July 8, 2015 – July 15, 2015 – Week 18, in Nauvoo

July 15, 2015

Our cast dinner Saturday night with the Amish Family of John and Marie Bontrager was interesting and fun.   It rained hard all day, but stopped just in time for us to gather at the Nauvoo Visitors Center to car pool out to the Sunrise Bakery near Bonapart, Iowa.   It is about a 45 minute drive from here.   Marie cooked  a very nice meal for us - need I remind you that they live without the convenience of electricity, so she had to cook for about 60 people in her kerosene stove and brick oven.  Everything was delicious, especially her pies! We were enchanted by their six children which includes two sets of twins. 

Sunday we were “On Call” again so we rested after church and then our MTC group gathered at Elder Keith and Sister Beverly Ramsay’s home for a pot-luck dinner and visiting. 

Monday I served at the Lands and Records again as I usually do on Monday’s, and had the opportunity of helping make up a package for Elder Jeffrey Holland and his wife Patricia with the information we have in our files for their ancestors that were in Nauvoo.  It was an honor and very interesting.   Elder Holland is on a trip visiting Church History sites with 19 members of his family.  He honored us with an address in a special Missionary meeting Tuesday evening.    There are a lot of missionaries in Nauvoo right now, especially with all the people performing in the pageants.  The chapel was full as well as about a third of the Cultural Hall. With all the visitors also for Church on Sunday even the Cultural Hall was full to overflowing. 

Today, Wednesday and our off day, Elder Ray and I went to Springfield, Illinois – it took us about 2 and ½ hours to get there.   We visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and it was a wonderful experience.   When we were in the “funeral” room, I thought of my great-grandparents, James  and Rachel (King) Strait, who attended his funeral.  We were there for 2-3 hours.  We walked a couple of blocks to have lunch at The Feed Store.  After lunch we went to the Lincoln home for a movie and tour. 

We visited Lincoln’s Tomb and then drove back to Keokuk where we had dinner and bought a few groceries before coming home to get a little rest!

This is another statue in the Women's garden at the Visitor's Center called, Woman and Her Talents.  

This a Sun-stone from the original Nauvoo Temple - photo taken in 1963  when our family visited Nauvoo.

This is the same Sun-stone that now resides in the present Nauvoo Visitors Center.