Our little Sophie

Stefanie has posted these pictures on her blog but I thought I would add them to mine for those who might not follow the other blog.

Sophie was blessed on Sunday, Sept. 13 in Aurora, CO. Stefanie's mother and brother, Michael, were there for the blessing.

Our First Site Assignment

This past Sunday was the first time we have been assigned to serve in an historic site. Pres. Ludwig asked if we would like to serve every other Sunday. We are excited to have the experience. Sunday we served in the Stoddard home and Tinsmith Shop. We served from 12:30 - 5:00pm. We had seven groups of people come through the shop. Not real busy but not bad for this time of year. There is a dialog that we are to give and we are to take not more than 10 minutes to give the tour. That's not hard for me but a bit of a challenge for Glenn! We borrowed clothes from the sewing room. They have quite a few "loaners". I wanted to take a pioneer dress home with me so this was a good excuse to have one made. The ladies in the sewing room are more than happy to sew one for me as they are not very busy now.

We enjoyed our experience there and are looking forward to our next assigment. The assignments for the next week are posted online Fri evenings.

Beauties??? of Nauvoo ( spiritual and physical)

Sorry, this picture goes with the story at the end of my blog. Just can't seem to get things in the right order!!! I never get tired of pictures of the Nauvoo temple. I hope you are the same! I thought this one was awesome!

This picture isn't nearly as awesome as the temple picture! But, I thought you might get a kick out of seeing us in costume. One of the pageant staff members took pictures of all the families, plus many candid pictures during the pageant. He has made them available on line. It was a big job to take all the pictures and then to download them. A very nice thing he did!

We have a farewell breakfast once a month to honor the missionaries going home. This past Friday was had about 20 missionaries who were honored. President Ludgwig, our mission president, talked to Glenn and I after the breakfast and asked if we would be willing to teach the combined RS/Priesthood lesson once a month. Glenn cheered and I cried! I have already figured out that we will only have to teach 8 lessons! (Next May we will start meeting with the temple missionaries again!) I would much rather give a talk than teach a lesson to approx 75 missionary couples who are probably all seasoned teachers!

Three other couples have been called. They are E/S Bitner, who take care of the lawns, flowers, etc., E/S Hughes, who are the public affairs missionaries for the mission and E/S Carlson. Elder Carlson is the director of NRI (Nauvoo Restoration Incorp). Glenn and I call all of us the "misfits" because none of us really fit into any other group here in the mission.

I have been thinking a lot about some of the pageant participants who have been a real inspiration to me. I'll tell you about one of the families.

The Todd & Allison Mitton family are from Lindon, UT. They have three children who are triplets. The two boys, MacKay and Alex, have cystic fibrosis. The daughter, Abby, is a normal healthy 13 year old. The dad and sons helped with the preshow. The mother and daughter were in the pageant. It was so touching to watch the father getting the boys in and out of the car, into their wheel chairs and pushing them down to the preshow. Todd took care of his responsibilities with the boys there by him in their wheel chairs.

The family participated in the baptismal session for the pageant youth. I was told that the father stood in the font and held each son as he baptized them for the dead. He would then hand the boy to someone else who carried him to the dressing room and helped him get dried and dressed. The last night for their family cast to perform, the whole family was on the stage for the finale. What a touching scene to see those two boys there with their whole family surrounded by a whole lot of people that had come to love them very much. It was a very tender scene.

What a beautiful example of a family loving their special needs children and providing opportunities for them to associate with others and be spiritually uplifted along with everyone else.

The picture is of Bro & Sis. Mitton with the boys on the preshow dance floor. It looks like they are having a great time!

We had a terrific visit with Brian and Tiffany. It was so fun to have their unexpected trip to Nauvoo. Glenn was able to ordain Brian a High Priest which was the purpose for their trip. Two of our good friends, Elders Bitner and Carlsen stood in for the ordination.

We were able to attend a temple session with Brian & Tiffany. We are looking forward to their coming next summer with all of their family.

Thought the family would enjoy seeing this picture of our cousin Greg Green and his wife Diane.
They stopped in Nauvoo on their way to New York state to see his son. It was the first time I had met Greg's wife. She has a real fun personality. It was great to get to visit with them.

Glenn and I were asked to speak today in the Nauvoo 1st ward. Bishop Glen Anderson
asked us to talk about the pageant and to tell stories about how the pageant had changed lives. It was a fun talk to give because we have accumulated so many touching stories from people's experiences with the pageant. I thought you might enjoy reading one of the stories.

