June 2017

Hi Everyone,

      Things have been going fairly smoothly out here. I've learned what I am suppose to say in the sites and have served in all of them but a few that are for just the elders.  It is special to be able to interact with the visitors that come. I am surprised, however, that we haven't been as busy as I thought we would be. June is a great time to visit because all the productions are going on except the pageant.  So we  have Sunset by the Mississippi, Just Plain Anna Amanda, The Promise, Trail of Hope, Youth of Zion, and other performances by the Nauvoo Band and Young Performing missionaries besides Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo which goes on all year. There are people here but seldom do they have to wait for tours at the sites.

      We had our first golden ticket last week. That means our first opportunity to  teach in RS/Priesthood. Every couple gets 3 golden tickets, one for speaking in sacrament meeting, one for teaching Sunday School, and one for teaching Relief Society or Priesthood.  It was very scary. i mean we are teaching the whole mission! It was a conference talk so we basicly had to make up the lesson. It was one S Mark Palmer's talk "Jesus beholding him, loved him." The best thing I did was share Elaina's poem called "Shelves" that she wrote on her mission from a talk given by John Bytheway. The sisters really like it.

       One of the funnest things here is to find connections to people. A couple came to the Print Shop where I was the other day. They had on missionary badges so we asked them where they were serving and they said they were returning home from their mission in Tennessee. I asked which mission and they said Knoxville. I got really excited and asked them if they knew Elder Hatch. They said yes, they had just been with him yesterday. The sister started to tear up and gave me a hug and said that had made her day. She had been feeling pretty tough about going home. The thing was they had been to the visitor's center and had come straight to the Print Shop to see if they could catch a site before we closed. Tender mercies for that couple.

With our friends the Finlinsons and the Thompsons

In front of our house

Some of the teamster guys