BOOOOOTIFUL NAUVOO!!!

So you have to appreciate small town living.  There are many wonderful things about being in a small community. One of those is BOOOTIFUL Nauvoo. Each year before Halloween, they have a night where a large crowd comes to happily celebrate Halloween. The mission is certainly a very big part of this celebration.  Like I said in my previous post, we filled over 750 bags with GOOD candy for the children of Nauvoo.  We also as missionaries pop kettle corn for the whole town. They said that they popped l50 pounds of popcorn.

They have even made their own popcorn popper!  These are real men!

My sweet Elder Christensen working tirelessly on any and everything!!! What a hero!

So I got to hand out popcorn all night. What fun, people were so happy and it was a very fun tradition.

You are never tooooooo old right?  Well maybe?

Sister Nelson and I…….

At least I think you are never toooo old to have fun!

Just some of the 500*****************************pumpkins that our mission carved.  Man, talk about community service!

BEFORE…………………………………………………..

AFTER………………………………………………………………………….

These are no triangle eyes and mouth!!!

Yes, it is a spider………..

I put this one in for Kelly and Taryn,, I think it is from Star Wars?

The Beast from Beauty and the Beast…..Anyway, you get the idea, these pumpkins lined all of main street.  Even the shop windows ( there are three shops in Nauvoo) all had decorations.

People milling around in costumes.

Kiddie car in the parade.

Our missionaries had a “crazy band,” in the parade.

Of course, here is my token horse picture.  I just love them….

So here is to BOOOOOTIFUL NAUVOO.. I guess that I will get to participate in it one more time………………(Not sure how I feel about that but) What do you think will happen for Thanksgiving??????

SO MANY THINGS TO WRITE ABOUT

This has been a difficult week with very little time to sit down and write. I cannot believe that at this time in my life, I seem to busy as busy as I was when I was a young mother with children.  What happened to retirement? Not on this mission. Besides working each day at a new site, we have Rendezvous every other night, and then in between all of that we go to the temple at least once a week. We have a few hours for shopping and then this week and the last month really, I have been stressing over teaching Relief Society today. This week we also went out to FM and carved pumpkins for the parade this Saturday.

I’m really getting into my work!

You have to love President and Sister Gilliland. They are really amazing. They participate in every single thing that we are asked to do. Nothing is below them and I love them very much.

What a huge undertaking.. 500 of them, drawn on, gutted, carved………..

Last week I went and helped fill over 750 bags with candy for the children of Nauvoo.  I could have eaten every piece, it reminded me of when I would come home from Trick or Treating and Daddy would have us dump our pillowcases out and he got to choose his favorites. You would have had fun here Daddy!!

Love working with all of these women, they can make anything fun. On this particular night after filling these bags, Jeanne and I took supper over to the doctor’s house. His wife had fallen and broken her leg.  Onward…….

IN MY NEXT LIFE………………..

So on our way to carve pumpkins I just happened to see some of our horses. We just got a brand new set from Idaho, named Champ and Chad. They are huge, they weigh over 2500 pounds a piece. I love to pull grass and feed it to them.
As I was feeding Champ, Mike and Mick came up to get a little TLC as well. Champ bit Mike on the neck and I was not happy. The teamsters say that these horses all have personalities! I think maybe they do.

OH MY STARS AND GARTERS!!!

My last entries were about how sick I had been feeling. On the road to recovery, I had come home on a Wednesday night.  I am in my “MOO-MOO” and feeling pretty comfortable. Richard has me go to the visitors’ center with him to pick up something and it seemed like it took him forever. So getting back home I am cleaning up and all of a sudden, out jumps Jacqui, Janae and all of the children!!!!!!!! How would I have ever suspected something like that???? I never even had an inkling that they were on their way. Their dad however, scares me, because he loves secrets, especially the ones that I know nothing about.  You could have knocked me over with a feather. I was so surprised, so excited, so grateful, and at the end of it all so STINKING HOMESICK! I could hardly function. 

They stayed at the Nauvoo Condos and so we fixed supper and then went out there for the evening.  The next morning we got up and went to ride the wagon. Now today it is 81*. That particular day, the only one they were here, was 40ish and raining!!!! They enjoyed the wagon and horses none the less and then we went on over to Family Living so that they could make rope. From there we went to the blacksmith, because Prairie Diamonds are a draw.  All of our missionary friends were so nice to them. Went to Grandpa John’s for supper, and pizza from Casey’s for dinner.  We then took them to Rendezvous where Richard and I were Agatha and George.  You should have seen the look on the kids faces. It was priceless. Delaney kept wanting us and Navie actually stayed for both shows. It is hard to imagine your grandparents acting the fools, but here we are in all of our glory.

