Summer Has Arrived

Judging by the weather, summer has definitely arrived.  Most days in the month of June have been over 90 degrees.  We are lucky that the humidity has been moderate so it has been bearable.  We are in need of rain.  Everyone here counts on summer showers to water the lawns and especially their corn fields.  Last June was an very wet month.  Looking forward to several days in the 80's in next weeks forecast.  Working around the forge in the blacksmith is the worst hot day site assignment.  They keep close track of the heat index here.  If it were to get to 105 (with the humidity effect) all outdoor activities are shut down.

This month we were in the mode of performing our shows.  The Sunset on the Mississippi show takes place at 7 pm every night.  There are three casts of senior missionaries.  Each cast performs twice per week.  Our nights for Sunset in June were Monday/Thursday.  That rotates every month so we begin Tuesday/Friday for July this week. Sister Rober and I perform a specialty number as part of the show one time each week.  Here is a video of our number.

                               

I am surprised at how I am being stretched on this mission.  I never would have believed that I would ever be able to play the piano in front of an audience.  Her partner in the number is one of the Young Performing Missionaries (YPM) that come here every summer to sing and dance in the shows and around town.  Here are the YPM's air born in their clogging number in the show.

This is the Nauvoo Brass Band that accompanies the show.

The Senior Missionaries do a group polka number.  Sister Rober and I are in this shot.

The excitement level is beginning to build for the Nauvoo Pageants.  Beginning on July 5 and running through the month of July, there are performances at 8:30 pm every night except Sunday.  There is a Nauvoo Pageant and a British Pageant. The British Pageant is the story of the Mormon missionaries who traveled to England in the 1830's and their efforts to preach the Gospel there.  There were many people who accepted their message, were baptized and immigrated to the America.  Many of them made their way to Nauvoo. The Nauvoo Pageant is the story of this growth of this beautiful city from arrival in 1839 to the exodus in February of 1846.  During the peak period of Nauvoo, there were around 15,000 people living here.  It was equal in population to Chicago during this period.

They have a pretty cool program associated with the pageant.  Around 25 families travel here to be extras in the production for a two week period.  In their first week they practice. In the second week they are in the show.  In the week they perform, another group of families arrive for practice and so it goes for the month.  It is a commitment of time but a memory for life for the lucky families that are picked to come here.  The Senior Missionaries in our mission have no official parts in the pageant activities.  We do have the opportunity on an optional basis to come on the stage at the end of the British Pageant and sing the Mormon Missionary Anthem "Called to Serve" as part of the finale.  We are looking forward to doing this a few times.

Our work in the sites continues to be wonderful experience.  As we testify of the stories of the residents of Nauvoo it increases our appreciation of the lessons we can learn from their faith and endurance to make it through difficult times.  Our goal is to have people go home from Nauvoo inspired to do hard things in their lives as they remember the examples of those who lived here.  Our tours are growing in numbers as the Pageants near. During the year, around 250,000 visitors come to this town which has a population of around 1,000 people.  In the month of July during Pageant the visitors number around 50,000.  The missionaries who were here last summer are warning us to prepare for a wild month as this little town reaches a fever pitch and our tours can have over twenty visitors every fifteen minutes. One of the fun things that happens is meeting people here that we know from back home and they have no idea we are serving as missionaries.  Several times we meet friends of our children who recognize the name on our badges.  The summer schedule is physically tiring with six hour shifts in the sites and shows four nights per week.  We love the pace and the Spirit that comes with it.  It feels good to crash in bed at night totally exhausted.  Each week we get one day off - our Preparation Day - to go grocery shopping, clean the house and catch up on the wash.

The summer sunsets are supposed to be spectacular.  Due to our drought and the lack of clouds we are waiting for that experience.  Here is my best sunset picture so far.  You can see the Mississippi River in the background.

