Tulips Everywhere!

We took our Preparation Day this week on Friday. Another missionary couple, Elder and Sister Smith from Mesa, AZ invited us to go with them to Pella, Iowa to a Tulip Festival. Pella is about 2 hrs from Nauvoo. It is a town of 10,000 people. They say that approx. 150,000 people attend the festival. The Tulip Festival is an annual four day event that includes programs, several parades and lots of food boths.

Pella was originally a Dutch settlement. The town has carried on with many Dutch traditions. We watched a program and the parade from a grandstand. We also tried some of the Dutch pastries. Our favorite was called Dutch Letters. It is a pastry shaped in the letter S and filled with Almond Paste. Yummy good!

The tall pillars are on the stage where a program was held. This is all in a park in the center of town. There were numerous beds of tulips in many colors in the park. It was beautiful!

Pella's visitors center is in the windmill.

Both homes and businesses have tulips planted along the streets and in the yards.

One of several city parks.

I really didn't have to ride in the tractor!

The tour of the city was very interesting and we saw tulips everywhere!

We watched people in Dutch costumes dance in the streets as we walked around the city center. They were having a good time.

There was a parade in the afternoon. We sat in a grandstand to watch it. The parade lasted about an hour. There were lots of school bands from surrounding communities, quite a few floats but most of all groups of people in native costume. It was fun to watch!

The people of Holland pride themselves in having clean streets in their towns. Before the parade began they washed the street in front of the grandstand! Men with buckets of water hanging from wooden yokes dumped water on the streets. The women and children would follow with long handled brushes and scrubbed the streets. The streets looked nice and clean when they were finished!

How do you like this style of baby stroller? There were several old fashioned strollers in the parade.

This was one of the entries in the parade - wooden shoe carts!

This morning after our church meetings, we walked through the Women's Garden at the Nauvoo Visitors Center. It was a beautiful sight! For those who aren't familiar with the Women's Garden, it is an area with statues honoring women. The statues depict different stages of women's lives. There is almost a feeling of reverence in the garden. There are benches where you can sit and ponder and soak in the feeling that is there.

Our weekend was very much filled with tulips!

Life in Nauvoo

Last Sunday aftenoon we took a tour through the Lyons Drug and Variety store. We thought of Grandpa Hanks when we saw all the bottles of medicine. I'll bet he's glad he was a pharmacist in the 1900's and not the 1800's!!

We attended our first Zone Conference this evening. President and Sister Ludwig both gave remarks. Sis. Ludwig keeps a running count of how many grandchildren the missionaries couples have. Tonight the count was 2,314 and she reminds us that they are all praying for us! What a sweet thought!!!!

We did a variety of things this week from checking out a possible apartment to rent in Ft. Madison (11 mi.) for pageant staff to ordering supplies such as pamplets with Vignette schedules, soundtrack CD's of pageant, and creating a poster to include in advertising that will go to surrounding communities. Glenn struggled with setting up accounting sheets on the computer but I think he has that under control - somewhat! I spend a lot of time on the computer keeping track of forms and payments that are being sent in by family casts, volunteers and staff.

We have been stretched to our limits at times but are feeling the blessings of a loving Heavenly Father.

This is one of my favorite scenes in Nauvoo - the statue of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in front of the temple. Every time I see this statue I think about the strong bond between the brothers and how they both sacrificed so much. The big Mississippi River makes a beautiful backdrop.

In spite of all the rain we have had, the tulips have been in full bloom. The tulips around the temple are planted so close together that it is a solid bed of plants. So gorgeous!!

We're still happy!

We can hardly believe that we are finishing our second week here in Nauvoo. We thought we were coming to a less windy country but wrong!!! They tell us there is a lot of wind here that comes off of the Mississippi River. The farmers in the area are concerned because it has been too wet to plant their corn. We have had a lot of rain storms. They put down a lot of rain in a short amount of time!

In one of our orientation meetings we were told what to do if there was a tornado. We are supposed to get into a basement. We have a little area under the house which we access from outside. The ceiling is low, the floor very, very damp and I am sure there must be lots and lots of spiders. Oh I hope we don't have to go down there and stay for any amount of time!!!!

The Pageant work is coming along good. When I find myself feeling nervous about what I am doing I have to remind myself that faith and fear cannot exist together. I must increase my faith that the Lord will give us the abilities we need to accomplish our task. We are becoming more acquainted with what's in the files and on the computer and how to run the equipment in the office. So many times it takes so long to complete a project because we are having to "figure out" where to find or how to use something!

There is a lot of US history that has taken place in this area. We were in Quincy, IL this week for a Pageant meeting. They have a park in the center of town which was the location of the famous Abe Lincoln-Steven A. Douglas debate. The building where Douglas had his law office is across the street from the park. Quincy also has a street with beautiful large historic homes. We want to return on a Preparation Day to spend more time looking around.

This weekend in Keokuk there were two reinactments of Civil War battles that took place in the area. I need to "bone up" on my US history so I am more familiar with what took place in this region.