The West family came to Nauvoo and participated in the pageant. There were 7 children in their family. Their 17 yr old daughter, Raelyn, has had problems with lack of self confidence for years. She was being kind of rebellious and didn't want to participate in church activities. She didn't have very many friends and those she had were not members of the church. She was rude to her family and very disrespectful. She and her younger sister, Ashlyn, did not get along together at all. Raelyn didn't want to be in the pageant because she didn't want to be on the stage.
The family stayed with their grandparents who are serving a mission in Nauvoo. Each night after the pageant the family would gather and talk about their experiences that day. After being involved with the pageant rehearsals a few days, Raelyn was making some rather positive comments about her experience. Her grandmother said." Raelyn, I'll bet you would be enjoying this more if you didn't have to be on the stage." Raelyn answered, "Oh Grandma, I love being on stage!" During the 2nd week when the family was actually on the stage performing, the grandparents noticed that during a couple of the scenes when the families are on stage together, the two sisters had their arms around each other. Then they noticed that when the girls left the stage the sisters were hugging each other. The oldest son in the family said,"Grandma, I have never felt so much love in our family as I have during this week."
Sister Randall, the grandmother, visited with me and said she wondered how this change could take place so fast? Was it the directors or the people on the stage?
Peggy Ricks once said that this takes place because there is so much truth on the stage. Truth brings Christ like action. Love being the foremost of these actions. When you are surrounded by so much truth it makes you want to be Christ like.
A good lesson for all of us!

New Grandbaby!!

Kevin and Stefanie have given us a new little granddaughter, Sophie Marie McMinn. She was born early in the morning on Aug. 22 (almost on her grandpa's birthday, Aug 23rd!). Isn't she darling?! She weighs 8lbs 1oz and is 20". Thanks Kevin and Stefanie!!

Great visits with Family

Two emails in two days -- shocking!! Actually, I was part way posting a blog last Sunday when I had to leave for a few minutes. When I came back my internet had timed out and I lost what I had done. It made me mad so I went on strike! Therefore, no blog last week!! I have repented.

We have been so fortunate to have a lot of family visit us this summer. Here are some of the pictures from their visits.

Kristen and 3 of her friends were here for opening night of Pageant. The stayed four days. Kristen went sight seeing with her friends during the day and then came to the pageant every night. We got to sit together and then had fun visiting afterwards.

Karle, Dad, "Joseph Smith" and Julie. What a treat to have them here at the same time as Kristen. Our regret was that we didn't have more time to visit. We still managed to have some lunches together and then of course spent the evenings at the pageant together.

Jeff, Maja, Ryan, Kaylee and Taylor were here last week. It was so fun to have those big hugs from the grandkids!

We finished up our post pageant meetings with the Pageant presidency part way through their visit. It gave us a little more time to spend with them during the days.

Jeff, Maja and family were here on a Sunday so we were able to go to church together. Picture taking in front of the temple is a popular after church activity here in Nauvoo!

Rob, Janelle, Kali, Kyle, Taryn and Brooke just left Nauvoo yesterday. They were here for three days. We loved having them here in Nauvoo with us. Vocal Point, a BYU men's acappla group of 9, were here in Nauvoo performing for two weeks. We got to attend their programs with both Jeff and Rob's families. They were awesome!

Pioneer Pastimes was a favorite visit for the grandkids in both families. They have dress up clothes, two cabins to play in and several pioneer games and activities. Aren't these cute pioneer children??

Our friend here in Nauvoo, Randy Douglas, owns Adventure Zone. It is a family acitivity center. Even though it was closed for the season, he opened it up to us so Rob's family could drive the go-carts. Even Grandma had to give it a try. A little hard getting in and out with a skirt on!!!

This was great fun for everyone!

We loved every minute that we had with family this summer. We are so grateful that we were able to see so many of them.

Pageant Visitors

Matt & Cara Singer & 4 darling children spent a day in Nauvoo!

They were visiting with Cara's family in St. Louis. Matt & Cara live in Connecticut.
Matt, Mary and ?(sorry!) getting ready for a gunny sack race during the pageant country fair preshow.

What a surprise to run into Corinne & Annette Merzlock one evening at the pageant site! They were with a tour group on a church history tour.

Glenn's cousin, Beth, and her husband, Paul Chambers, spent two days in Nauvoo. We had a great visit and sure appreciated them stopping to see us. Chambers live in Blackfoot.

Ginny Bright spent many long hours in the sewing room! Mike spent much of his time building some very nice cabinets for computers used in our preshow.

Lois and Merlin Blad spent two weeks volunteering. Lois helped in the office (and what a help she was!). Merlin worked hard doing a variety of things during the day and then took several shifts during the night with security. I'm sure they needed several days to rest up after getting home!