I have really struggled choosing photos and starting this post. It was truly an amazing experience for all of us but more than any other church site that I have been to did I really feel the spirit of the early saints. Nauvoo Illinois is beautiful! Driving along the Mississippi river and entering town to look up and see this beautiful House of the Lord. It is probably the most amazing Temple site of all the Temples. There are no major roads or freeways in site. And from most every point in the city you could look up to see the Temple. What a place for the Saints to have built only to have to leave again only a short time later.
“I stopped my carriage on the top of a rolling prairie and I had a splendid view. I could see the Saints pouring out & gathering like clouds from the hills and dales, grove and prairie with their teams, wagons, flocks and herds by hundreds and thousands as it were until it looked like the movement of a great nation.” Wilford Woodruff, 1846
I could truly envision what Wilford Woodruff recounted.
The oxen pulled cart was much smaller and narrower than I had envisioned of what went Westward. There was just one bench on the side for us to fit and Matt's long legs couldn't be stretched. Of course it wouldn't have mattered because Matt would have been walking! If you ask the kids their favorite part of the visit, it was the ox wagon ride.
Carthage Jail. The family is standing beneath the window Joseph and Hyrum fell through. To know of the kindness of the jailer was a new part of the story that I didn't know. It was actually from their room that they were shot. The cellar rooms were just too hot and so the couple gave them their room to have a cooler spot. After camping there in tents I have complete understanding of the inability to cool off, even at night. It is always amazing to stand in places of such significance.
The Smith Family Cemetery. This site is run by the Church of Christ. So interesting to visit these sites with a tour guide of another faith and sister missionaries translating into sign language for a couple on the tour. Everything is referred to as The Church and no doctrine or testimonies are born. These are the graves of Joseph's mother and other family members, the view was amazing of the Mississippi. Joseph's and Hyrum's graves are to the far side.
One of the purposes of our trip was to meet up with our good friends and adopted family the Campbell's. A little bar-b-que and s'mores of course on Sunday night and then touring the town on Monday. What started has with just Isaac and Sophie has now grown a bit. When the boys were explaining their family to someone they said "they are friends that go way back, no wait more like cousins." Though most of them had never met it really was like they were cousins and had known each other for ages. Here is to tradition and being together in another two years.
The Church amazes me with the talent, skill and perfection that it does things. And with only volunteers. There are young missionaries that serves part of their time in Nauvoo, those with special skills and talents. This group put on plays, musicals. Just Plain Anna Amanda was a great for the kids and Benjamin got to go up at the end.
Another part the kids loved was dressing up and playing pioneer games. The walking sticks ended up being turned into rifles and the bandannas turned the boys into outlaws. Not really pioneer but fun all the same. The outlaws even led the children's parade.
