It's a great time to be in Nauvoo!

 

This week was so fun and busy! Our Ivins neighbors, the Hamptons, were still here and we spent as much time with them as we could. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures. ;-(  We went to dinner with them, had Annie's custard, took them to the Burial Mounds and visited with them as they did laundry. It was so great to be with them! We also saw a lot of turtles!

This week we did more planting, mulching and weeding, in between rain storms! It's rained a lot here and I wish that I could send it to Utah! They need it more than we do! During one of the rainstorms, we cleaned and organized the breezeway, where we keep the plant trays and dirty pots. I didn't take pics of that either. It sure looked a lot better when it was done but we have a ton of pots to wash. If you remember, when I first started in gardens, I washed hundreds of pots. Well, we have more than that to do now. Each pot has to be dry brushed to remove as much of the dirt as possible, then it's washed, rinsed and soaked in a sanitizing solution and put out to dry. Then they are stacked and put away for the next use. There is so much that is done that I was never aware of. I've been to Nauvoo many times and the flowers were always there - I never thought about all the hours that it takes to keep things beautiful here. I'm glad to be a part of that!

This coming Saturday will be a very special day for the mission and Nauvoo Historic Sites. We have four new homes that will be dedicated! In preparation for that, we have been working hard to have the grounds looking as perfect as we can. My site, the Hyde Home, is one that is being dedicated so it'll be getting extra care this week. Saturday, some of the YSMs, Sisters Harrison, Dowell and Smith, came and helped me weed! So did Elder Burns! Elder and Sister Koop also helped and they brought donuts. Of course, I didn't have any (dang gluten!) but they sure looked good and were enjoyed by everyone else. We accomplished so much in the few hours they were there helping. Saturday is our prep day but I was happy to go since they volunteered. The YSMs here are so wonderful!

The best part of the dedication is that Elder Cook will be coming to dedicate the buildings. We are blessed as a mission to be able to hear him speak to us. We'll also have additional training from one of the Seventy, who will also be here. 

Training - we've had a lot of training this week since we've had people from Church Headquarters here. Training on giving tours, being with visitors, etc. Even though we don't give tours, it was still good information to know. We were also given a tour through the new Visitor Center Exhibits. The VC reopens on Memorial Day and we are so excited!!!!

We also welcomed 11 new couples to the mission this week. There have been so many new ones arriving lately! It's been wonderful but I have a lot still to meet. Most are site missionaries and teamsters. Speaking of teamsters, it's been so fun to see visitors riding on the wagons! It's like a parade as they ride by - lots of smiles and waves!

Elder Burns has been keeping really busy. He's been making things for the YPMs, welding items for them and also for the VC. He also put down a lot of rock on the pathways in the area of three of the new homes that are being dedicated - in what we call the Temple Experience. He made brackets for the sound system in the VC and I'm sure he did a lot more. He is still having the headache from the covid shot but continues to work and isn't letting it slow him down. He worked several IC shifts this week also.

I'm excited for the events that will be happening this coming week and the spiritual preparation that we'll be doing to prepare for this weekend. I feel like I need the extra boost!

I love serving here! I love my family for being so supportive of us serving a mission! They are wonderful! I especially love that we'll be seeing several of our children and grandchildren in the coming weeks!  I am so excited for the loves and hugs that will take place! Zara was 10-days-old when we left. She is now crawling! I am so excited to see ALL of them!  I love the missionaries that I serve with and the friendships that we are making! I love my Savior! I wouldn't be where I am today without His love for me.

Have a great week! Watch for the blog post for this week. It'll have a lot of pictures of flowers from Nauvoo. They are beautiful right now!

Love and blessings,

Sister Burns

If you look close, you'll see a lot of turtles on 

the log in the river.

Do you see the frog? He almost looks like a leaf.

The restrooms of Nauvoo. Haha

This made me laugh! Above is the up close view.

