And so it ends



The corn has been picked, the stocks are left to be cut down.  The harvest is over.

The leaves have turned.  The autumn of our service has been capped.  We are ready to move on. 

Just as the leaves begin to fall from the trees, so we must fall from our service here in Nauvoo.  Such great memories.  Such great feelings.  I do not think they could have been duplicated anywhere else on earth. 

Forty stars on each gate entrance to the temple.  Forty signifying to me the forty years of Israel wandering in the wilderness.  Now on the gate they represent leaving the wilderness and entering into the promised land.  Just like Israel, we too enter into the promised land in the temple. 

Good bye to Joseph and Hyrum and all we have learned to appreciate about your sacrifices here in Nauvoo.  We have felt your spirit, we have learned of your trials and greatness to a degree we had not realized before.  Truly men called of God. 

I finished up my typing at the Lands and Records Dept.  A small service to assist them there in identifying all the people who left Nauvoo on the trek west. 

Patty with Susan Easton Black.  Susan was in Nauvoo for a three month service mission.  While there she presented a Tuesday and Thursday night class on Joseph Smith.  Very enlightening. 

Good bye again as we drive out.  It's been good to be here. 

This is what we found on the drive home.  This is Bozeman Montana.  Patty said she felt we were in a protective bubble all the way home.  The snow and freezing rain didn't affect us.  Thank you Pres MacArthur our Temple Pres. for a blessing of safety on us in his closing interview with our release from Nauvoo. 

One last look at Brigham Young's home.  This is where the Twelve met after the death of Joseph Smith.  It just felt very reverent to both Patty and I. 

Thanks for the journey.  Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Thank you Joseph Smith for not abandoning your testimony of the truth.

Booo-tiful Nauvoo

Each year the town has a parade and celebration of fall.  This program was started eight years ago by Pres Nelson of the Temple Presidency.  He has lived here for over 30 years and wanted to bring some life to this little town.  Now people come from all over to this Booo-tiful Nauvoo.

Look at the work this fellow went through for this outfit.

One cannot have a parade about Halloween with the original Ghost-busters here. 

This was the site missionaries entry in the parade.  They took the Nauvoo Brass Band wagon and decorated it up and all the people in the wagon had costumes.  They had fun. 

Of course the highlight of the night is the pumpkin carving contest.

Some of these pumpkins were absolutely so well done.   

The Church gave out free kettle corn, bags of candy for the children. 

A movie 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks', a haunted house that was an 'outhouse',

They had a crazy band and of course a Flash Mob.

A good time was had by all.

The Church does so much here to help this town, so much.

How's this for a surprise!

Some nice surprises from Spokane -  A few members of our old Continueing Education Class from the Tuesday mornings showed up in Nauvoo.  Along with Jenna Lake who was in Spokane forever and now resides in Boise.  Good to see them.  Yes, they were just walking down the street and we saw them.

And the Dorvals had a planned trip. 

They came to see us and the fall colors.  Great visit for sure.

We have seen several people from Spokane here this year. 

I think that is why they say the Nauvoo Temple is a temple of 'destination'.



Heartland Dairy

Who would have thought out in the middle of nowhere, in the center of Missouri there would be this 20,000 acre dairy.  It was started by a man and wife several years ago as a way to give back to society.  He was and is a very wealthy person.  He started this dairy as a rehabilitation work program for addicted people.
The individuals who come here, some are sentenced here by the courts, have to stay clean and work for their room and board and wages.  The only sad part is less than .5% make it through the drying out process.  Less than one percent.

All of his milk trucks have this on the sides.  A totally Christian work center.  By the way, we could not have found this place if it wasn't for GPS.

The dairy has 9,050 milk cows right now.  They milk about 3800 on a daily basis.  They milk three times a day.  The have about 100 calves born a week.  That's a lot of moo cows.

This picture of the round milking machine was seen by a man in New Zealand.  He knew about the dairy here and came to help this project.  He built this round milking 'machine'.  The cows face inward, eat and when they go around the circle - which takes seven minutes - the men on the outside of the corral hook up the milkers and the process is completed in seven minutes.  There is a water spray on the back side of the circle, so when the cows feel the water spray they back off the machine and another enters the empty stall.  This machine, if you will, holds 90 cows at a time.  Quite an invention for sure.  The dairy sells off six tankers of milk a day.

The dairy also has 2,200 goats.  They breed the goats for milk to produce goat cheese.

They had a cute little display of items in the eating hall.  Saw this little John Deere replica.

Abraham Lincoln Home

We visited the sites of Abraham Lincoln on our P Day this last week.  In Springfield Ill they have built up such a wonderful memorial to Mr. Lincoln.  It was very touching and reverent to visit this place.

This is his actual home that has been restored.  The last living heir sold the home to the state on condition that the home be a memorial to Abraham Lincoln.  The state has done a very good job to preserve and keep up this property.

The desk in the right side of this picture was actually Mr. Lincoln's desk that he used to write up his briefs for court while he was living here in Springfield.  Almost everything in the home was part of the family. 

Look at the pictures below and see how Abe aged so quickly in just five years.  The problems of the Union and the Confederacy were something that he lived with 24/7. 

The depictions of what was happening, and how they worked their everyday chores is so beautifully captured in these statues.  They are not done in wax as some other museums have done, I don't know what the product and materials are, but they absolutely look so real. 

This is a replica of his campaign wagon that he used to travel around from town to town. 

Rather an interesting sign that was posted in the museum.  I discovered that the political cartoons of today are milder than those of the 1860's.  They were brutal and harsh.  Way beyond what we would call civil for sure.  I didn't post them as they were way to cruel to remember.  [for me anyway]. 

This depiction of the last moments of his life were chilling. 

This is the back side of the booth that Abraham was killed in.  Again very realistic. 

Copy of the newspaper that went out the day after the assassination. 

This is the actual law office that Lincoln practised in before he was President. 

The office is in the process of being restored and renovated right now.  Will be open within a year or two they say.  

The Lincoln Tomb was much nicer, more reverent and sacred than I would have imagined. 

Lincoln's body was moved at least three times before the final resting place.  This was a temporary tomb that was used for only a few months. 



Mark Twain

Good looking uniform don't you think.  This was outside a theatre showing an old non talking movie of the Adventures of Mark Twain.  It had the words under the scenes.

We took the one hour tour on the Mississippi River.  This boat is named the Mark Twain. 

This is out of order, but this is the movie that was showing. 

Meanwhile back on the boat.  The numbers on the bridge do not have anything to do with the water depth, well I guess in a way they do, but the numbers show the height that is allowed to go under the bridge.  So the number 60 means the boat could be 60' tall, the number 30 would be 30 feet tall.  Our little Mark Twain boat was 30 feet tall.  There are times, the captain told us, that the river is that high. 

This is the left over sign from the Storrs Ice and Coal Company.  Back before refrigeration they would store and cut ice from the river during the winter and store the ice blocks in straw and then sell them all summer.  The Storrs family did this for several years.  When electricity and refrigeration came to town, they opened an appliance store to keep up with the times.  Now the storage area here is just a ghost town, kinda. 

This lady keeps turning up at the same places I go.  Kinda cute isn't she. 

This is the famous light house that is in the books of Mark Twain.  Just a tourist attraction now. 

Between the town of Hannibal and the port of Hannibal are the rail road tracks.  Lots and lots of trains go through every day.  Coal cars, oil tankers, everything.  Long and loud.  Reminds me of Spokane.