They all left about 24 hours after they came and I was actually heartbroken. I miss them all so much. The little children kept asking why I wasn’t coming home. I have had to call my mother twice for counseling sessions! This is really hard and sometimes I am worse than others. I am only praying that the Lord will truly bless those that I have left behind while I am trying to do what has been asked of me. THANK YOU JANAE, JACQUI AND DELANEY, NAVIE, BLAKELY, JAGGER AND GREER. I know that was expensive and a very long ride, but I am so touched and grateful for your sacrifice.

I see a future Agatha………………………………………………………….

FRIENDS, FOOD, FUN TIMES……

Elder “Oppie” Openshaw was going to be giving a Sociable on Sunday evening and so I wanted to make sure he had lots of energy to teach us all and decided to make homemade chicken soup and invite friends. We are packed in here wall to wall with no one getting by! We had one episode where we laughed until Sister Poulson was crying. Ah the memories we are making. 

His discussion was on where we are in the Book of Mormon and it would scare you to death. If our country doesn’t turn around we may be in some serious trouble. When the majority chooses unrighteousness, consequences always follow.  So I am praying and encourage everyone to pray for the guys in the white hats to win!!!! Please get out and vote.

Nauvoo Visitor’s Center

I was scheduled at the visitor’s center on Saturday. These two darling children were getting ready to be sealed to their parents and they wanted me to know.  It was a big day for them and they were very excited. I am happy to have been a little part of their day and to cheer them on. Eternal Families are Forever!!!!

Wow, What a Weekend!

Look who’s here!!!!

This was quite the weekend for us. As I said in my last post, I wasn’t feeling well but a lot of events were going on. The most exciting being able to be with our good friends Don and Carol Deshler from Kansas City. He is an area authority and so was coming to Nauvoo for a Seventies training. The same time 12 mission presidents were here for training as well. I invited them to dinner on Friday night and had a nice meal. Of course, this little home has no counter space so I decided to put the meal in the oven to keep it warm. In they come and out I pull out the food gravy and all,…………………you guessed it, on to the floor. Man, Don was so tickled he ran out and got his camera so that he could take a picture.

We then had a wonderful visit and it made me feel a little bit of home. They are some of the best people in the world. So many memories with them and their family. Don was actually our first official home teacher when Richard and I were newly wed.  Their son Chad and Jonathan were best friends and college roommates. We had a meeting on Saturday night by the president of the Seventies Quorum, Elder Rasban. Don and Carol kindly sat with us and then they have the authorities stand and up goes Don! He also sat on the stand on Sunday and they had he and Carol speak. He mentioned us by name and now everyone here is teasing us about being so well known and famous!  It pays to have important friends…….

Elder Deshler never talks about himself, but he is really humble, talented and very much giving his life in service. When they talked about the new age limit for the missionaries, and the new curriculum for the young men and young women, I found out that Elder Deshler was part of that committee. He is a professor at KU and his emphasis is on learning disabilities and techniques. (I just put that in very layman terms) He was also the one responsible for the Kansas City Missouri Temple and open  house. He was talking about being with the Prophet, President Monson! So I just touched him one more time for good luck. We are grateful for the Deshlers.

Okay, I Need Help…………..

Please keep telling me that you cannot replace children, grandchildren and dogs with cows, oxen, horses squirrels and numerous other creatures!!!!

But isn’t he just the cutest thing!! These are the little oxen, they are supposed to keep eating until they grow up to be big oxen.  Why doesn’t that work for me?  They are out in the Brigham Young pasture and I see them a lot. They will come up to the fence now when I am out there. This little guy wanted me to scratch his ears. He kept coming to the fence and then would jump back. So cute.  They had been eating all day and the poor things were just worn out. So siesta time.

The Poppa oxen don’t want to be left out. I was feeding the little ones and in lumbers the poppa and off scoots the baby!

No transition here, life happens minute by minute! So last week I start feeling a little funky about 3 in the afternoon, by nightfall I was SICK! Seems like I am getting this every year.  I just finished a month episode of this in Denver in February! I know Richard, I need to take more vitamins, less Sprite Zero! So I miss two days of missionary service and Richard decides that is enough. In he walks with our doctor, who actually makes house calls here in old Nauvoo!  I had not a stitch of make-up on but I didn’t care. Now that was real sick! He was so kind and will not make fun of me in public. On to the medications, so that I can get up and at em again. That was a Tuesday and Thursday night feeling not so well, I have to go and do Rendezvous for the visiting authorities!!!!!!!!!!! I actually thought I was going to faint about half way through the show, but you know me and my Broadway blood, the show must go on. Up the next morning before 8 to get the Brigham Young house shining so that I could give tours for the visiting authorities. That is a whole other blog entry. Now I am on my way to the pharmacy to get another medication, because we know girls, with antibiotics, comes women complications. Will it never end?