This is a sculpture of Joseph and Hyrum Smith riding out of town to go to Carthage where they were both murdered by an angry mob on June 27, 1844.  They sealed their testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with their blood on that fateful day.

The Church does an excellent job of maintaining the grounds in such a beautiful manner.  Here are some other interesting pictures of the beautiful grounds and some of our animal friends.

I have taken to flowers here due to the spirit of the grounds. This is the side entrance to our little home and the extent of my flower garden.  It is easy to weed and keep up this small area.

That is our June report.  We are looking forward to the challenges and excitement of July Pageant month.

Love to all,

Elder and Sister Rober

A Month of Preparation and Practice

The time is going by fast.  It is hard to believe it has almost been three months since we left California for our Mission.  This past month has been a time to prepare for the crowds that begin building in June, July and August.  The weather has been good this month.  Most days were in the 60"s and 70's with an occasional 80's.  We have had quite a bit of rain, but never for more than a few hours.  There have even been a few thunder and lighting storms.  They can last for one to two hours straight in this part of our country.

Beginning this weekend we have gone into our summer site schedules.  The sites that we serve in are now open from 9 am to 6 pm Monday through Saturday.  On Sunday's the sites are open from 12:30 - 5:00 pm.  Each Friday afternoon a schedule is published for the following week on which locations we serve for that week.  During May we had school tours from the surrounding area on about half our days.  It is a good time for the kids to come and see a few sites and get a wagon ride before the large crowds arrive.

Serving in the sites is the main purpose we have been called.  It is where we get to meet so many different people.  Many of them are members of the Church.  Our presentations to each group need to be no more than 10 minutes to accommodate the summer crowds.  In our presentations we teach the guests about many of the activities of the people in the 1840's - rope making, candle making, bread making, tinsmiths, blacksmiths, weaving, printing, spinning, brick making, boot making and gun smiths.  We testify of the trials, faith, hard work and unity of the people in accomplishing difficult tasks.  In my previous visits as a guest it was inspiring to hear their stories.  It always made me appreciate their sacrifices and want to try a little harder in my life to be more Christlike and have the faith to face my challenges when I returned home from the visit.  It is a great blessing to now be called as a missionary to be teaching the guests these events.  I am always impressed to see parents bring their families here on spring breaks and now in the summer to give their children an opportunity to hear and feel the Spirit of these historical sites. Sister Rober and I are always reminding ourselves of the sacred nature of the events and streets we get to call home for a short time.

Our site shifts are now 6 hours.  Two nights a week we are in the Senior Missionary Rendezvous Show. We need to be there at 6:30 to prepare for the 7:00 pm show and a repeat show at 8:15.  It makes it very tight now if our site shift ends at 6:00 and we need to go home and change into our Rendezvous clothes in 30 minutes - maybe time for a granola bar for dinner.  The Rendezvous Show runs year round but with normally only one show per night in the winter months.  The show does an excellent job testifying in music the same messages we give at the sites.  Sister Rober is playing the piano accompaniment for the Rendezvous Show and has just started accompanying a children's show three days per week for the summer schedule.

We are now also in two performances per week of the Sunset by the Mississippi Show. These shows begin at 7 pm every night but Sunday during the summer.  The Young Performing Missionaries (YPM) and Brass Band are the main performers in this show.  In April, Sister Rober talked me into playing a little boogie woogie piano number for the talent show.  During the Sunset show each night there are two Senior Missionary specialty numbers.  Somehow, the Sunset Directors have asked me to play my number once each week. They also discovered Sister Rober's dance and choreography skills and asked her to add some senior missionaries as swing dancers in the number.  They have also provided a YPM dance partner for her to be part of the number. We have been practicing for the show ever since we arrived.  Here are some pictures from a few rehearsals.

Here is a video of the Brass Band. They play from a horse drawn carriage at several locations on the property.

These are the YPM singers and dancers.

