LESSON FROM THE PLASTIC

Where has all the time gone????  Last week we made a “bucket list” of all things we wanted/needed to do or to complete before we sadly leave Nauvoo on September 17^th.  We have a few more sites on the flats to visit, pictures to take, service project to finish, and nearby places to visit which resulted in the blog post being so slow.

The Sarah Granger Kimball home was a pleasant surprise.  This home is not close to the other homes in the flats.  Sarah was instrumental in funding the shirt project for the men working on the Temple.  This project was a factor in Eliza Snow writing the bylaws for the women’s organization which led to the Relief Society.  One of the young site missionaries portrayed Sarah and told us her story in first person.  It was awesome.  If you search Sarah on LDS,org, there is an interesting story about how some Young Women researched and honored her.  Elder Talbot was fascinated with the four fireplaces in the home and how they were connected, and I was fascinated with all the “short” chairs in the home (which is indicative of the time period). I’m not quite sure whether all the people were shorter during this time frame or that there was a shortage of wood! 

Sarah Granger Kimball home with one chimney and 4 fireplaces

Small chair (just right for Sister Talbot)

Sarah Granger Kimball

From there we visited the Red Brick Store (which the Community of Christ owns).  The lady was very friendly and helpful.  The main floor still serves as an active store with all kinds of pioneer “stuff”.  Elder Talbot found a hat like the ones worn by the YPMs.  But, the upstairs was quite breath taking and spine tinkling.  Several events happened in the Assembly Room including the organization of the Relief Society.  I had some mixed emotions as the Community of Christ had a PowerPoint presentation going listing all the events that had happened including those after Joseph and Hyrum had been killed.  But, as I stood in the doorway of the room Joseph Smith had received many of the revelations I had been reading in the Doctrine Covenants, a special feeling came over me and I knew without a doubt that he was a Prophet.  I then wondered about all other times we had walked on the same ground as Joseph.  It gives one a lot to ponder.

Joseph Smith's room where he received several revelations.

Assembly Room at the top of the Red Brick store.

Pioneer hat for Elder Talbot.

Another item on our bucket list was a trip to Amish country.  On Monday we went with 48 other temple missionaries to Kalona, Iowa about two hours from Nauvoo to visit the farm of Ila and Dean Miller.  Elder Talbot thoroughly enjoyed walking around the farm and looking at the farm equipment. The true Amish do not use electricity or cars – only generators and horse and buggies.  The Miller’s have eight children.  One daughter drove the buggy and the other three helped their mom feed us.  And boy they did.  The food was out of this world!  The family was very friendly, and we enjoyed the day getting to know and understand a different religion and culture.

Corn crib at the Amish farm

Our buggy ride.

Some of the food served - delicious!

Not far from our apartment is the Nauvoo State Park which includes a grape patch.  We discovered that anyone could go pick the grapes, so we did.  They were very flavorful concord grapes which would have made awesome jelly but I don’t have my “Tutti Fruitti” with me so we just picked a small bag.

Yesterday, we drove to Bentonsport and Cantril Iowa to visit the Iron & Lace shop and the Dutchman store.  The Iron & Lace shop is a small store where Betty Printy created and copyrighted a style of pottery using the Queen Anne’s Lace wild flower (which the Iowans claim is just a weed).  Betty takes a flower and presses it into the clay, which burns away, leaving the unique impression of that blossom.  Her stone ware is amazing, and yes, I had to buy a couple of pieces for our antique bedroom.

Queen Anne's Lace pottery.

Just a white flowered weed - Queen Anne's lace????

Bridge over the Des Moines River at Bentonsport.

Our next stop we in Cantril where we shopped at the Dutchman store which is a grocery store run by the Amish.  Prices were amazing.  Homemade bread was delicious.  The jam was interesting. I had to buy some “Traffic Jam”!!!!    Also, I bought some pearl tapioca to try and make a fruit salad that Ila made for us in Kalona.

Lego display at the Dutchman Store.

Most of the time at home has been spent trying to finish the plastic bag mat for the homeless.  Making the mat 36” x 60” has taken me quite a bit longer than I first anticipated but I have enjoyed crocheting it.  All my FHE group and a couple of other friends have been saving the bags.  I just have the edge and the handles to finish it but I have also learned some valuable lessons from this project.  As the mat started to get longer I focused more just on one row at a time and didn’t bother to look at the overall mat.  Pretty soon I realized that I had been making the mat smaller with each row completed.  Now came the dilemma as how I was going to fix it or was I just going to leave it as it was.  As the 60 inch length was getting closer, I decided that I could maybe fix the uneven edges when I completed the final edging row.  Excited, I started on one of the edges last night and thought I was making the mat even again.  Which it did – except for a few inches.  Then I had my ah ha moment.  The mat is just like our life.  Sometimes we focus so much on the day to day events that we forget to look at the eternal perspective of our actions.  When we focus on eternity and our Savior, we are striving more to be like him – and we don’t have to be perfect!  We just have to be trying our best.  Through the atonement we are able to “fix” all that we can, and then our Savior will cover the rest for us. We know that he loves each and every one of us.

