Monday, June 23, 2008

Chapter 5 We are not as green anymore!

We'll start this long blog with a beautiful shot of the Temple and the full moon. I love capturing beautiful memories of our mission.


Remember I said I would be showing a little house again. Well, summer has arrived to our cute little abode.


This is the commemoration of the martyrdom on June 27th. All the sites were closed for an hour while we supported the Community of Christ with their remembrance and then that evening we went to Carthage, which is what you see.

The 3 roses were part of the Community of Christ commemoration. They did a nice job.

This is a picture of a young woman and her son and a friend we met in a park while taking some pictures of Quincy. We were surprised to find them here sand bagging just a few minutes later and 2 miles down the road. They had changed clothes and everything.
There were several hundred people sand bagging here. Their situation with their water treatment plant was serious.

Another view of the sand baggers. The next day the church sent our Young single sister missionaries from Nauvoo (21 of them) and the Illinois Peoria mission sent 130 Elders to sand bag. They worked hard and Quincy greatly appreciated the help. For 3 days Quincy volunteers made over 1,000,000 sand bags A DAY!

I wish we could have captured the racing feeling we got as trucks sped away with bags deperately needed.


This the "The Pier" restaurant. It is a favorite of some missionaries. We wonderhow long it will take to be up and running again.

You see Joseph and Brigham discussing the trek west at the end of Parley Street. In the back ground you can see the reader board that usually stands 3.5 to 4 feet high. We can usually go on around to Water Street from here but with the flooding the street was closed.

The Nauvoo House was the only structure that was threatened in Nauvoo. The BYU Folk dancers made sand bags for the Community of Christ church, who owns the Nauvoo house. They attribute the success of keeping it from flooding and damage to the folk dancers.

A little snail taking refuge from the flooding by the Nauvoo House.

The next few pics are taken in Quincy on our P-Day. Looks pretty scary see all those electrical wires in the water!
You can get the vision of just how much the Mississippi has risen.

This picture is on the Hamilton side (east) of the bridge crossing over to Keokuk. They dumped 30,000 tons of gravel on this little section to keep the bridge open. Then as the river subsided they had to go back and clean it all off the road. The ripple effect is tremendous!!!

One day Steve McCain, Coach McCain's son, brought his little boys to Nauvoo. His wife has just had their 3rd baby and he was on an outing with his cute little boys. He lives not far from here in Macomb, Ill. It is so fun helping everyone get dressed up.
One evening after Rendezvous as we lined outside the Cultural Hall to greet the visitors out comes a cousin Sterling Tanner and his family. His wife is Eva's cousin. He took me on my first plane ride when I was a junior in high school. He has diabetes and is a doctor who specializes in children's diabetes. He had alot of advice for Kyle.


Elder Flake racing Pres. Johnson the first councilor in the mission presidency.

Here they are going at it with the hoops. You can tell whose winning. Can't wait to race all of you!!!

We walk past the Brigham Young home every day after preparation meeting. The door is always hard to open, so Elder Flake gets one more chance to be of service often!

Young Performing missionaries taking a little break from their rigorous schedule!
The Nauvoo Brass Band The drummer and the tuba player are the only male in the brass band. They both received their mission calls while here and opened them in the Seventies Hall. What a privilege!!!
Each day a 11:00 there is a puppet show and then a cute little play called Just Plain Anna Amanda These performing missionaries are just taking a quick break between performances.

This young man did excellent even though he did not have his full arm. He had been adopted by some very caring people.
This is the Halbert family who lived in Pueblo Stake and then moved to Mesa South Stake not long after we did. It was fun to see them!!!
We discovered these cute young people are relatives. They are the grandchildren of Doug and Dixie Jarvis Shumway. Dixie is Grandma Melba Flake's sister's daughter. It was fun to figure it out! They were on a church history youth tour.




We find the trash strewn all over by this guy if we don't take proper care of the garbage each day!


Mr. Blue Oriole comes often. We love seeing him. We also see a yellow oriole sometimes.
We found a snapping turtle one evening. A brave man whose occuptaion is to do with animals picked him up by the tail.


He wanted to snap onto anything that came his way. Someone gave him a stick, it was about the size of your ring finger, and the turtle just snapped it right in to like nothing was in his way.




Dad (Elder Flake) on a P-Day outing trying to figure out the old windmill pump. You'll note the beautiful lush green around him.
Dad performing "Have I told you lately that I love you". This was the last practice before we started our actual performances. This number is performed during "Sunset by the Mississippi". It is a fun entertaining show, no history of Nauvoo.

Here we both are practicing our medley, the number is called "Strings and Things".


In this number we are doing our 1 minute square dance. Dad can still move on his feet pretty good!
This is the famous Jug and Bottle Band. It is a fun number! !!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

The more things change the more they stay the same. Grandpa still likes his Chili.
Oh and his cheese crisps. Sundays are still the same.













Grandma still likes cheese crisps on Sunday and her Mr. Goodbars. Of course she likes Mr. Goodbars any time Sunday or not.











Grandma on stage playing the spoons she is the leader of the Strings and Things. Well she starts the song anyway. This is in Sunset by the Mississippi and we are on stage.






This is one of our friends at Pioneer Pasttimes. We found her in the dunpster one morning.
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Grandma & Grandkids

Grandma loves to take her nap with her grandkids.
She missses them so much.
She wants you all to come and visit her here in Nauvoo.
So she doesn't have to look at a piacture all the time.
She allso has your voice messages save on her Phone so she can
hear you from time to time when she wants too.
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Sunday, June 1, 2008

Date is 6-1-08


This is Graces, a game we play at Pioneer Past Times. Mom and I are 3 days a week, we love it. Except when the wind blows and it rains.

