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