.)  We can put up to 550 pages on a cd.  We also help people to find the land their ancestors owned.  We have maps and much information about that.  It is a great place to work.  When we are short of guests, there is lots of research to do.  I didn't have any ancestors who came through Nauvoo but Mark has about 35 direct ancestors here on his mother's side.  It has been interesting to learn about them.

One wall in the Land & Records Office

Our guests sit at these computers and we help them there.



 

This is another part of the Land and Records center.

 

The Pendleton Home and School

 

 

Before that I worked quite a lot at the Pendleton Log School.  We told about Calvin Pendleton and about education in Nauvoo.  There were 83 public school teachers and 54 private school teachers in Nauvoo during the seven years the people were here.  I loved telling about that.

Me at the Merriweather Dry Goods Store modeling a bib we made for older people

We are doing quite a bit of humanitarian work during our slow season.  We are making newborn kits with blankets, burp cloths, booties, etc. for the local hospitals.  We also make bibs for older people to wear in the various hospitals and rest homes in this area.  Some have joked that we are all old people too and maybe should be wearing them.  In this photo I am modeling one of the bibs that we made that day.


I just received the assignment to be a cast manager for our nightly production of Rendezvous.  That means I'll send out the cast assignments by email and people will let me know when they are sick or need to have a part changed.  It's mostly an Excel job and I help conduct our green room practice.  I guess we'll see how that goes.  Mark and I play a vignette in Rendezvous now.  We are Jed and Annie.

Us in Rendezvous

Mark works with the horses.  He spends a few days in the historic sites, but he mostly gives wagon and carriage rides.  He helps take care of the horses and harnesses in his spare time.  We have 20 horses here in Nauvoo and they are really good horses.

Mark with Chad and Champ

Running in the horses in the morning
 

Horses going into the barn to start the day

Having their morning grain.  The headstalls have the horses names on them.

The carriage with Mark

Everyday except Sunday, there are wagon and carriage rides.  At no charge of course.  Two teamsters drive the wagon and it is narrated by a sister missionary.  The wagon ride goes around town and past most of the historic sites and along the river.  The river narration is done by the teamsters.  The wagon ride is an hour long.  The wagon is shown at the top of this blog post. 

 

The carriage ride is driven by two teamsters.  It is an hour ride out into the countryside, narrated by the teamsters.  They tell stories about some of the people who lived here in the 1840's.  It is a very spiritual ride and is Mark's favorite.

Elder Rogers & Elder Call feeding the horses with Mike & Ned

Elder Call's brother, who was here as a missionary until recently, built this wagon so they could feed the horses using the horses. 

These horses felt bad that they weren't pictured.  Because there isn't enough room in the barn they have to eat their grain outside.

We are enjoying the river.  We live right on the river.



Sunset on the Mississippi--as seen from our home

Another sunset
 

This is a sunrise

A sunrise as seen from our home

Nauvoo is decorated for Christmas

The nativity at the Visitors' Center

 



The Christmas tree in the Visitors' Center



 



Noah's Ark in the Log School--animals made of seeds etc.



 

 

The tree at the Lyon Drug & Variety Store

Me in front of the John Taylor home decorated for Christmas

Live nativity

 

On December 1, we had a Christmas walk.  We lit the tree in the Visitor's Center and then Christmas stories were told in four different sites.  The teamsters took visitors to the various sites on the wagons.  This live nativity was held at the cultural hall.  My assignment was to play the piano to accompany the nativity.

The temple with a nativity

Another thing we do here is attend the temple often.  The Nauvoo temple is so beautiful.  We have never lived so close to a temple and we enjoy it.

In the last nine months we have learned much about Joseph Smith and the good people who lived here in the 1840's.  We have such admiration and respect for them.  We are happy to tell folks about them and their stories.  We can learn many things from them.

Our testimony of Jesus Christ has increased greatly.  We know He is our Savior.  We are thankful for Him and for His atonement in behalf of us.  Our purpose here is to testify of Him and to invite others to come unto Him.  We invite you to do the same.  During this Christmas season, we hope we will all develop a closer relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Thank you for being our friends and family.  Have a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!  Come and visit us.


Riverboats and the Lock at Keokuk

Most of the traffic that we see on the river are the barges.  But once in a while a riverboat comes by.  They are really beautiful. 

The riverboat with what remains of the American Lotus plants

A riverboat on a sunny day when the American Lotus was just starting to fade.

A riverboat

Riverboat on a stormy day

A dam was built at Keokuk in 1913.  Keokuk is about 12 miles from Nauvoo.  The engineer who designed the dam was Hugh Cooper so the water that is backed up behind the dam is Lake Cooper with the Mississippi River running through it.  There is a formation of limestone that goes out across the river from Nauvoo which caused the Des Moines rapids.  Before the dam was built, the riverboats couldn't get past here without unloading their cargo.  Main Street in Nauvoo goes straight north and south.  The upper landing is on the north end of Main Street and the lower landing is on the south end of Main Street.  Nauvoo is kind of on a peninsula that the river flows around.  Whatever the riverboats were hauling would be freighted overland up and down Main Street and reloaded at the opposite landing. 

A barge tow is generally made up of 15 barges that are tied together with cable and chain.  There are 3 wide and 5 long.  This picture only shows 2 sets of 3 barges. 






This photo shows the dam and the power plant and the gates going out of the lock on the south side of the dam.





This is a picture of a barge tow coming through the lock.  It is probably carrying mostly grain but it has barges of coal and scrap steel also.  

We're standing over the railroad track bridge.  The part of the bridge that turns so the barges can get through is shown in this picture. 



 

The control room in the middle of the railroad track bridge that is now turned sideways so the barge can get through..


 

The barge on the left is full of scrap steel.




 

The front end of the barge going under the highway bridge.



 

This photo shows the tug pushing the barge tow out of the lock.  The end of the railroad bridge, the dam, and the power plant can be seen. 



 

The tug going past the railroad bridge. 





The control room on the tow.

 

The last of the barge tow going under the bridge.



 

A barge tow hauls as much as 870 semi-trucks or a freight train that is 3 miles long.  They can move 1 ton of freight 616 miles on the river with 1 gallon of diesel fuel.  




Autumn Leaves, New Horses, and Birds

Our leaves are mostly gone now but they have been so beautiful.  We took some photos of them to show you.

We are approaching Main Street

more leaves

Beautiful



This is the mission doctor's house.



This was taken along the horse and carriage route

The carriage route

Sunset on the Mississippi

Another sunset



Thelma says that a family's wealth is determined by the number of sunsets they have seen.



The moon on the Mississippi

The mission purchased four new horses in the last few months.  We took photos of the newest team, Chad and Champ the other day.

Mark with Champ and Chad in front.

Me with Champ and Chad

 These horses are the largest team we have.  They are Belgiums and they weigh app. 2400 pounds each.



Another thing of interest lately have been the migratory birds.  Sometimes the sky is just full of them.  It is amazing to watch and their songs are so noisy.

The birds

The birds kind of form a coil when they reach the river.