We wanted to return to Kalona to look for an Amish quilt. We had a really fun day. It started with a very long train filled with coal. There is not a threat of being barged at the river because of the ice on the river, but trains are still delivering coal to the off-loading site north of Montrose, Iowa.
We took a new route north to the Iowa City area; 330th in Ft Madison to Highway 16.
It goes through Denmark.
After you leave Highway 218 to head to Kalona on Highway 22 you pass through Riverside, Iowa.
It is the future birthplace of Captain James T Kirk on March 22, 2228.
There is a big difference between the year 2228 and the Amish way of life
which began here in the 1849. Today Kalona is home to one of the largest
Amish--Mennonite settlements west of the Mississippi River.
Elder Thompson has German ancestors who were Mennonite ministers persecuted
out of Germany into Switzerland in the 1500's.
Faith underlies everything the Amish do. They refuse any form of government aid or benefits
and never buy life, health or property insurance; to do so would show a lack of faith in God.
Instead, the community of all Amish is their security, their insurance. Believers in a literal interpretation of the Bible, the Amish oppose anything worldly, living without electricity,
telephones, automobiles and the hundreds of other conveniences of the modern world.
They are not an isolated, forbidding group, but rather prove repeatedly to be a friendly people
who offer aid and service to non-Amish in times of trouble. (The Kalona News p.11-12)
The horses used in Old Nauvoo for the carriage and wagon rides are purchased from the Amish
and after the horses are of no service here, the Amish buy them back.
Kalona is a beautiful town in rural Iowa where you see many Amish people, farms and buggies.
The children were at recess playing kickball.
J K Creative Wood & Gifts was our main priority on this trip.
It has a wood shop in the back and they make the most beautiful wooden gifts and sell Amish quilts.
We picked out a beautiful handmade quilt and wooden kaleidoscope.
Thank you Laura, we love it!
We were greeted when we returned home with another beautiful sunset.
We recently had Bishop Cluff (he has been called as a mission president and will be serving in Guatemala City with his family starting in June) from the Nauvoo Restoration, Inc. come
and tell us about the beginnings of the NRI (if you click the link there is a great article
about NRI written by Sister Palmer who we work with in the temple).
The history of the restoration is so interesting and was so inspired.
It is no secret President Hinckley had a special love for Nauvoo.
He shared with us this quote from him.
On a chilly morning on the 7th of October 1989, President Gordon B Hinckley dedicated the Old Pioneer Cemetery site. Included in his remarks were the following...
This is
sacred, hallowed ground.
This is ground
that will become increasingly dear to an ever-growing number
of people who,
through the years, will come back to visit.
I feel the spirit of Nauvoo here,
I feel the spirit of the great people
who lived here,
who left their homes for a cause greater than any of them.
Sunrise, sunset is the story of Nauvoo, a
little more as it were,
than a day from 1839 – 1946.
As I rode to the cemetery this morning over
the hills through ravines,
I mentally pictured a funeral cortege with buggies,
wagons and carriages carrying the dead and the mourning,
and imagined how they
looked as they buried their loved ones.
I think of the love and pathos of a family in the city on the river,
closing
the door of a well-built home for the last time,
with the realization that here
in this city were the graves of loved ones
they would never again visit.
Thank the Lord for the faith of those whom
came before us.
May the Lord ever hold
great in our memories the significant things of Nauvoo,
the life and death
during the day between sunrise and sunset.
We began the celebration week of the Pioneer Exodus which began February 4, 1844
Sunday evening with a sociable in the visitors' center.
Missionaries read stories about their pioneer ancestors who lived here in Nauvoo during the exodus.
We can feel of their faith as we learn of their experiences and challenges in doing very hard things.
The weather this winter has been very erratic. The river has mostly melted again,
but as it begins to flow and the wind blow, the ice chunks are pushed up against the river bank.
We see eagles all along the river sitting in the trees and on the piles of ice.
There is so much wildlife. So many different birds; lots of geese, ducks, and beautiful hawks.
One day there was a whole herd of deer next to the Stake Park.
This picture only shows 4, but there were about 15 deer in the fields.
We had a fun dinner with the Friday AM shift missionaries.
Here is Elder's Mabey, Peterson, Borrowman, Cordova, and Thompson.