This Week in Nauvoo........   

      started out with a couple of "firsts" (in a long time)   It was Stake Conference and I actually went......and actually enjoyed most of it.  There was a great talk by the 2nd Counselor in the Stake Presidency about "Little Things Matter"  If I understood the Spanish part of it correctly the word for sin is "pecar"  while the word for fish is "pescar".  He detailed an early experience he had  as a young  Spanish speaking missionary about explaining to the investigators about the atonement.  He started out explaining  that little children could not sin...unfortunately he used "pescar" rather than "pecar".  So he was preaching that little children could not fish.  The confused investigator inquired why and he got it even deeper explaining that Christ did not "fish" either.....but the apostles did.  He then proceeded to detail many other things to illustrate "little things matter".  Then, a recently converted couple shared their conversion story and how they had been brought to Keokuk without even seeing the house they bought...they just wanted to move somewhere different.  If you didn't know any better they sounded like they had been faithful convert members for years.  

     Marilyn spent Monday at the Family Living Center which shows off a lot of pioneer crafts.  She sewed quilts (wouldn't Grandma Nance be proud), sewed material for rugs, and best of all, baked a loaf of pioneer bread in an oven fired by a wood fire.

1200 Miles to Get her to Bake

                                     A Loaf of Bread.......

                ........ And She Does it In a Brick Oven

     Meanwhile I got to put on my official Nauvoo FM shirt and my beloved Levi's and made my way down to FM to get my official orientation.  Three hours later I had keys to my FM truck that has rattles and squeaks from every which way as well as a knob to roll up the windows.  Good thing it's only meant to get around Nauvoo in (I hope).  Amazingly the powers that be were inspired to place me in the cabinet shop.  I had heard so many great things about it I was excited to go there.  Unfortunately there was no one there.  Lon, who is the paid church employee, and in charge of it was taking the day off and the other Elder who had been working there was packing to go home.  I rushed home and the "Great Bathroom Door" caper was begun.....and we will just leave it at that.

     Dressed in Our Finest Blues.........

                                        .........It's off to Work....at 7:00 a.m.

     Tuesday began our work day together as we fought for bathroom time to get ready.  And yes....

Marilyn can actually get up and function quite well at 5:30.  She went off to work in what is called the "Conservation Department".   Basically it includes a lot of great things.  Today's was loading up ladders, soap pails, scrubbers, and buckets as she went off to clean some of Nauvoo's fine statuary that is a favorite home for spiders and resting places for birds.  It's a dirty job....so somebody has to do it. 

     I actually got to work as Lon was back from his vacation.  The man is an incredible guy and has specialized in 1800 restoration work in between his stints as a retired career army officer.  He not only brings expertise but also vast array of specialized tools.  There is a wealth of knowledge here and he uses it as the restoration of the restoration is a continuing process.  One of my projects for the day was to restore drawer runners to an contemporary piece of bedroom furniture. (Sounds interesting...it isn't).  The highlight of the day was grinding off 200 coping saw blades  and cutting 3" pieces of 1/2" dowels that I will get to assemble and make the pumpkin carving knives for the Bootiful Nauvoo celebration that will be held by the city.  Eventually they will be used to carve some 500 pumpkins that will line the main street and thousands come from the nearby communities to participate in the festivities.  The end of the week brought me actually building a vanity countertop.
All told I can always look forward to next week.  It looks like we actually  have a 2 vanity cabinets to build and who knows what else.
    You Just Never Know.......

                     "Older Faces" from the Past
    Another one of the pleasant surprises of Nauvoo is faces from my past.  Darrell Moench lived around the corner on Devereaux Way and Barbey Drive.  His wife, Nancy, was my sister's best friend growing up.  They are here, having arrived six months before us, and a currently doing a vignette in the Rendezvous production as George and Agatha.  They are gifted performers and are very talented.
If things continue as planned we will be appearing together in the vignette....which should be a lot of fun.  They are currently assigned to Carthage and spend most of their time either there or travelling back and forth to Nauvoo.

                 A Night on River Road.........

                  Jammin' with Nagel's and Tuiafua's

     If you go north out of Nauvoo on the  River Road (which is pretty much 4 miles of bumpy dirt), and don't worry about the dead end sign at the first, you will pretty much come to the end of the road and find the "round" house.  Waiting at the door we found the Tuiafua's with a big "Aloha" and the evening just gets better and better.  The Nagel's, who will be going home in a couple of weeks wanted us to meet these wonderful people before they left so they put together a "pot luck" dinner.  Sister T took us around and showed us the most unique house that she had designed.  I couldn't do it justice to explain the uniqueness  of it.  It is about a 300 yards on a hill  that overlooks the Mississippi River.

The main windows face west and the sunset view is to say the least "amazing".  The dinner conversation was fantastic and the next thing I know Nagels and Tuiafuas are pulling out all sorts of instruments and the "jamming" began. It started out with Amazing Grace and ended with On The Road Again and the gamut in between was amazing.  If you look at the picture you will see their vast array of instruments.  What you don't see is a large pump organ that she brought in and refurbished it up to speed.  The trees she brought in as well as many other unique features.  It was like being surrounded by the warm fuzzies and a great experience.  It seems we were having so much fun that we failed to notice Brother T sitting at the table hovering over a Scrabble game.  Seems that, what we didn't know, was that he and Sister T play every night before they retire.....I think he wanted to retire.

He was there for a while before we caught on and said our good-byes.