A blessing of serving here is to be so close to a temple.  We can walk there in ten minutes from our house.  It has been restored to look exactly like the temple the Saints built with much sacrifice while they were here.  They completed the temple in November of 1845 and began their exodus from here on February 4, 1846.  It was only used for all of the available ordinances for this short time.  It sits on top of the hill above the river and is visible for miles around in this fairly flat country.  It is truly a beautiful building.  The temple was finished in 2002.  The restoration of the other sites we serve in began in the 1960-1970 time period.

We are enjoying seeing this part of the country.  There are farm lands in much of the surrounding area. Corn is king here.  They grow a variety that is used to feed animals.  I thought I was in for a treat of fresh sweet corn but it looks like that won't happen. When we first arrived, many of the farms were just dirt.  We are now starting to see the corn begin to grow.  The farms rely totally on rain for moisture.  That hasn't been a problem lately.  Many of the houses here have very large grass yards.  Everyone seems to have their ride-on John Deere mower.  The grass grows rapidly with the rain showers followed by sunny times.  There are no block walls between properties.  You can see the whole neighborhood from your back yard.

We are seeing many things for the first time.  I have now seen my first cardinal.  They are one of the prettiest birds I have ever seen.

I find it interesting also to be on the banks of the Mississippi River.  In our wagon tours, the guides teach the guests it is 2340 miles long.  There always seems to be something interesting on the river. Many of the crops and other industrial materials and commodities are moved on this river.  In the early days of Nauvoo, it was the main way of new converts arriving in town from the missionary work taking place in England and other parts of Europe.  It is always "alive" with some kind of activity.  Here is an example from a morning bike ride I took a few weeks ago.

We are excited about the summer season here and know we will find the energy to make it through the longer (and hotter) days and performance schedules.  We are loving the work, living in such an historic place and testifying of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Here are some other photos for the month.  The grounds are so beautiful!

Spring Has Arrived

It has been quite awhile since I, (Elder Rober), have lived in a location where there were so many trees without leaves in the winter.  It has been amazing to witness the coming forth of spring and the beauty associated with the change.  The grounds at the Temple and Visitors Center have been spectacular:

We are beginning to settle into our busy schedule.  The crowds picked up around Easter as many families came to visit on their spring breaks. We are in a slower mode now but that will change as many school tours will be coming through in the month of May.  We have received 50 new missionaries (counting us) since mid-March.  Another 25 will arrive in the next three weeks. Our mission will be close to 180 senior missionaries at that point.  Most all of the missionaries are on 18 month missions.  In September and October around 75 missionaries will go home to lower our numbers in the quiet winter until the next spring buildup.  We already hate the think of losing the good friends we are making who are experienced at all of the sites and shows and helping us learn.

Two weeks ago we received 30 sister missionaries who will be here through September.  At that time they are sent on "outbound" missions to other states.  About half of the ones we received were here last summer and will now complete their last six months in Nauvoo mainly working in the Visitor Center.  We had a fireside last Sunday and they all reported about their outbound experiences in Houston, Washington DC, Montana and Virginia.  On May 6th we will be receiving around 40 Young Performing Missionaries.  They are very talented in song, dance and instruments.  They are called as missionaries for four months each summer.  Half of these are in a brass band that plays at the Sunset on the Mississippi Show every night and during the day they play on a horse drawn wagon at many locations.  The other half are in day time shows and the nightly Sunset Show.  They are unbelievably talented and full of energy. The best time to visit Nauvoo is in June-August when they are here.  The busiest month here by far is July when the two Pageants run Monday-Saturday from July 5-30 this year.  

There are around 25 of our senior missionaries who are called as Teamsters to work with the horses and oxen involved in the wagon tours and carriage rides.  I am developing a love for these marvelous horses.  Every morning at 8 am they are called in from the pastures to the barn.  In the barn they each have a slot with their name above it where they have learned to go each day.  They have an order they understand on lining up to enter single file and never miss finding their slots.  We went for a carriage ride out through the country side last week that was very beautiful and spiritual as the Teamsters told us faith promoting stories about many of the Saints who were in Nauvoo.  The animals add a special spirit to the mission.

