Exciting News!!!

Greetings to all.

We were just asked to extend our mission in Nauvoo from 6 months to 18 months. We have accepted the call.

We have been favored with visits from some of you and look forward to additional visits in the future. Although we can't spend a lot of time with you, the sites here in Nauvoo and neighboring Carthage are well worth the trip. Especially if you can come during the summer from about May 15th thru August 15th, but even more during July when the pageant in on.

We love and miss you.

Paul and Bonnie

Visiting Beautiful Nauvoo - Part 4

As we finished our week in Nauvoo, I had another opportunity to see "Sunset on the Mississippi," this time with Daryl, Eliah, and Natalie (dad and Bonnie too, of course). It was even more fun seeing it a second time, with a different cast of site missionaries and with all the enthusiastic EFY kids in attendance. The BYU International Folk Dancers also performed this same night. What a treat! Such great entertainment.

In the audience at the Outdoor Stage.

One thing I have to mention is the nightly chorus of cicadas that accompanies every outdoor activity during the summer. The sound is a little unsettling at first (think "Psycho" shower scene), but after a few nights you start to look forward to this insect symphony that begins around dusk.

Right down the highway from Nauvoo is a family fun center called Adventure Zone. We passed it every day as we went to and from our hotel. I was determined to get Eliah on their Go-Karts. One evening we grabbed Natalie and took off. We had fun in the arcade, where I creamed them both in air hockey, and on the Go-Kart track, where I left them in the dust. (Hey, that's how I choose to remember it.)

One thing dad and Bonnie do for visitors is to take them to the nicest place in town for dinner--The Hotel Nauvoo. They have a delicious buffet with short ribs (Daryl's favorite), wild rice stuffing, and butterscotch bread pudding (my favorite). We loved it so much we went back a couple nights later and paid for ourselves to experience it again.

Yummy buffet here, compliments of Paul & Bonnie (hee hee).

Dad introduced us early on to Annie's Frozen Custard, the best spot for a late-night treat. Pretty much we hit this place on a daily basis. My favorite flavor was definitely the salted caramel. Delish!

Dad's got the owner there wrapped around his finger. She started special-ordering marshmallow topping for him after he threatened to take his business to the Dairy Queen in the next town. She literally jumps up to check on her marshmallow when she sees him walk in the door. It's proven to be a popular topping for her. She was running low the last night we went in but had set some aside for him. He gets the royal treatment there, I assure you.

Dad must be inside already. This is the night we saw Abbie and Meili walking back to their hotel with their groups.

Well, we thoroughly enjoyed our Nauvoo trip and are so grateful we accepted dad's invitation to go out. What a spiritual and literal trek for us. The Church has beautifully restored all the sites, so you truly immerse yourself in the historical period of the early Latter-day Saints. President Hinckley encouraged every Church member to visit Nauvoo some time in their lifetime. I'm so grateful we took advantage of the wonderful opportunity to go while my dad was there, and I thank dad and Bonnie sincerely again for all they did to make our visit truly memorable, meaningful, relaxing, and enjoyable. I know we each brought home a bit of Nauvoo that will never leave us.

Visiting Beautiful Nauvoo - Part 3

Monday morning we checked the girls in to EFY, and dad and Bonnie led my family and Natalie on a tour to Carthage Jail. This was, of course, another highlight of the trip. I found again and again that it was quite surreal being at these actual sites that had become almost legend in my mind, having heard about them all my life. I'm grateful my family could experience Carthage and that my teens now personally know the place where the Prophet Joseph Smith spent his final days.

Bonnie, Dad, Natalie, Eliah, and Daryl at Carthage Jail Visitor's Center Theater.

The second-story window from which Joseph Smith fell to his death after being ambushed and shot by an angry mob.

Throughout the rest of the week, dad and Bonnie worked their temple shifts and met up with us when they could for more shows and tours. It was fun to run into Meili and Abbie's EFY groups almost on a daily basis. The general size of historic Nauvoo is small, so this was inevitable. A really special day was the one we spent in the Nauvoo Temple. Dad arranged for us to be there while he and Bonnie worked in the baptistry. Daryl was able to really help out, performing confirmations and baptisms, and Eliah and I both were able to be baptized for family members on my mom's side. Natalie had done an earlier endowment session but was there also to watch and support us. Afterward dad and Bonnie showed us some unique and beautiful features of this temple.

Another noteworthy excursion was on the afternoon we four (Nat, Daryl, Eliah, and I) decided to drive the surrounding areas outside historic Nauvoo. Without even a site map, we kind of stumbled upon the Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds. After a short hike up a wooded hill and through a cobweb-filled wooden pavilion, we found the most enchanted, sacred spot. All of Nauvoo feels apart from the world, but this peaceful sanctuary felt completely isolated and protected. We walked quietly among the weather-worn tombstones and statues. This was, without a doubt, my favorite site. I must have been so caught up that I forgot to take a single picture. Here's one I found online:

Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds

Visiting Beautiful Nauvoo - Part 2

Late Friday afternoon Meili and I arrived in Nauvoo. We met up with dad and Bonnie in their home on Parley Street. What a unique opportunity to live right in the center of such important, historic sites. I felt immediately at home, though back in time. Bonnie fed us a scrumptious meal right away. (We were starving, and it was so nice to not be in charge of the trip anymore.) After dinner, we went straight over to the pageant.

