Duty makes us do things well--Love makes us do things beautifully!

 

For those of you who have never been to Nauvoo, picture a quiet, peaceful, very rural village of two city blocks in the "downtown". Old Nauvoo is essentially  Main Street with restored homes from the 1840's where people come to visit and learn about us "Mormons". Now that kind of simplifies it, but things have really changed as of July 9th when Pageant began.

There are hundreds of people who descend on Old Nauvoo to prepare for the annual production of the Pageant. Thirty families have applied and auditioned to be here for two weeks. They practice for one week and then perform all the next week. Then another 30 families starts the same cycle. There are several actors who play the main characters, like Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Emma Smith, etc. These characters do not change performers. This particular production has been performed for the last nine years. It basically shares how Nauvoo came to be and what it meant to those who lived here in the 1840's. The opening line is given by Parley P. Pratt, one of the early church leaders. He says, "When you are here, we are here."

This picture shows the people of Nauvoo helping erect the Nauvoo temple. They used fabric panels to depict this scene--quite amazing. We have seen the production, and it is very professional--well worth coming to Nauvoo to see!! You have until August 3rd to make it.

One of the men who helped write the Pageant came to Facilities Management, where LeRoy and I work, to speak to us for our daily 7am prayer meeting. He shared with us the impact that the Pageant has on many who see it, and especially those who work so hard to perform in it and prepare for it. Basically, most of them are people who are doing things they have never done before in order to hasten the work of the Savior. And that certainly tells you more about what we are doing here as missionaries.

Our daily routine in "Big Bertha" begins now at 6am. We have to begin early to miss the huge crowds which come every day. Note the lovely pots below with flower beds in the background. This is a tiny representation of what we actually do daily.

 

The Browning Gun Shop with the summer crowds

 

Here are some of the flowers we have in many of the pots. Summer is making them pop. The only problems we are having now are the Japanese beetle which is chewing flowers into nothing but stems, the heat which can cause real problems with some of our flowers, and the weeds that grow too fast.














Hard working Hubby

We had a wonderful surprise last week. Our good friends from Yakima, Bob and Elaine Erath, paid us a visit. We found a spot for them here in the RV park, so we had some great time to visit. They are such dear friends. It sounds like they are going to relocate to the Louisville, Kentucky area. Family is drawing them to that area. We know how that feels since we are going to be relocating to Utah. It was fun to catch up on their comings and goings and their family. The common bond of Yakima experiences together makes our friendship even sweeter. Thank you for coming, Bob and Elaine!!

Bob and Elaine Erath

I told you I would keep you posted about our straw bale gardening attempt. Right now I would say we are having pretty good success. The blasted squash bugs got 3 of my 4 zucchinis ( you are saying, "Why would anyone plant 4 zucchinis?") Keeping the other one alive is a major effort, though. People who live here say growing squash is a real challenge. But here is a picture of the first squash off the plant that was dead the next day! Our cucumbers are wonderful and we have about 10 little cantaloupe forming, plus 4 tomato plants which gave us our first tomato today. Pretty good, huh.
 


I have to include a picture of our newest grandchild, Parker Lee Thompson. He is now 2 months old and deserves to be spotlighted here. We are pretending that he is here visiting us.

 





Yesterday brought an actual "tender mercy" to us. As we are watering, we are often stopped by people and they comment on the flowers or what we do as missionaries. Yesterday this nice looking man stopped me and said, after seeing my name tag, "Sister Thompson, where are you from?" I replied and then he said, "Do you know LeRoy and Shawnna Thompson?" I stammered that I did and he said he was from Summerville, SC, and he was their bishop. He was walking into the visitor's center to get a map of Old Nauvoo when he saw my name tag. He and his wife had discussed that morning that it would be nice to meet us since they knew through Roy that we were in Nauvoo. Well, we had a great little conversation about Roy and Shawnna and how they have come back to the Church and are on fire with the gospel. Grateful tears were shed.

I haven't spoken much about the infamous "Mayfly" that everyone told us about when we arrived. There is even a line regarding Mayflys in our play "Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo". A Relief Society sister is telling the story of the Ashby boys (there were 10 of them) who lived here in Nauvoo. One of them "tied a Mayfly on a thread and pinned it in Adelia's (his teacher's) hair! We were prepared to experience an awful invasion of these icky bugs sometime in May-June. We had been told horror stories of driving along the river at night and your windshield would be coated with the dead bugs which have a greasy consistency when squished. Ick! Then we were told to expect waking in the morning to our vehicles and RV's to be coated with dead and dying bodies of Mayflys which have the lovely aroma of dead fish! Now that doesn't sound fun, does it? But none of this happened. One morning we went to work at FM and found thousands of bodies coating the building there where we meet. We thought we were in for it. But we never saw them again. Note the one below which we encountered as we ate lunch one day along the river. He really isn't a bug to fear after all--at least he doesn't bite or pinch! Note that his "tail" is as long as his body. I guess we will wait until next year to see if we had just been told a bunch of "bug tales".



We often speak of our nightly productions, "Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo" and "Sunset by the Mississippi". They are nightly except for two evenings. "Sunset" is almost over for the summer. It will conclude the second week of August when the Young Performing Missionaries go home. They will be greatly missed. What a wonderful group of dedicated young people. They commit their summer to service here, and boy do they do a lot. Their days are full from sunrise to sunset with plays and little vignettes when walking down the street. Each of them plays an instrument also. They have such beautiful voices, and each of them is so gracious to us "seniors" as they applaud our performances. We do love them.

 









Leroy as the "Doctor" trying to comfort Agatha before he "takes her away"

After "Rendezvous" we greet the audience

Singing  "Grandmother's Apron" on the Sunset stage
 

Oh, I wanted to tell you that the title of this blog post is my new motto. Now, if I can just remember it and apply it!