Glenn and I are still happy as companions! We heard about a couple who married (both had lost their spouse) and immediately went on a mission together. When they arrived home a year later they got a divorce as soon as they got home. Funny - but also sad story!! It is nice to be able to work together here. At home it seems like we were always busy with our own projects,etc. We feel very blessed to be in such a lovely place and to be surrounded by such nice people.

First Week in Nauvoo

We arrived in Nauvoo Tues afternoon. We took two cars, Glenn drove the pickup and I drove the Honda. We drove to Denver the first day and were able to spend Easter Sunday with Kevin, Stefanie and Rylee. We got to watch Rylee try to figure out what an Easter egg hunt is on Easter morning! Pretty fun! Monday we drove to Omaha and then Tues on to Nauvoo. I was pleasantly surprised at how well I got along driving for such long hours! I think I was blessed to be able to stay awake and alert. The longest I have ever driven was to Boise!

We are living in the Orson Hyde home which also serves as the Pageant office. It is a comfortable home. The living room and main floor bedroom are used for the office. Our bedroom is upstairs and quite large with a king size bed. That's an upgrade from home!! There is no dishwasher or garbage disposal in the kitchen so I guess that is my big adjustment.

We have been very busy this week. There is so much to do and learn. Thank goodness John and Peggy Ricks have been just a phone call away because we have been on the phone with them every day asking lots of questions. There was a lot of mail to open and responses to make. There is a lot of filing of applications and entries to make on the computer. We spent an hour with the Pageant treasurer teaching us how to make the deposits locally and electronically to the church.

We are trying to get acquainted with local people who will be involved with the Pageant.

Glenn went to the Mayor's office and had a nice visit with him. Kathy (former counselor in the Gen. RS Presidency) and Dean Hughes (well known LDS author) are Public Affairs missionaries here in Nauvoo and we are planning to meet with them next week. They have been laying some good ground work for the Pageant. Next Wed we will go with the Hughes and another local church member who is involved with the church's PR to meet with the mayor of Quincy to see if we can finalize plans for the Pageant's outreach program to take place there. The outreach program is a musical program that the Pageant core cast presents, about an hour long. The music is Broadway songs that are used to tell a story about families. A very impressive program and not religous oriented.

We were invited to attend a temple session Thurs. afternoon with the mission president and other new missionary couples. The Nauvoo temple is such a beautiful structure as well as having

a beautiful spirit inside. Later that evening we were invited to the Mission President's home for dessert and visiting. There were about 8 new missionary couples as well as the Hughes and the mission presidency and wives. It is nice to have an opportunity to visit casually with the leadership of the mission and other missionary couples.

Spring time is beautiful in Nauvoo. There are quite a few blooming trees. We have a beautiful Magnolia tree in our front yard that is covered with pink blossoms. There are daffodils, and other spring flowers in bloom. We have had beautiful weather since arriving until today. It rained but it is still in the 60's.

I will post a picture of our home. When we look out from the front of our house we can see the temple up on the hill. What a wonderful thing to see everytime we go outside! The picture of the temple is from our home.

Sorry to be so long but we want to acquaint you with what we are experiencing.

Our big day finally arrived! We entered the MTC on Monday, April 6th. We spent Sunday evening with Brian and Kristen's families. Kristen and Tiffany prepared a nice dinner for us after the last conference session. It was hard saying good-bye to Kristen and Craig's family when the evening was over. There was another tearful good-bye Monday morning when we left Brian and Tiffany's family. Sure glad we can make phone calls and send e-mails!

It seemed so unreal when we got to the MTC and found ourselves actually beginning our mission. We were there Monday through Friday. It was a wonderful experience. We learned so much about being good missionaries. They bring in volunteers from the community to role play with us. During the week we taught the first three discussions. The first one was pretty scary for me but after that I started relaxing and by the third one I was really having fun with it. Of course it didn't take Glenn long to get the "hang" of it! It kind of made us wish we were going to have more opportunity to proselyte. We were kept very busy each day. We were in class all morning. Then had a 1 1/2 hr. lunch break. Back to class for the afternoon. We were through for the day at 5:00. We had reading assignments each evening to prepare for the next day. They were pretty lengthy so much of our evenings were spent reading. Tuesday evening we had a devotional with Elder Vaughn Featherstone speaking.

There were about 50 people in our group. Pam and Kim Johnson and Elder and Sis. Tower, both from Poc., were in our big group. Johnson's are going to serve in the temple in Finland. Towers are going to proselyte in Mexico. There were 4 other couples going to Nauvoo. All of the Nauvoo couples were put in a group for our small classes. Our instructor was a young sister missionary who had been serving in Nauvoo last summer while we were there. We really enjoyed getting acquainted with these couples. Two will be serving for 6 months; the other two for 18 mos.

I just have to post a picture of us in front of "the map". I remember pictures of our sons in front it!
The other picture is of the couples going to Nauvoo.