Several people have asked me what is my favorite part of the mission.  My answer is always the people we meet here.  The other senior missionaries are so fun and inspirational to be with at the sites, church and other meetings.  They bring many years of faithful service to the mission from all walks of life.  The other group of people are those who come to visit from all over the world.  It is wonderful to meet them and share the experiences of the sites and the examples of the faithful Saints who lived here from 1839 to 1846.  Here is an interesting fact I learned since arriving.  When the Saints fled Missouri under the extermination order put out on them, they crossed the Mississippi and were taken care of by the wonderful people of Quincy Illinois (60 miles South of Nauvoo).  What I didn't know was that 5500 Saints were taken in by the 1500 people who lived in Quincy at that time. What an act of love and compassion by the Quincy people.  One of my favorite conference talks this month was from Elder Kearon who talked about his European assignment and experiences meeting several of the refugees entering Europe from the mid-east turmoil.

I am so grateful to be here in Nauvoo.  We are looking forward to the excitement of the summer season and so glad we were able to arrive in the first group so we can get more confident in our tours and shows,  My testimony is growing for the people who lived here and of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, especially for Joseph and Hyrum Smith who sealed their testimony with their blood and to the many saints who died on the trail crossing the plains to the west.

Sister Rober:  Nauvoo is so beautiful here with Spring flowers in full bloom. Being here is truly a dream. We are very busy each day in the sites and in the evenings performing in "Rendezvous In Old Nauvoo"  and rehearsing for "Sunset On The Mississippi" which will be up on the stage the end of May. Elder Rober recently performed in the Mission Talent Show by playing his "Nauvoo Boogie" (or "In The Mood" ragtime.) He was a big hit and I was so proud of him. We are meeting amazing people each day who come to visit Nauvoo from all over even as far away as Australia recently. Non-members often comment on "the feeling" here. They feel something very special here, We served at Carthage this past week for a day and had a most remarkable opportunity to feel the spirit there especially in the martydom room. It was truly a gift to be there. We have ancestors who lived here and made the Exodus with the Saints. I am hoping to have more time to do more research here. We are busy all the time with our schedule and soon, the summer schedule will be even busier (and we love it!!) 

Arrival at Nauvoo

We arrived here on Thursday night March 17,  The following day we met with our Mission President, Garth Hall.  He is from Idaho and worked as a college football coach for Ricks, Oregon State and a few other teams.  He was previously a Mission President in Orlando.  He began his service in January and will serve for two years.  He will be our mission president for our entire mission.  We were assigned as site missionaries.  There are 25 sites and a visitor center here in Nauvoo that we staff every day during the week including Sundays from 1-5 pm. After just two weeks we have been assigned to the print shop, bakery, brickyard, blacksmith shop, visitor center, tin shop, seventies hall, Browning gun shop, cultural hall, Lyon Drug Store and Sarah Granger home.  We have a site book that has summaries of the history for each site and spiritual messages we can learn from that site. While serving in the sites we wear period clothing.  We wear church clothes when serving at the Visitor Center,

Normally we are assigned separate sites every day.  On Sundays we serve together.  Here we are at the Print Shop on our first Sunday.

Leah inside the Print Shop

Larry at the Blacksmith.  Using the forge, hammer and anvil we make a small horseshoe out of a small cylindrical rod.

Our schedule is very busy.  Here is an example of my very first week.  In the summer the sites start and end time extends one hour on each end and we do two Rendevous Shows each night.  You can see that Susan Easton Black is now in town and she is doing two lectures a week.  They begin at 8:30 PM We are so tired at night we are having a hard time staying awake in her awesome presentations.