As expected, the pageant was a moving story of faith, tragedy, and hope, very well acted. It was so worth seeing, especially when they bathe the temple in light. The stage is perfectly positioned so that in that moment, in the darkness, you look up the hill and see the beautiful sight. Quite a spectacle. I wish I could go every year.

Dad got us up early the next morning for a special pageant event on the Trail of Hope. This section of Parley Street honors the memory of the exodus from Nauvoo with signs bearing quotes from those who left their beautiful city. At any time, you can walk down the street toward the river and read these signs. This particular morning, actors from the pageant lined the street and, in character, told experiences of real saints who left their homes, walked this trail, then crossed the cold river as they began their long journey west.

Dad and Bonnie had temple work to do at this point, so Meili and I spent the next few hours wandering around our temporary home, seeing the sites and taking advantage of the last day of special pageant events around Nauvoo.

A short program in the Seventies Hall. "Go Ye Out into the World."

Later, we met dad and Bonnie at the Nauvoo Visitor's Center for the show "High Hopes and Riverboats," which we all really enjoyed and which featured the amazing young performing missionaries. And that night we all gathered at the outdoor stage to watch "Sunset on the Mississippi," a nightly show put on by the site missionaries and young performing missionaries. We loved this!

Sunday morning we attended church with dad and Bonnie. The neat thing about this was observing all the missionaries, young and old, in a traditional Sacrament meeting, wearing modern clothes; whereas the night before everyone had been in period costumes. Seeing especially the young missionaries singing the hymns and preparing and passing the sacrament was heart-warming and faith-affirming.

Around noon we had another delicious meal (thanks, Bonnie!). Meili and I took a relaxing walk around the Smith family sites, which are literally just around the corner from dad's home.

Meili near the Smith family cemetery, where Joseph, Emma and Hyrum Smith are buried.

A little later, my dad and I left for St. Louis to fetch Natalie and Abbie from the airport. Once we got them, we all had a fun, lively drive back to Nauvoo. On the way, we planned our next trip to the Midwest. It'll be to Mansfield, Missouri, home of the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum. (Try finding that on a map!) After a late evening return to Parley Street, my husband Daryl and son Eliah surprised us by calling from our hotel. I hadn't expected them until the next night. A fun week for everyone was about to begin.

Visiting Beautiful Nauvoo - Part 1

Hi, everyone. This is Paul's daughter Tami. My family took a trip to Nauvoo earlier this month. I must say, visiting this special place when you have family right in the heart of it is an amazing experience. I can't say how much we relied on dad's and Bonnie's hospitality and guidance (not to mention their his-and-her recliners).

My daughter Meili and her cousin Abbie both registered to attend a special session of Especially For Youth in Nauvoo after we knew their grandpa would be there. All summer we planned our trip, making physical preparations as well as studying early Church history. Meili even had an opportunity to participate in our stake's youth pioneer trek. She was better prepared than any of us, actually, to appreciate the faith, rigors and sacrifices of the early Saints.

Following is a detailed description of our journey, told in four parts, in hopes that it might help inspire other family members and friends to make their own trek to Nauvoo.

Meili and I flew out ahead of my husband and son (who drove a couple days later) in order to get Meili to EFY on time and also to have a chance to see the Nauvoo pageant before it ended. On our way out of St. Louis, we stopped to tour the Gateway Arch, which, for your information, is the tallest national monument in the United States.

Against all bets to the contrary, I stepped into the pod and rode to the top of this 630-foot structure, peered out the teeny, tiny windows, then promptly took the next tram down. I actually loved it, but it was almost too amazing. You know? 

The drive from St. Louis to Nauvoo takes you right through the city of Hannibal, Missouri, boyhood home of Mark Twain. There we stopped to tour the home, museum, and other significant sites. We even got to paint Tom Sawyer's fence.

I can't say enough about the Mississippi River. It was a continual and steady presence our entire trip, from the Gateway Riverfront to the edge of Parley Street in Nauvoo and most destinations in between. It is so impressive at nearly a mile across. Crossing it is quite an adventure; it feels so unnaturally wide. As my sister Natalie said the following week, we in the West think our rivers are pretty cool, but really there is no comparison. The Mississippi is mighty indeed.

I had my mapquest directions, but dad told me to go a different way, and I was so glad I took his advice. The drive in on the Great River Road that late afternoon was breathtaking. As much as I came to love Nauvoo, I took advantage of any reason to leave the city that way in order to drive along the edge of the Mississippi.

View of the Mississippi from the Great River Road.

A Visit From Family

Dad, Bonnie & Meili at the pageant, Friday night, July 30

 pageant sign

 Dad, Meili & me standing in line to walk down the Trail of Hope. On this morning, some of the pageant performers stood along the way and told stories, in character, of real Nauvoo Saints who left their homes.

Meili and dad at the end of the Trail of Hope, on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Carthage Jail Visitor's Center.

Back in Nauvoo: Waiting in the audience for the show "Sunset on the Mississippi".

Annie's Frozen Custard--bet we went there 5 times. Delish! Dad must be inside the store for this picture. He's got the owner there wrapped around his finger. She special orders marshmallow topping for him after he threatened to take his business to the Dairy Queen in the next city.