Nauvoo Week 9 (1-7 February 2016)

Nauvoo Week 9 (February 8–14, 2016)

Well, another week has come and gone here in Nauvoo.  Things were a little slower this week having had the Exodus reenactment all last weekend. We started off this week by traveling to Keokuk, Iowa where we had the oil changed in the car. We ate lunch then returned home in time to go to a Temple missionary Family Home Evening in the Nauvoo Visitor’s Center. The speaker was Bryon Andreasen from the church museum staff. He spoke and showed pictures of the new Museum in Salt Lake and the exhibit called “The Heavens are open.”  It was a wonderful presentation showing pictures of all the exhibit areas that seem to be really responsive to interaction with the public and answering a lot of questions about the organization of the church in these latter days.

On Tuesday, February 9, it was Sharon’s birthday so we headed to Keokuk again to eat.

We invited Elder and Sr. Moon from Layton Utah to come with is. They are the couple that came with as at the same time to the mission. We ate at Angelini’s, an Italian restaurant, and had a great time and found out a little bit more about the Moon’s and their family and them about our family. We returned home and went to the Temple for 5:00 pm shift and worked until a little after nine.

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty much just regular, fantastic days at the Temple and daily activities that we that we normally do. On Friday, February 12, following our morning shift at the Temple we invited Elder and Sister Davenport from Washington to go with us to Burlington Iowa. In Burlington we drove around the town and became a little more familiar with it and then ate at a Mexican restaurant. The food was good and we found out more about the Davenport’s and their family-he plays a lot of golf-that figures, he is a doctor. Elder and Sister Davenport recently completed a mission in California, he was the area medical advisor for the area in California.

On Saturday, we had been asked to go to the Temple early so we are arrived at 6 AM, attended prayer meeting, and I went and worked in the baptistery for a couple of hours. The day was fairly busy; many patrons came and we enjoyed having full sessions throughout the Temple for a few hours. We had invited Elder and Sister Ludwig (he is also a Sealer and Patriarch) from Washington to come to dinner later that day and at 6:00pm they came over and we had a great roast beef and mashed potato dinner.

Following dinner, they are fairly good in family history work, they brought up their computer and showed us a little bit more of things that we could do as far as family history work. We hope to earnestly begin our work on family history.

Today is Valentine’s Day, we set the alarm for 6:30 am and awoke finding that it had snowed during the night. While Sharon was getting ready I went outside and shoveled the walks and a path to the car and cleaned the car off. We started to head to Mount Pleasant, Iowa which is about an hour away we went had gone about 15 minutes and were approaching Fort Madison when the storm became pretty severe and it was hard to see more than about 50 to 60 feet ahead of us. So we pulled over after slipping and sliding our way down the road and called the branch president. He stated that they were going to hold church but that it was cold and snowing just a little. I told him that we were having trouble on the roads and that we were going to turn around and go back home. He thought that was a great idea and that all would be well even though the forecast was for it to snow throughout the day. So we turned around and came home get our studies and watched a few programs on BYU TV. We were going to spend most of the day in Mount Pleasant today; church is from 9:00 am to noon and following that a woman was going to be married at 4:00 pm so that they could get baptized in the next couple of weeks. Due to the fact that we could not travel to Mt. Pleasant we planned on going to church here in Nauvoo at noon but at about 10:30 this morning we received a call from one of the missionary couples that attend this ward and told as that they had received a call that church was being canceled today because of the snow. It did snow hard for several hours; I went back out and shoveled another 4 inches this afternoon.

While we were thinking what we could do today, Sharon called Elder and Sister MacDonald from Salt Lake City, Utah and invited them to come over and eat some soup that Sharon had made during the week.  Elder McDonald was a police officer in the Salt Lake City Police Department. A few weeks ago I had asked him if he knew Capt. Don Pearson and he said “Yes, both of them, big Don and little Don.” I mentioned to him that little Don was my father-in-law and he commented what a nice gentleman he was. So, we will exchange some stories and learn more about each other.

We hope that each and every one of you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day. We want you to know how much we love and appreciate you. Thank you for your love, support, and kindness.  We love you with all of our hearts. Love, Mom & Dad/Nana & Papa/Elder & Sister Shaw