Four Months Out!

My Dear Friends,

I know that it has been a long time since I posted anything on my blog or wrote an update as to the happenings in Nauvoo.  This is a much different experience from the previous six months that we spent here and I am so much busier.  We were both site missionaries the first time and the last three months we were here we worked together in the Visitor's Center. 

This time around it is completely different.  Dave is the site leader over the Browning Gun Shop and spends three days a week at that site and then two to three either in the tin shop, the boot shop, the blacksmith or the brickyard.  We hardly ever see each other.  We see each other on Rendezvous night or exchanging the car with one another.  I pick him up at 6:00 and then he drops me off at the Cultural Hall for my night at Rendezvous, while he hurries home to change for Sunset, Rendezvous or has a night off.  He is in shows four nights a week.

It is a very tiring schedule for the seniors, especially in July.  They work a six hour schedule in the day and shows four nights.  No one complains (at least not out loud) and everyone has a great attitude.  The pageant had its closing night last night so things will become much more quiet here.

I am scheduled for "show" five days a week.  I have three casts of 60 missionaries each and I am the so-called director of "Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo".  This show runs year round with two performances each night in the Cultural Hall.  Every missionary is assigned to be in a cast.  They are called, Sarah Granger, Lucy Mack and Emma Hale.  It becomes part of your identity here in Nauvoo.  Each cast has a manager and a social director. The cast has a temple night once every two months and dinners and BBQ's, etc. 

My job is vast.  I make a spreadsheet schedule for each cast so that they know what songs they are in and where they enter and stand for each performance.  I do one cast lineup  on Monday, one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday.  I train the new missionaries for the show and I replace and rehearse vignettes.  It is a huge calling and I go to the show EVERY night.   I take notes and give them ideas to make it a good, clean, tight show.   The worst part is the long hours and the best part is that I know every single missionary here and know them well.  That part is wonderful.  I am working with people who have ever been on the stage before and hoped they would never be there.  It is really very rewarding.  All in all, once I got over the huge learning curve, I am really enjoying it and love the people I work with.

Dave and I taught Sunday School today.  It is not something that I really wanted to do but now it is over.  Our lesson was on the resurrection and people said it was good - but who knows?  Now we have spoken in church, taught Relief Society and Priesthood and now Sunday School.  I think we are through.

We work together on Sundays in the sites.  Because I have such a huge job, we work one Sunday and get two or three off.  I like to do it as I don't get into the sites much.  The only time I wear a pioneer costume is on those Sundays - otherwise it is church dress all the time.

I love Nauvoo.  I love the spirit that is here.  They say that if you come - they will be here and I believe it.  I do not think that if they were here they would care about their yellow cup or their hat box, but they would want you to know of their great faith and their willingness to leave it all behind to follow the directions of the prophet.

We are so lucky to walk out our front door and look right directly at the temple.  We live in a darling home - the home of William Weeks - designer of the Nauvoo Tample.  It is within walking distance of the Visitor's Center.  This home was dedicated by President Hinckley in 2002.  It is small but it is really nice.

Sorry for the long delay between letters.  I will try to be much better.

Love,

Sherry and Dave

Wow! What A Ride!!!!!!

Here is Elder Curtis standing on our front porch!

Here I am standing on the same porch but turned the other way.

My dear friends,

Well, we hit the road running here in Nauvoo.  We have now been here a month.  This is completely a different experience from our last mission to Nauvoo.  I will start at the very beginning.

While I was innocently at home in Crestline, one of the missionaries here in Nauvoo emailed me and said that there was a rumor going around that I was going to be the next "Rendezvous" director.  My heart leaped - and not for joy and I told Dave, "Oh, I hope not."   It is the most brutal job here in Nauvoo besides the scheduler.  I immediately wrote back and told her that it was not true and to stop listening to rumors.

About three weeks later, a call came from the mission president, President Gibbons, asking if I would take on this huge responsibility.  It is not just directing (which I love) but sending out a schedule where 180 missionaries are put into three casts and you send a spreadsheet out each week with the lines and directions to all the missionaries telling them which number they are in, which side they enter from, which lines they speak that night, etc.  .  There are words like: first wave stage, screeners, pottery, kickers, whip and clip clop, horses . . . . . . . . . . and it goes on and on.  The directing I can do but I had to learn Microsoft Excel to do these spreadsheets.  Me?  A computer guru?  By May 25 there will be about 60 missionaries in each cast.  They casts are called, Emma Hale, Lucy Mack and Sarah Granger after three great women who lived here in Nauvoo.  We have 10 to 20 new missionaries coming in each week who are  assigned to one of the casts and so I am constantly teaching the new missionaries the songs and actions so that we can add them to their show.

Dave and I both had surgery for skin cancer the week we left. Dave had his surgery the morning of the 26th of March and we literally left from the hospital parking lot and headed to Nauvoo so that I could get as much training from the outgoing director as I could.  I am working 12 hour days, but with the Lord's help, I get up the next morning and feel ready to go again. 

I love working with the missionaries and encouraging the new people that this is something that they can do.  Most have never been on the stage before and are scared spitless.  After a few times, they begin to realize that it is actually fun.  Rendezvous is their identity here.   It takes a huge mission and makes it so they have a group to identify with.  Each cast goes to the temple together once a month and they usually have a potluck, or something.