Below is the full view of the tree. It's my understanding that

restrooms will be brought in for this location

at the Sunset by the Mississippi Stage.

Two of our YSMs giving a live virtual tour

at Lyon Drug. Even though Nauvoo is open

for live, in-person tours now, you can still

have a great experience virtually.

Flowers at the Visitors Center

The brick pavers in the Women's Garden

are being replaced. I'm excited to see it 

when it's all finished!

Mulching, mulching, mulching! This is at

Browning Gun.

A quote from our training meeting that I really liked.

The wagon that Elder Burns and I took apart months

ago. They sent the wheels in to be fixed and

he reassembled it and it's almost ready to go.

It needs the cover still.

A handle that was straightened.

Stands that Elder Burns made for "The Promise" set.

A stand that was made for the VC display. 

The YSMs helping us weed at the Hyde Home.

Did all of this really happen in just one week?

The wagon we rode on with Mike and Matt, 

our four-legged missionaries!

We started the work week off with a bang! Lots and lots of planting! We planted a lot of flower beds in the Women's Garden and mulched them. They are so pretty! In the Women's Garden, the pavers are being replaced. Many of them are cracked and broken. They will look beautiful when they are done. Isn't that like us in life - sometimes we feel cracked and broken, like we can never return to our Heavenly Father because we've strayed from the path, because we've done something wrong, because we feel unworthy - whatever the reason is - those "broken parts" can be healed through our Savior and we can be made whole and beautiful again!

We also planted the Weeks garden, the Smith Family Cemetery flower beds, the Browning Gun gardens and Carthage. For those who don't know, the Smith Family Cemetery is where Joseph, Emma and Hyrum, along with other members of their families, are buried. This is owned by the Community of Christ church but we work with them in taking care of the grounds. Our FM group made a new fence to go around the homestead and cemetery and we take care of the grounds. It was a humbling experience for me to be able to care for these sacred grounds. There were a few minutes where I was working on a garden bed by myself and I was able to ponder on those who are buried there and feel of their spirits. They sacrificed so much for me. I know I say that a lot, but I am humbled to be a guardian of the sacred grounds that they walked, talked, lived on and are buried in.

I went on a wagon ride this week! It's been fun to see people actually on the wagons and was even more fun to go on the ride!

This week, Elder Burns and I were also blessed to be able to clean the Exodus Memorial. This is at the bottom of Parley Street, where the Saints gathered to cross the Mississippi, as they were forced from their beautiful Nauvoo. On this Memorial are the names of those who left Nauvoo but never made it to Salt Lake. There are names of our relatives on the Memorial. As I cleaned each name, I thought of how each one of them are known by our Heavenly Father, just as each one of us are known to Him.

One of the names on it is Ezekial Johnson. He is my 5th great-grandpa. From what I've read about him, he never joined the church and fought his wife and family in regards to them joining the church. He drank a lot and  spent a lot of time in the bars. After his family moved to Nauvoo, he eventually followed. He would sit in the bars at night and hear the mob's plans for the following day. He would then report those plans.  He eventually gave up drinking and had a change of heart about the church. He was very upset when Joseph Smith was killed. He became a one man army of defense. He carried his double-barreled shotgun "Old Bess" and held off a company of soldiers by hiding behind a tree and stepping out pointing the gun at the captain when they got right on him. He told them to leave or he would shoot. They left and tried to sneak in on another street, but he was waiting for them and did the same thing, this time he told them if they did it again, he would just shoot. This gave the saints enough time to escape. This incident led to his death. He became a marked man. On a trip into Nauvoo, a mob captured him and tied him to a wagon wheel where he was whipped to near death. He never recovered and died shortly after. He had asked for baptism but because of his sudden death, never received it. President Wilford Woodruff gave permission for his descendants to do his temple work and seal him to his family. President Woodruff said that Ezekiel "was one of the first Martyrs to the cause of the Church in this dispensation." I am grateful for my ancestors and look forward to meeting them again.

