The trees have been slowly changing. We aren't getting a great season of colors but on our last P-day we drove into Iowa to Bentonsport and Bonaparte and found some beautiful splashes of color.
This is Farmington, Iowa. It is the town where our car broke down last summer.
It is so fun how everywhere decorates for autumn around here.
When you come from the desert, this is really different.
But we are loving the seasons and the changes.
This is the front of the grocery store.
Cute little farm.
Gorgeous fall colors. Beautiful day.
We even saw some buggies out on the roads.
Stopped at the Dutchman store.
Check out the giant wind chime!
This store is run by Mennonites. It really is a fun stop.
Just had to document the fact that we have never seen so many spiders as we have here in Nauvoo. As you can see, they take up residence wherever they want.
The temple is getting some fresh paint around the windows. Looks good Brother Grow!
We are blessed to have George and Susan Easton Black Durrant back in town for a few weeks.
They are generous enough to provide us with lectures on the history of Nauvoo.
Sister Durrant has taught us so much about the history of Nauvoo and the Prophet Joseph Smith.
We love this painting that President Hinckley donated to the temple.
It was painted by Lane K Newberry and presented in 1939 to has father
Bryant S Hinckley as he presided over the Northern States Mission that included this area.
This painting hung in the Hinckley home,
until the dedication of the rebuilt Nauvoo Temple.
We learned that in the beginnings of Nauvoo people mostly build log homes.
It was after the death of Joseph Smith that Brigham Young told the Saints to
build their homes as a memorial to the Prophet Joseph Smith.
As you learn in most of the beautiful homes such as Wilford Woodruff's and Brigham Young's
the family lived in their finished homes for only a few weeks.
They were built with brick so they would last.
They finished their homes as a memorial,
they knew they would not live in them long as they were heading west soon.
Nauvoo is the largest memorial ever built.
View of the temple from Parley Street.
The Saints completed the original temple to receive the necessary ordinances,
but also as memorial to Joseph Smith.
Sister Durrant also taught us about the kidnapping of the Prophet.
We had never heard a detailed account of this. It was so interesting.
"Once he was kidnapped by two men who held cocked pistols to his head and repeatedly threatened to shoot him if he moved a muscle.
The Prophet endured these threats for a time and then snapped back,
'Shoot away; I have endured so much persecution and oppression
that I am sick of life; why then don't you shoot, and have done with it,
instead of talking so much about it?'"
--Dallin H Oaks April 1996
The more we learn about the Prophet Joseph Smith, the more we love him and love the opportunity to live for a time here in the City of Joseph.
We have had lots of tour buses come to town. It makes for some large sessions
which has been fun. The Japanese tour was here again.
Unfortunately,we were not working that evening.
We love to see people come into the temple and feel so overwhelmed by the spirit there.
We have had many people stop with tears in their eyes saying that visiting this
temple has been on their bucket list for years. It is a privilege for us to be here to help them.
"Let the work of my temple, and all the works which I have appointed unto you, be continued on and not cease; and let your diligence, and your perseverance, and patience, and your works be redoubled, and you shall in nowise lose your reward." Doctrine and Covenants 127:4
"Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy." Doctrine and Covenants 128:19