Focusing just on one row at a time led to a uneven mat. (Earthly events)

Fixing the mat to make it even!  (Atonement)

We love and miss you all,

Elder and Sister Talbot

PS by Elder Talbot:  Now you can see why I fell in love with Sister Talbot.  She is still working on smoothing out my rough edges.  I'm not sure that is an ah ha moment but an eternity moment.

                    Sister Talbot is use to brown dirt - then when married, the red dirt from Paragonah, Utah - now the                gray dirt in Nauvoo and Iowa!

Another beautiful sunset across from the Temple

Corn keeps growing!!!

Cloud formations are awesome in Nauvoo!

53 YEARS (and still counting)!

Weather, weather, weather.  Where has it gone?  The last two weeks we have not had anything unusual.  Now the locals are saying we are in a drought.  Some of the green is turning slightly brown.  With all the corn and soybean fields, this area gets enough rain that irrigation is not needed.  Mother nature provides the needed moisture.

Maybe, the slightly brown lawns depict that sadness as the YPMs finished their last show on Sunday and are heading home Wednesday morning.  It has been so quiet the last few days.  After the pageants were finished, the crowds also disappeared.  Now with the YPMs leaving it will be a different experience.  Several times during the day we could hear from our apartment the Nauvoo Band playing or the YPMs singing on the corner across from the print shop.  On Saturday morning after we had visited the Pendleton school house where we learned that the class age was from 6-20, we watched the Youth in Zion and then listened to the band as they were playing in the horse-drawn wagon on Main Street.  

Pendleton Home and Long School

Singing on the corner

Elder Needham (goes to Utah State)

Elder Petersen right after playing the Dulcimer to accompany one of the songs

Another treat is that we finally got to meet the Spencers.  They are a couple serving as site missionaries from Utah who Lori, Camille, and Randy Isaccson had volunteered with the Freedom Riders.  It is a group who take their horses and work with handicap children.  Again, it is a small world in Nauvoo.

Sister Spencer and Sister Talbot.  Elder Spencer was busy playing the trombone on the Nauvoo Band Wagon with the YPMs.

Last week we went to Sunset By the Mississippi twice (I lost count of how many times we had watched the show) and the Sunday Concert.  Elder Talbot says I couldn’t get enough of their music.  I can’t!  Of course, with the YPMs leaving that means our time is also coming to the end but I don’t even want to talk about that now.

One of my band favorites - the trumpet special with them playing the others' horns.

One of my favorite songs - Spray with Me!

Sunday was another long drive to and from Canton Branch to church.  We are really going to miss the branch.  All the members are so humble and really care about each other.  Their branch is a great example of the new ministering program.

The Canton Branch President, Patrick Melton, with the missionary couples who attend with us.  Elder and Sister Welchv(Arizona) , Elder and Sister Hales (California) , President Melton, Elder and Sister DeSimon (Utah), and Elder and Sister Talbot.

Monday’s p-day meant another adventure for us.  We decided to do a session at the temple then head to Burlington, Iowa for the day.  I love the bridges throughout the area that connect Illinois and Iowa.  We had seen it earlier but didn’t get pictures and  I had to go again.  

One of the most unusual sites we found was the Snake Alley.  The Burlington business district was built in a natural amphitheater surrounded by hills. With all the stores in this valley, it was hard for the people living on the steep hills surrounding the downtown. Something different was needed for travel to and from these two areas.

In 1894, Snake Alley was constructed with an experimental street design. It was devised by three Germans (Charles Starker, William Steyh, and George Kriechbaum) who replicated the vineyard paths in France and Germany.  Snake Alley is composed of tooled, curved limestone curbing and locally-fired blueclay bricks. “The constantly changing slant from one curve to the next required a complicated construction technique to keep the high grade to the outside. Snake Alley consists of five half-curves and two quarter-curves over a distance of 275 feet, rising 58.3 feet from Washington Street to Columbia Street.”

There is a legend that the fire department used this alley to test horses. If a horse could take the curves at a gallop and still be breathing when it reached the top, it was deemed fit to haul the city's fire wagons. Unfortunately, many teams would run out of control or stumble over the limestone curbing, sometimes resulting in a broken leg.

When we first saw the alley, we were not sure we could drive down but after taking a few pictures, a van passed us and drove down so of course, we followed.  It was quite the drive.  One article I read said that the fastest you could drive was 3mph and we believe it!!!  This is the once and only time I can saw that I “liked snakes”!!!

Yes, I don't like snakes!

View from the top of Snake Alley

View from the bottom of Snake Alley.

However, the highlight of last week was on Thursday, August 9^th.  It was our 53^rd wedding anniversary.  We started the day serving in the Temple, where we were proxy for the sealing of my 11^th cousin 3^rd removed, John Penman, to his bride Christain Brown.  They were married 28 Octobert 1756 in Newbattle, Midlothian, Scotland.  As we listened to the sealing ordinance, we both reflected on the covenants we had made in the Logan Temple in 1965 as we were sealed for time and for all eternity.  There is peace in knowing that we will not only be together in this life but also after we leave this world - if we are faithful to the covenants we made 53 years ago.  There is peace knowing that both our parents are still together and their parents and their parents…..