A few weeks ago, Elder Burns received the Covid shot. Since he received it, he has had headaches that are getting worse and his asthma has increased. We had a couple of the Elders come over this week and give him a blessing. I won't go into the details of the blessing, but it was a beautiful blessing. He was able to sleep better than he has in a while. He still has the problems and will be making appointments Monday to see a doctor. Prayers would be appreciated. Doug being Doug, he's not letting this slow him down and he is working through the pain and doing what he was called to do. 

Wednesday night, late (around 9 - that's late for us! Haha), we were called and asked if we could take a YPM to Chicago the next day. He had just arrived to Nauvoo that day, traveling from Idaho.  His dad was in Chicago on life support from an accident that happened earlier in the week. Long story short, his dad died during the night and we were blessed to take this Elder to his parent's home in Chicago. Another YPM accompanied him and it was actually an enjoyable ride with them. They are strong and I was amazed at the way prayers were answered, questions were answered and the testimonies that they have. This young Elder's dad had fallen off of a ladder a week earlier.  He is in our prayers. 

Friday, Elder Burns was asked to go pick up sod so he had another long day of driving. Nine hour drive on Thursday, 5 hour drive on Friday.

A highlight of the week - our neighbors, the Hamptons, from Ivins came and are visiting Nauvoo!!! It was so great to see them! We visited with them at their campsite, then they came over for game night! It did my heart good to see them!

Guys, today in church, we popped the bubble! Since we resumed meeting in person for church, the YSMs and the Seniors have met in separate rooms for Sacrament Meeting. Today, we all met in the same room, along with all of the YPMs! So, we had the YSMs, YPMs, and Seniors all under the same roof, in the same room and....we were able to sing an Opening, Sacrament and Closing hymn! This was huge and something we've looked forward to for a long time! Also, one of the YPMs is Austin and Sydney's friend, Rachel! It was so good to see her and get a big hug from her! Also, Elder and Sister Poll were at church today. It was so good to see them again. I wish they could stay! They were missionaries here and Elder Poll became very sick and they had to return home. The good thing is that they live in Utah so I will see them again when we return! I love them and I'm glad that I was able to serve with them!

We also helped a new couple in our district move in - The Macfarlane's. We also had a Linger Longer after church with our new Zone! It was fun to get to know everyone better. If you can't tell, I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! With all of the ups and downs and being totally exhausted, I wouldn't trade it for anything! If you've ever thought about serving a mission - just do it!!! It's the best!

Love and blessings to all! 

The Exodus Memorial

My 5th great-grandpa, Ezekial Johnson

Monument in the Exodus Memorial

Planting the Women's Garden! So many plants!

So much beauty!

Elder and Sister Heward were our hosts on the ride.

A pretty view from the wagon ride.

One of the flower beds at the Smith Family Cemetery.

Weeding/planting at Lyon Drug. Random thought - 

I miss my brown hair but not enough to dye it again!

The bad bunnies ate my artichoke plants. 

Our amazing grounds/garden crew!

The planters at Carthage

It's such a great sight to see the OPEN sign!

So pretty!

Fun game night with the Hampton's! 

We loved having them visit!

 

Happiest of Mother's Day

May 10, 2021

Today's Mother's Day was the absolute best! As we arrived at Sacrament Meeting, the YSMs were lined up on both sides of the hall singing "Love at Home" and handed each Senior Sister a white carnation. Their voices were so beautiful and the spirit was so strong. It brought tears to my eyes and I loved it! What a sweet way to start the day! I love being here in Nauvoo with these sweet YSMs. They make my day each time I see them! I'll be so glad when we can start intermingling with them. Later today, we had a Google Meet with all of my children and most of my grandkids. I always love these calls when we all catch up on each other's lives. We are all so busy and I love that they take time for these calls. I love my family and I'm Mom to the most amazing, loving children. I am truly blessed that they are mine! They are the best gifts that I have ever been blessed with! I thank Heavenly Father every day for them! To top it off, Doug bought me flowers and made me a yummy dinner today. Also, we were allowed to sing the Sacrament Hymn today - with masks on, of course! We haven't been able to do that since we arrived here! What a joy that was!