The town population is 1100.  There is one gas station, one supermarket, one police car and one pharmacy.  The closest Walmart is in Keokuk, Iowa which is around 30 minutes away.  Nearest Sam's club - one hour in Quicny, Ill and nearest Costco - 1.5 hour in Iowa City.  We are totally enjoying the smallness.  It is 1 minute to get gasoline, 2 minutes to the temple, 3 minutes to church and 5 minutes down the hill to the sites.  Last week on our Preparation Day we visited Amish country in Iowa. Other day trips we can take are to Springfield to see the Lincoln Museum and Hanibal to see a Mark Twain exhibit.

We are living in our own house that the Church rents from someone.  We have a piano for Leah's music, two bedrooms, a dishwasher and a detached two car garage.  We are feeling quite at home. Harry and Nancy Schultz who served here and left late last year also lived in the same house. We agree with their assessment that it is like living in your Grandmothers house.

It is a real blessing to be serving in Nauvoo,  Each day we are learning more about the history and trials of the people who lived here between 1839 and 1846.  Their stories are so inspirational and as we learn about them it increases our testimony that the Lord's hand was involved in all of the events to advance the church through this time period.  We love the Lord, his Son Jesus Christ and being missionaries.

Love to all - Elder and Sister Rober

Travel and MTC

Dear Family and Friends,

We have set up this blog to share our mission experiences.  It has been a busy few months preparing the Shamrock house for our move and rental.  Everything went very well.  We were blessed to find a good couple to rent to.  They have no children and even agreed to babysit Leah's piano while we are gone.

We left for the Mission Training Center (MTC) in Provo on March 5.  There is no question in my mind that the MTC experience will be a key highlight of the mission experience.  Our first week of training was on the Preach My Gospel Manual.  It was very intensive but we definitely came away better prepared in the techniques and methods to be better missionaries. During our training we taught two lessons to "investigators".  They were church members living in the area who play the role of an investigator.  They gave our teachers feedback on how we did.  Our testimony of the Preach My Gospel Manual grew immensely during this week.  I would encourage all church members to utilize this manual more in their lives.  Not just for missionary work, but for the wonderful references to scriptures on every gospel topic that can help in lessons and personal study time.  In the second week, all senior missionaries receive training specific to their assignment. In our case for Nauvoo, we received Visitor Center training for two days.  We spent most of one day at Temple Square learning from the Sister Missionaries and their leaders who serve at that location. 

Here is our MTC map picture:

During our week there were 140 senior missionaries training.  It was the second largest group in history.  Of those, 28 were going to Nauvoo.  There were around 1500 young missionaries also in training.  The facilities were very nice and comfortable.  I can't imagine the responsibility of keeping track of everyone coming and going each week and planning all of the meals.

This is our Nauvoo group:

We are making new friends for life on our mission.  

During our MTC time we attended multiple devotionals and firesides.  They were all so spiritual and inspiring.  Every Tuesday a General Authority comes and talks to all the missionaries.  We had Elder Pino of the Seventy and Elder Allen who is the head of the entire missionary department.  Before every event one of the young missionaries presents a special music number.  The talent of these young people is incredible.  On Monday nights there are training videos shown in multiple rooms and languages.  They are presentations that Apostles and other leaders have given during their Tuesday visits.  They were one of the Spiritual highlights of the MTC and can only be viewed at the MTC.

We left the MTC on March 16 and arrived in Nauvoo on March 18.  We drove here on I 80 which almost parallels the path the Saints followed on their pioneer trek.  It was hard not to think of their tremendous sacrifice while we moved along at 70 mph in a heated car when it was in the 30-40 degree range outside.  We stopped at the new Winters Quarter visitor center and Temple in Omaha on our route.  It was good to get a feel for the history of that time period since our Nauvoo tours pretty much end at the crossing of the Mississippi beginning in February of 1846.

We miss everyone and hope you can feel the Spirit of our mission through this blog.

Love - Elder and Sister Rober