Celebrating 53 years with Annie's famous bread pudding and vanilla custard!

FRIENDSHIPS

This past week has been filled with more pageant participation and watching which has brought to mind how the Lord really does care about us and how he puts into place the events that will shape our pathways if we but follow his commandments.  Watching the British Pageant so many times, we realized how the Lord had been preparing the people of England with the desire to read the Bible for themselves.  As a history major, I “knew” this at one point but just knowing isn’t enough.  Now, I feel and understand it.  All those who were burned at the stake, like Wycliffe and Tyndale, prepared the way for Heber C. Kimball and Joseph Fielding when they arrived 1839 in Liverpool.  The people of England wanted to read the Bible for themselves and “truth did prevail”. 

Sister Talbot with Heber C. Kimball, one of the Core Cast members.  It has been fun seeing him in the Temple.

Elder and Sister Talbot with Heber C.Kimball.  He also led the practices for our song for the finale.  His whole family was part of the cast (except his 4 yr old son).  Pageant cast is a lot families.

Have we said that we loved the pageants and want to come back next year to see them again? With Christine and Scott here to reserve front row seats, we had a birds eye view of not only the faces of the performers but the close up view of the mechanics of the movement of the stage.  It was fun to watch how they portrayed  digging the canals to drain the swamps when they first came to Nauvoo.  Dirt was actually being shoveled back and forth on stage. It was awesome.  It is sad that the pageants are over, however, we won't miss the late nights and early mornings.

Building the canals to drain the swamps in Nauvoo

We finally got to see “Just Plain Anna Amanda” with Scott, Megan, and Christine.  It was a fun production of a humorous view of Nauvoo through the eyes of a child performed by the YPMs.  Sister Bills and Elder Petersen were part of the cast and we have become friends with both.

Sister Bills as Just Plain Anna Amanda.

Since the end of the pageants last Saturday, we have had a little more time just to drive around and see more of the historical sites around this area.  We took time to visit and walk around the Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds where Joseph and Marie Skeen buried two of their children.  It is hard to describe the feeling we felt as we walked these sacred grounds knowing the sorrow and pain that came with these graves.

Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds

Statue to honor those who lives were lost in the early years in Nauvoo 

Names of those who died listed on the walls of the Pavillion.  The last two are my Skeen relatives.

Look close for the Watts - not a direct line of Elder Talbot's.

With our search for the Nauvoo Mounds and the Tukuafu Yurts home, we discovered the Quarry Overlook where many of the stones for the original Nauvoo Temple came from.  These stones, weighing as much as two tons, were hauled by wagon up to the temple block where masons would finish them.  Although it is now filled with water from the Mississippi River, we could see the great size of the quarry.

Replica of the original sun stone that was on the Temple

Nauvoo Rock Quarry where the temple stones were hauled from.

We also found a good place close to the bank of the Mississippi where Elder Talbot could take some close-up view of the water lilies.  If you look close at the middle of the flower and at the seed pod, when dried they are used in many flowers arrangements (brown with holes).  We can even see the green patches of the water lily’s on the other side of the river at Montrose.

Sunday was our turn to host the "Break the Fast Meal".  Every fast day since we got here has been with different couples with a different couple hosting each month.  It has been a fun way to get to know more of the temple missionaries.  We had a couple from the Seattle area, the Dallas Texas area, and American Fork.  All couples bring part of the meal.  Afterwards we all turned on our phones and did "Find a Relative" on the Family Search App.  All of us were related - not close but from my 8th cousin to my 10th cousin once removed.  It was such super fun that we didn't even think about taking pictures.  We have made a lot of friends on our mission.

Last night (Monday) we had a very interesting Family Home Evening.  We visited a yurt log cabin home.  A traditional yurt (from the Turkic languages) or ger (Mongolian) is a portable, round tent covered with skins or felt and used as a dwelling by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia.  The roof structure is often self-supporting, but large yurts may may have interior posts supporting the crown.  This yurt did had two huge poles for support.  They are named Jessica and Harmony.  This yurt is anything but portable.  The Tukuafus built it themselves with Sister Tukuafu doing all the woodwork.  She makes harps, dulcimers, psalteries, banjos, butter and bread knives, and wooden spoons and spatulas.  Both of them are very musical and can play lots of different instruments.  And they have 14 children with 60 grandchildren.  They gave us a mini concert with her playing several instruments with Brother Tukuafu accompanying her on the auto harp with both of them singing. Needless to say it was a very entertaining and interesting night. 

Inside the yurt.

Serenading the group with the harp and the auto harp.  Harmony is the supporting pole behind Brother Tukuafu

It might seem with all these other activities we have been attending that it doesn't fit with missionary work, however, our main focus is our temple service.  All missionary work leads to the Temple.  As someone said, "just living the gospel, just living the way you’re supposed to live, just having charity, being kind, and living a Christlike life—that is doing missionary work, and sometimes missionary work is just deepening friendships”.  

Thanks for all your friendships,

Elder and Sister Talbot