Only a few of the 62 YSMs that were singing to us!

We planted and mulched Lyon Drug! We planted hundreds of plants and added bucket loads of mulch to the gardens and it is beautiful! We had two days of "all hands on deck" working in the Lyon Drug gardens. We weeded, planted and mulched and it was so fun having all the help - the garden missionaries, the 4 interns, Lily and Richard. Many hands definitely made the work go much faster! A funny thing happened with autocorrect as I was texting with Sister Koop about who was coming to help with the mulching. I sent a text that was supposed to say, "I hope it's all hands on deck for mulching tomorrow", instead autocorrect changed it to, "I hope it's all hands on deck for mulching torture." Haha! You might have to spend days and days hauling, dumping and spreading mulch to appreciate the autocorrect version! 

This week we also spent a day mulching beds at the Visitors Center, removed daffodil bulbs from the Smith Family Cemetery and kept busy all week! I've never been more exhausted but also so happy! Friday I came home, sat on the couch to remove my shoes and the next thing I knew, it was two hours later and I was waking up from an unplanned nap. 

We received some great news this week - the Teamsters get to start wagon and carriage rides Monday! We are all so excited for them! They have faithfully taken the horses and wagons out each day for over 14 months with no passengers and now they get to take visitors and we couldn't be happier for them! We decided to take Cinnamon Rolls to them like we did for the Site Missionaries so we asked Sister Law, a Senior Missionary, if she'd make the rolls for us and she was very kind and did that. I haven't been able to eat any of her rolls, but they look amazing and everyone raves about them. So, she made the rolls and Sister Koop, Sister Law and I delivered them Saturday morning. 

Elder Burns has been busy finishing the boxes that he's been making for the trailers. I had him busy loading mulch and fixing the trailer when it wouldn't come down after we dumped some things from it. He also smoothed the ground in front of Lyon Drug and brought gravel and spread on the road there. It looks so much better!

So, this week I did a big oops! We were at Lyon Drug and I needed to move the van and trailer but Richard's truck was in the way. One of the missionaries told me that he would move the truck out of the way for me, he got in the driver's seat as I was closing the doors on the trailer and van. He told me to pull straight ahead as far as I could before I had to turn to avoid hitting the tree ahead of me. I did that, looked to my left, then to my right and realized that he hadn't moved the truck and that the trailer had hit the truck. The trailer hit right in front of the Elder and he didn't honk or anything. Regardless, I was driving the van and now I get to fill out the accident report. I'm always so careful but it only took once. Richard was very patient. I love working with him.

I love serving my mission! I love serving my Savior! I love my family and love the knowledge that I have that we can be a family forever! I am thankful for parents who raised me to love my Savior and to love His church and who set a wonderful example for me to follow. 

Elder and Sister Hokanson and four of our sweet YSMs 

on the front porch of the Orson Hyde home.

Elder Burns spreading gravel. That's the Orson Hyde 

home in the background.

Sister Elia

Lots of planting going on at Lyon Drug

Getting the arbor ready to plant. This will be full of gourds this summer!

The young Elders came and helped us out!

Richard, our fearless and ever-so-patient leader!

The prettiest Lily in the garden! I love 

working with this beautiful young woman!

One of the Lyon Drug gardens!

This trailer was full at the beginning of the day!

 We wore Elder Elia out! He shoveled a lot of mulch!

So many beautiful flowers!

The stuck-up trailer! Haha! This is what happens 

when it runs out of hydraulic fluid. Thank goodness 

for Elder Burns, who came to our rescue and fixed the trailer!

Poor truck! Ouch!

I have some friends who visited an Amish Community 

and this sign was on one of the store doors. I 💓 it!