The wagon comes by Pioneer Past Times and we have to wave at it. Along with all the kids.










Here is Elder playing games with the kids. Who will win this one?
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Sunday, May 11, 2008

Special Addition - Nauvoo through the lens of my new camera, I love it!!!!


This is just across the street to the east of us. Beautiful spring flowers!
I love red! These red flowers in front of the statues of Joseph and Hyrum are gorgeous!

Meet Mr. Robin Red-breast, he comes to visit us often!!

I love berry flowers!!!!!!!

We are standing across the river in Montrose. Mr. Heron was flying by stilled by the beauty of Father in Heaven's house!!!
Another view of the beautiful Nauvoo Temple from the Montrose side with evidence that there is a kind and loving Father in Heaven who gives us so much beauty in this world!

Breathtakingly divine red tulips!!!!

Another wonderful thing happens in spring that we in the city do not get to enjoy often, the beauty of new life. We saw mama geese sitting in their nests with daddy standing guard near by. Then suddenly new little goslings are waddling around. Delightful to watch!!!

I'm sure this is a family field trip. Mama and daddy explaining where to go and not go. I'm sure there is some time in there to teach geese prayers and read scriptures!!

At the end of Parley street is a replica of a ferry used to take many of the Saints across the Mighty Mississippi. It normally is about 50 yards or more from the river, however with all the rain lately, the river rose to it. The people around here said there has not been so much water since the floods of 1993.

In fact one gentleman who lives in Carthage told us the night of the tornado, he wished the "mormans" would build another Temple because the 2 years the temple was being built the farmers around here enjoyed perfect weather to plant and harvest their crops. This year they are not sure they will be able to get them in the ground so they can mature in time to harvest. They are worried! Interesting observation!!!


I love the 12 mile drive from Nauvoo to the fork in the road to Hamilton and Keokuk. This water fall is along that drive. We stopped for a quiet moment and were mesmerized by the beauty of water, rock, and plants. Heavenly Father really loves us to give us so much beauty!!!


Here I am playing with my new camera. I am inside the Brigham Young home and my companion for the day is giving the outside part of the tour.

I love my new camera!!!!!

Chapter 4 Our first weeks in Nauvoo


Here we are ready for the day as Nauvoo Missionaries


And immediately they have us PARTICIPATING, we did not know what we were doing but we were doing!!!! Here is Elder Flake strummin' "Have I told you lately that I love you" which will be a special number during "Sunset by the Mississippi" starting next week.


There are some horses on our way to preparation meeting each morning. I love to feed them. I have learned they do not like grapefruit, asparagus or oranges. Picky Picky!! They love apples and carrots!



In the Family Living Center we teach about making cloth, candles, bread, rope, barrels and rugs. Elder Flake is now an "expert" at rug weaving on the loom.


I am at the outside back of the Family Living by the "bustle over" where I made bread. It was great fun. Although to make bread daily, it is much easier in the bread machine. If you look close you can see the "bustle" shape, the oven opening is inside.
Elder Flake is working in the Riser Boot Shop. The Riser story is one of faith and enduring. He traveled 600 miles to investigate the church. They had 1 son at the time and through the power of the priesthood was healed when near death. Parents were baptized in the frozen Mississippi.

Come to Nauvoo to hear the rest of the story...!
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As you can see I am in the Brigham Young home. He is a great leader. 70,000 people crossed the plains to settle 350 communities in the west. He truly is the American Moses. His life size statue stands in the rotunda in Washington DC since 1950.

This settee was designed by Brigham Young, his wife could sit rock the baby and mend or hold another child. I would have loved one!

Mary Ann Young, Brigham's wife, was an equally great woman and was a worthy companion to this great man. I learned from reading a letter she wrote to Brigham at the time the Prophet Joseph Smith was martyred, the power of the Holy Ghost was her constant companion in helping them ENDURE!!

As it can with us!!!!!




Elder Flake preaching in the Seventies Hall. The same hall his great great great great grandfather James M. Flake sat in and probably had a chance to preach in also.

I am attempting to weave a wagon wheel rug in the Family Living Center. It is not getting done very fast because we are too busy to work on personal projects.


Elder Flake during the Rendezvous show. The men sing a song "willingly because we have to". then it changes to "willingly because we want to". This depicts most of the Saints attitude..."we will suffer wrong rather than do wrong". Great message for us today!

This is where we will be spending most of our time this summer. It is called Pioneer Pasttimes. We supervise and teach parents and children the games pioneers played. On Thursday we taught 250 school children. We both commented this is a great field trip for schools, plus its all free, except for gas :(

Meet Gabe and Gary. Here come the oxen, oh how slow, but they were steady, and not picky eaters like the horses!!! They ate anything and everything the prairie and mountains had to offer. Come on over for a ride!!!

Yes, I'm behind bars, but for our safety not yours!!!! We were attending a fireside in Carthage and the tornado warning started blaring. We ran for the debtors jail for cover and safety with our friends, Sis. Chumley on left and Sis. Land. The elders wanted to go outside and see the tornado. Sounds familiar, huh!

The grounds here have started to come alive with new life. I have had so much fun taking pictures of some of Heavenly Father's beautiful creations. These lovely daffodils are the first of many just to the side of where we live.