Those Old People Sure Can Dance

Of course a good soak in a front porch tub is the proper way to start a day in Nauvoo.

A wagon tour of Nauvoo is a good way to wake up in the morning. The Sister dressed in pioneer garb in the back wears a Britney Spears head set and narrates the sites as the horses clop along. The seats are padded and comfy and the jokes are corny and cute.

You can also take a carriage ride that is a smaller conveyance pulled by the same big Belgian horses. Our missionary guides were a cowboy from Nephi Utah and a great storyteller from Nibley Utah. I wonder if they ever let sister missionaries drive the carriages or the wagons. I think I might want to be the first.

In the print shop there are occasional glimpses of the 21st century - like a sister with extravagant hair reading her iPad.  You go girl!

Nauvoo was a very different church site from Kirtland. In Kirtland there was an emphasis on the revelations received there. In Nauvoo there is more emphasis on daily life and history there - with analogies at each site relating to daily life.

My favorite story was about John Taylor.  When the family was forced to take only the necessities, his little boy was heartbroken about leaving the rocking horse his dad had made him behind. They crossed the river and camped. The next morning when he woke, the boy found his father gone, he didn't return all day. Late at night the boy saw his dad riding in on a horse and in the dim light he saw what he was carrying - the rocking horse. This story touched me because Mark made a rocking horse for Rachael when she was a year old and it endures as a very well loved steed. Last Christmas he made two more for each family of grandkids.

Brigham Young's home has a large "council" room. One of the great miracles of the latter day church is the way the church survived the death of Joseph Smith. The twelve had been prepared and the Lord made sure that people recognized the mantle of the Prophet being conferred on Brigham Young.

Our day in Nauvoo ended with a production put on by the Senior missionaries. It was funny and delightfully amateurish. If you serve in Nauvoo you are obliged to be a performer. You receive the gift of tongues to memorize your lines and the gift of courage to pull it off.