Nauvoo
Week 6 (18-24 January 2016)
Another
great week in Nauvoo! It was mentioned
last update that we would be attending a Temple Missionary Report Meeting and
then would have a Fireside Speaker (Dr. Craig Dunn). It was entitled “Nauvoo Temple-Then and Now.” It was a great presentation-I will include my
notes at the end of the update; we will be traveling with him in April for a
couple of days through Missouri on a Church Tour. We will be visiting Adam-Ondi-Ahman, Far
West, Richmond, Liberty Jail, Independence and the Kansas City Temple. Then again with him on a tour called “Martyrdom
Trail Tour” which follows the life of the Prophet Joseph/Hyrum going from
Nauvoo to Carthage. There is so much
Church history here it is unbelievable.
On
Monday, we served in the Temple (Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday), it was pretty
busy with people who had the day off. We
then drove to Burlington, IA to look at their Mall, see a movie and eat
dinner. We found a very good Mexican
Restaurant.
Tuesday
night and Wednesday we saw some measurable snow and cold temperatures. Received about 2-3 inches; Nauvoo is
incredible covered with snow. This week
we started our new schedule; our full day at the Temple is now on Thursday
instead of Wednesday. We had a special
Temple Missionary Meeting on Thursday between shifts where Elder (Dr.) Chapman
spoke about our health giving many tips for eating, exercise, etc.
Both
Friday and Saturday were fairly busy in the morning with patrons. There were a lot of people desiring Sealings
to be completed, so it was a long day of speaking…but very spiritual. We had some people from our assigned Branch
(Mt. Pleasant) come to complete some Sealings: Sisters Sanchez & Argueta-(Branch
President’s mother and mother-in-law) and Brother & Sister Kearns.
Sunday
both us of had the opportunity to speak in Sacrament Meeting in the Mt.
Pleasant Branch. There was a great
spirit and all seemed to go well.
Weather
permitting, we hope to travel to visit Scott, Malia, Corban and ? this next
weekend following our shift Saturday morning in the Temple. We would spend the weekend and return to
Nauvoo on Tuesday prior to our night shift.
They are a little more than 220 miles north of us (about 4.5 hours by Google).
Here
is a capsulized version of the Nauvoo-Then and Now presentation that we attend
last Sunday evening.
Nauvoo
Temple…Then and Now
Brother Dunn
In
1839 the Prophet Joseph was given two priorities, 1) buy land for the Temple
which he did on credit and 2) Get the saints better from all of their
sicknesses which he did by rising from his sick bed and going to all the people
and giving them blessings. Elijah Fordam
was miraculously healed by Joseph (he later designed, created and built the
baptismal font and oxen upon which it stood (made from wood)).
His second priority was to build a
Temple where the eternal ordinances could be given to all worthy members. Kirtland Temple was built for the purpose of
receiving keys and for education. Later,
the saints were commanded to build a Temple in Adam ondi ahman, but there was
too much persecution and also at Far West where a site was actually dedicated
but not built due to persecution. Nauvoo
was the first place where a Temple could be built to provide the saving
ordinances to the saints. Joseph had
been told that he would only be in the hands of his enemies for another 5 years
so he knew his time was short to complete his Lord given priorities.
In 1840 Joseph was speaking at a
funeral of a friend “Seymour Brunson” when he announced that “Baptisms for the
Dead” was a commandment of the Lord.
Immediately there was a free-for-all and the saints were baptizing in
the Mississippi River anyone and everybody (males for females, children, etc.)
all without a recorder or any fashion of order.
This continued until about Oct 1841 when Joseph put a stop to all such
actions, stating that these baptisms must be performed in the Temple.
In December 1840 the Charter for
Nauvoo (created from the city of Commerce) was given by the Legislature. This included creation of the Nauvoo Legion
(Joseph liked the sound of legion versus militia) and the University of Nauvoo.
In January 1841 the revelation was
received to build the Temple and the Nauvoo House (D&C 124); if the saints
built a Temple many people would come and they needed a place to stay. The Temple lot was selected and as it turns
out was the “Center of Nauvoo.” The land
was purchased from Daniel H. Wells for $1,100…Wells Fargo and other buildings
in SLC were named after him.
In April 1841 the cornerstones were
laid SE corner by Joseph Smith (representing 1st Presidency), SW
placed by high Priests, NW by High Council and NE by the Bishops. Thomas Sharp (journalist/antagonist/editor of
the Warsaw Signal Newspaper from nearby Warsaw) was invited to attend along
with 10,000 saints. It was a grand
affair with the Nauvoo Legion leading the procession. William Weeks was chosen to be the architect
and built a home just to the northwest of the Temple lot where he could keep a
close watch on the progress.
On 9 May 1842 the first endowment
was given on the top floor of Joseph’s little Red Store (room was divided into
smaller rooms for the progression of the endowment by curtains). Only men received their endowments at this
time. Later, from SLC, Bathsheba Smith
(wife of George A. Smith) and Wilford Woodruff testified that they had received
their endowment from the Prophet Joseph Smith.
There was a “Quorum of the Anointed” created, those that had received
their endowment.
By 1844 there were 50-60 who had
received their endowment and could administer the endowment for others. Joseph and Hyrum were killed on June 27, 1844
(the Temple was not completed.
