Burns in Nauvoo: The Best Surprise Ever!

At the "Love locks" by the locks in Keokuk.

April 25, 2022

Sitting at home on Friday night, contemplating the week and trying to get up off of the couch and head to bed when, at about 10:15, there was a knock on my door. I thought it was strange to have a knock that late but before I could get up, there was another knock. When I answered the door, I was surprised and beyond excited to see Kendra and Clark standing there! So much joy and happiness in that one moment and the weekend to follow! They are here until Monday and we are enjoying every second of it! Since we were already scheduled to go to Costco to get the tires replaced, they rode along with us. We then stopped at Dutchmans, then at the Memorial to the Saints and the Exodus in Montrose. We were "trained" there - like being barged on the Mississippi only we were out looking at the memorial and a train stopped and blocked the road out. Haha. Clark loved it because it gave him more time to play on the amazing playground sets that were there. He also loved the train whistle blowing from a distance but it was really loud when it was right by us. When the caboose was almost there, I told him that he should wave at the engineer and maybe he'd blow the horn for him. He ran and hid because he did not want the horn to blow again because "it's too loud!" We then went to Fat Jimmy's for dinner, then to Red Front for ice cream. It was a fun, rewarding day!

Friday it was made official that I am moving back to gardens/grounds. I will not be assigned a specific garden to care for like last year but will be working with Sisters Coffman and Rasmussen 2.0 - we have two Sister Rasmussen's hence the 2.0 haha. I'm going to be trained in mowing the lawns and will be doing that also. I've heard that it is a very jarring, bumpy and hard-on-the-body job. They are short on interns and seasonal helpers this year so mowing goes to the missionaries to do. It'll be interesting, that's for sure.

Learning that I will for sure be going back to grounds was a bittersweet for me. I love the sisters that I work with in Conservation and will miss working with them on a daily basis. I am excited to get my hands dirty in the gardens and to play in the dirt again.

Today during the Sacrament, I noticed that as the Sacrament was being passed, that the Missionaries all sat a little taller as the tokens of the Sacrament were passed to them. Yes, I'm sure most of it was so that the Elder passing the Sacrament could get by easier, but the thought hit me that we should sit a little taller as this sacred ordinance is taking place. We should reverence and show respect to our Savior's sacrifice to us as we renew our covenants with Him. It was just a passing thought, but I wanted to share it with you. It had an impact on me.

I don't know how I forgot to mention this in last week's letter but the first wave of Young Sister Missionaries have arrived and it is wonderful to see them and feel their love and excitement! I haven't had a chance to spend time with them, but them just being here adds greatly to the mission! Next week, the Nauvoo Performing Missionaries (NPM) arrive and things just continue to get better and better here in Nauvoo!

As I leave Conservation, I thought I'd post a few things that I love/don't love so much about it.

*I love the Sisterhood that exists in Conservation and how the Sisters welcomed me in, loved me, hugged me when I was down, encouraged me when I needed it and always believed in me.

*I love that we could find laughter and joy in the midst of cleaning some pretty yucky places.

*I will not miss cleaning up mouse droppings, sticky traps and dead bugs. Lots and lots of dead bugs and some live ones also.

*I love that I was able to help decorate the historic sites, the VC and the Mission home for Christmas. This was a fun and special way to celebrate the Christmas holidays. In January, I was able to help take them down.

*I will miss the sacredness of cleaning the Historic Sites and the artifacts. Cleaning took on new meaning when we cleaned those sites.

*I will not miss the tons of laundry that we do but I will miss the conversation that takes place as we fold said laundry.

*I will miss our daily devotionals and prayer. These have been sacred to me.

*I won't miss but maybe I will, the hours spent cleaning ceilings and walls, vacuuming floors, couches, chairs and sometimes bed mattresses, dusting furniture and moving it (some of it's pretty heavy!), wiping down cupboards, cleaning light fixtures, wiping down blinds and window sills, putting mattress pads on bunk beds (brings me reminders of how I had a love/hate relationship with my kids bunk beds!), and a whole lot of other cleaning.

*I will miss the fun conversation we had as we wrapped plastic wear in napkins for the Mission dinners and then decorated the tables for those dinners or breakfasts.

*All in all, these last seven months that I've been blessed to be in Conservation have flown by and I'm grateful for the opportunity that I had to serve there. It has been a pleasure to be a "Guardian of Sacred Places" and I will miss it.