MY HOW FAST TIME FLIES!!!!

I can't believe that it has been over a month since I posted that we were leaving for Nauvoo. Well we went had a marvelous time. We had so much fun seeing the Olsen bunch and the sights were undescribable. I believe this trip far exceeded my expectations. We arrived in St. Louis, Mo around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday the 6th of Sept. We got our luggage and headed to the shuttle to get our rent a car. I was expecting a Ford Taurus and we got a Chryslar 300. It was a very good drive and we were totally spoiled with it. We drove to Nauvoo via the scenic route, we told them we wanted to go to Illinois and they sent us east when we really wanted to go west. We did see the arches at St. Louis because of our detour.





We finally ended up in Nauvoo in the late afternoon. The drive was beautiful and it was so fun to see all that country that neither of us had been to. We didn't even take a picture of the farm land and their was miles of it. I needed my friend MaryLynn with us she always gets the best road pictures. The closer we got to Nauvoo the more excited we got. We were so excited to see Phil, Alesha and Koen and equally excited to see Nauvoo. We didn't know what to expect, would it be a very small town or a near ghost town or what. We were very pleased with the little village. It is very quaint and I loved the quietness of it. Everything pretty much closes at 5p.m. so when we arrived it was vertually dead quiet. We got to our hotel the Zion Merchantile and they had left our key in the key box there wasn't even one person there. We went to our suite on the 2nd floor (the Joseph and Emma Suite) and looked around. Then we hauled our stuff in. Phil and Alesha had to drop their dog off in Fort Madison, Mo just across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo. They arrived just after us and we had a great reunion. We were all really happy with our suite we had a balcony that we could go out and look right across the street to the Temple. It is a very beautiful temple.



On Sunday morning we got ready for church, there are 2 regular wards there and also a missionary ward. Church was at 10:00 so we got ready then headed over to breakfast. It was a great meal. Then when we went back to the Inn we couldn't get in our door. Alesha had put a child knob on the inside door knob and it would not let the key turn the lock. Whitt thought about climbing out the 2nd story window and getting onto our balcony because we had left the balcony door unlocked, but he was in his suit. We ended up calling the # for the Inn and the owner came over and let us in through the adjoining suite. When we got to church we found out he was the executive secretary to the bishop. Church was great needless to say we didn't realize that it was fast Sunday. The chapel was completely full when we arrived so we had to sit on the folding chairs in the back. As soon as they started testimony meeting the whole audience stood up, well not really but a good amount, and headed to the stand. If you didn't know that you were going to bear your testimony in that ward you wouldn't stand a chance. They didn't have a break of any kind. It was a great meeting too. We stayed for Sunday School but that was about all little Koen could stand. They had a note on the nursery door that if you were a visitor to please take your child to class with you. I guess they never know how many will show up to church. Can you imagion getting 2-10 or more nursery age kids on a Sunday morning? We then spent the rest of the day looking around Nauvoo. Koen, Phil and grandpa had a nap while Alesha and I walked around town to see what was what. We ended up in a museum that had some fun stuff in it but it wasn't mormon run so they had a few things I didn't know if I agreed with about the early saints. After we had spent a few days there I felt better about what the museum host was saying. Sunday evening there weren't many places to eat so we went to this "family diner". Well it really was more like the local pub. We were the only ones eating there most of the people were sitting at the bar watching football and drinking. It was an interesting experience.

Monday morning Whitt and Phil went to the temple. It was raining pretty hard so we decided to go to Carthage for the day. That was most interesting. The drive was very pretty with lots of farms and fields. We really enjoyed ourselves we were the only ones there and our host was very knowledgeable about things and did a great job of helping us to feel the spirit. He seemed odd to think that we were in the very place where the prophet Joseph and Hyrum were killed. It was very humbling. We arrived back in Nauvoo around 4:00 we decided we had better get something to eat and the "family diner" was not top on our list. They have a cute bakery that serves soup and sandwiches so we headed there hoping it was still open. We got there just in time to eat and let them go home for the evening. We went to a play in the cultural hall and it was very enjoyable and funny. We even saw a couple there that we had squared danced with many years ago. Whitt also met a man at the temple who he had taught with his wife. They came to our motel and visited with us that evening.



Tues. morning Alesha and I went to the temple. One of the workers said to me "I thought you were taking her, meaning Alesha, to the baptistry. I told them she may look young but she is 24 married and has a 2 year old little boy. We really enjoyed our session. The temple is amazing and everyone was so nice. We then spent the rest of the day touring around Nauvoo. We saw all of the Community of Christ. formally the RLDS, sights. They have the red brick store, the Nauvoo house, the original log home of the Smiths called the Homestead, the Mansion House and several others. This was all very interesting but I would have loved to have had a great mormon

guide. Our missionaries do a fantastic job of telling stories and little details that are so interesting. We took the horse drawn wagon ride and that was fun for Koen. We wanted to do more of the tours but they have limited hours during the fall so we didn't get to do all of them. I could have stayed there at least one more day maybe more. It was so very interesting. Whitt took Koen to the motel to have a nap and Alesha, Phil and I went home touring. We saw the home where Lucy Smith lived with her daughter after the saints went west. The home of Brigham Young which was very impressive and interesting. Believe it or not we met a couple from my home town. They had been there on a mission and had left a few days before to visit other church history spots. They came back through Nauvoo to say goodbye to all their friends and they just happened to be at one of the houses we went to see. What a small WORLD!! It was good to see them and we had a great visit.

I have pictures to post but I am going to do them seperate so I'll post this now and finish up our tour in another post.