Brigham Young Era: He had 2 years to complete the Temple
(persecution was rapidly increasing). In
December 1844 the Nauvoo City Charter was repealed by the Legislature. All rights
were taken away. Brigham renamed Nauvoo
the “City of Joseph.” Those that policed
the city were known as the “Whittling & Whistling Brigade.”
In June 1845 Porter Rockwell was
sent to help the saints come to Nauvoo.
He was given a promise by Joseph that as long as he didn’t cut his hair
he would not be felled by an enemy. He
was also made a Deputy by the acting Sheriff.
By 1846 the workers on the Temple
were out of food and were quickly losing ability to continue work on the
Temple. Joseph Toronto shows up with
$3,000 dollars wondering how he can help in the work. His money is used to buy food for the
workers, the Temple must be completed.
The Temple was dedicated and used in
several different parts. First of all,
the Baptistery was dedicated and baptisms for the dead recommenced. In May 1845 the Apostle Orson Hyde dedicated
the last portion of the Temple.
The Temple was opened for endowments
Dec 10, 1845 through Feb 7, 1846 (7 weeks).
An ad was placed in the newspapers that the Temple was “For Sale.” During this period over 2,500 saints received
their endowment; slightly less than ½ of all that received the endowment in
Nauvoo. There were two sisters that
basically lived in the Temple during this time taking care of many of the daily
preparations. There were heaters on each
of the five levels and they would be started at 2:00am to heat the Temple and
to dry the clothes from the previous day’s work.
On February 3, 1846 the saints
received notice from the US Government that they were not to leave Nauvoo at
this time, but the mobs wanted them out now and were persecuting with all
vengeance. The US Government did not
want the saints to leave for two reasons, 1) they were just entering a war with
Mexico and they didn’t want a lot of people spread out all over the country and
2) they were contending with the British about the Oregon Territory and knowing
that many of the saints were British were afraid they would go to the aid of
Britian.
During all of this, on February 3,
1846, Brigham arrived at the Temple to see a long line of saints waiting for
their endowments. He approached and told
them that they were going to leave before the government could stop them. He then departed the Temple area, he looked
back and saw the people were not leaving, so he returned, opened the Temple and
600 people received their endowments on that day. They worked long into the night…remember
there was no film at that time and the endowment took approximately 3.5-4
hours.
The saints then began leaving Nauvoo
for their own safety, leaving most everything they owned. Saints that arrived after they had left found
notes written that said “Sorry we’ve gone, do your best to follow us.” As the saints were leaving (crossing the
frozen Mississippi) the agitators were firing cannon balls (for three days) at
them trying to add insult to injury.
Some were gathered up and presented to the governor of Iowa saying that
Illinois had declared war on Iowa…nothing happened.
The Temple was burned by an arsonist
in 1848. Thomas Bagwell claimed
responsibility. The outer walls were
left standing then in 1850 a tornado destroyed most of the standing walls. In 1865 or 1866 the one remaining partial wall was torn
down. Townspeople gathered many of the
stones and used them in their building.
Many are still visible in Nauvoo today.
The last Apostle left Nauvoo on
February 22, 1846, Washington’s Birthday…for many years they had been ringing
the Liberty Bell on his birthday in Philadelphia, PA on this day the Liberty
Bell cracked as they rang it. A
coincidence or a message from heaven (total lack of support from the US
Government in their persecutions and amends)?
In 1948, Vern Thacker was serving a
mission in California when he knocked on a door of William Weeks’ relative; he
was not interested in the gospel but said he had something that he thought he
might be interested in. He in turn gave
it to the Church, what follows is a restoration of great importance in the
history of the United States and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.
We
pray the Lord’s choicest blessings to be with each of you. We love you all!
Mom
& Dad/Nana & Papa/Elder & Sister Shaw
This
was an exciting week with a lot of things going on. We served at the Temple each day and had some
wonderful and spiritual experiences. We
had a Family Home Evening with all the Temple Missionaries which coincided with
Robert Burn’s birthday (famous Scottish Poet).
We enjoyed Elder McDonald playing the bagpipes (kilt and all), poems and
sayings/poems/songs of Robert, decorations, Scottish foods and singing. We were unaware that Robert wrote the song
“Aude Lang Syne” which we all held hands and sang all of the verses to conclude
the evening. More on the food: we ate
some interesting soup, shortbread cookies, “Hamas” which included ground up tongue,
liver and other things of an animal…it’s usually cooked in the stomach of a
lamb/sheep-but you cannot buy this in the USA (thank goodness) so it was cooked
in a bag. All in all is was a great
evening and fun was had by all.
We
then visited the Riser Boot & Shoe Shop.
It was interesting to see how they would determine the size of the
needed shoe and the process they went through to make the shoe. It would take a good shoemaker about 8 hours
to make one pair of shoes that sold for around $1.50 per pair; a pair of boots
would take a couple of days to make and would cost around $5.50 per pair. We then proceeded to the Webb Brother’s
Blacksmith Shop where we learned about three different, but interconnected
processes. 
The Wheelwright (made the
wagon wheels), the Wainwrights (made the wagon box and under carriage) and the
Ferrier (making the remainder of the wagon, horseshoes, etc. Here we saw the missionary make a small
horseshoe and, of course, we picked our Prairie Diamond ring (horseshoe
souvenir ring). It was really
interesting to see all the things that were made in the Blacksmith Shop. 