I don't get to be in any shows because I am at Rendezvous every night with every cast, but it is rewarding, and maybe someday I will be confident enough with scheduling on the computer that I might actually like it.  My favorite part is working on the vignettes with the couples and directing them and teaching the new missionaries.  It is not much different in teaching seniors than it is teaching second graders.  They are both innocent and willing to do what they are asked.

Dave is going to have a vignette with young James in one of the casts this summer.  He loves being in Rendezvous and Sunset by the Mississippi.  He is the site leader over the Browning Gun Shop and that is a favorite place of his to serve. 

We are working hard and feel very blessed to once again to be in Nauvoo.  Nauvoo is not a place but a feeling.  You cannot even imagine what those early saints endured and willingly left because of their great faith, until you have been here and walked these sacred streets.

We are living in the William Weeks home. William Weeks designed the Nauvoo Temple, the Cultural Hall and the Seventies Hall here in Nauvoo.  We are about a three minute walk to the temple.  This home was dedicated by President Hinckley and has a wonderful spirit.  It is tiny but wonderful.  We are within walking distance to the Visitor's Center and the outdoor stage where Sunset is performed.  Our home has a Federalist style architecture with a fireplace in every room.

This is your last chance, come and visit.  We pretty much have guests from June 21 until July 20.  Before and after that, our home is open to you.  We will plan your trip and get your tickets.

We love and miss you all but know that this is where we need to be at this time.  We love the Lord and have a testimony of the restoration of the gospel.  We feel we are answering Wilford Woodruff's prayer when he asked the Lord to remember the sacrifices of the saints.  I believe by serving here we fulfill that prayer and by you coming to visit here, you are also fulfilling that prayer. 

Love,

Elder and Sister Curtis

It was nice of them to have a bonfire for us on our arrival day!  Just kidding.  This is the prairie burn.  They burn an acre once a year to show just how fast a wildfire could take out this little town.  This happened about an hour after we arrived.

This is Sister Jones, the out going Rendezvous director.  She spent hours training me. 

Fun Around Nauvoo!

We saw this paddle boat when we were stopped on the bridge at Ft. Madison.  It is a cruise ship that goes down  the Mississippi.  It looks very Mark Twain on the outside but is supposed to be beautiful and modern on the inside.  Notice the clouds.  We got a huge thunder storm about five minutes after this picture was taken.  So beautiful.

Did someone say to wear green?  Here we are in the Family Living Center and we all wore green that day.  Sister Scott, Sister Campbell, me and Sister Pierce.

Here are our young sisters the night before some of them left.  We have gotten really close to all of them as we work closely with them in the Visitor's Center.   Front:  S/Kupfer, Etherington, Holt, Russell, Monroe, Allred, Mills, Searel, Hughes, Poulson,  Newell, Hintze.  Front:  S/Morales, Hansen, Hall, Maile, Mills.  S/Richardson left that day.

Notice how huge this hibiscus is.  It is as large as Dave's head.  They are amazing!

A beautiful butterfly just outside the Visitor's Center

We saw this tug inside the lock at Keokuk.  We walked down to see the lock and Dave yelled, "Look, the doors are opening! and we saw this huge barge inside.  It has fifteen barges on it pushed by this tug.  A barge that big holds as much as 860 semi trucks.  It was amazing.

You can see the whole barge.  About 60% of all exported goods are barged down the Mississippi.  It is exciting to see them.

Yes, it is me.  I'm standing on the back step of the Cultural Hall.  This is how we missionaries dress in Old Nauvoo.  Oh, how we love it here and we have learned and changed so much. 

September is Here!

Dear Friends and Family,

The time has flown by and we have been here nearly six months.  Nauvoo and the missionaries here have become home to us. We have loved serving here and will never be the same because of what we have learned and felt here.   We are winding up our first six months and hope to begin our second six months on March first. 

We have been called as site leaders over the Visitor's Center.  It has taken us a while to get used to being in one place all the time.  We decided to really pray for a good attitude and to look for the "one" that we can talk to and teach.  We have really been blessed to have had some very positive experiences in there.  I have been able to give out three Book of Mormons in the past two days and have received two referral cards.  It has been pretty exciting to do this as a missionary.  Nauvoo is a different kind of mission as we have many members come here but also many who just have heard about Nauvoo and want to find out what is is all about.  We work in the sites one day a week and the Visitor's Center four to five.  I was in the John Taylor home today and Dave was in the Riser Boot Shop.

Many missionaries are going home this month (including us).  Nauvoo will have a skeleton crew during the winter months.  They have taken our three "Rendezvous"  casts and made them into two for the winter months.  It is hard making changes but everyone is willing to do whatever they are asked.  You soon find out that  what you thought was not so good turns out to be just fine.

My school is starting this week and it is the first time that I haven't been there in 25 years.  I have found out that they can get along perfectly fine without me. I wish all my good friends at ACS a happy beginning of the school year.  I will be going back to school in October to mentor the new teacher and do do the third, fourth and fifth grade plays.  I will be finished on February 5.

We leave Nauvoo with mixed feelings.  A part of wants to stay during the winter months with all of our wonderful new friends and yet we know we need to go home and finish things there.  I am really excited to see my dog.  We have missed him so much and he has been so ill but a little miracle has happened in his life and ours and we know that we will be able to see him soon.  We will be home on the 29th of September. 

We have had many friends come to see us this summer and we have loved that.  Nauvoo is a very special place and I hope that many more of you can come to visit next summer.  We just found out that The Young Ambassadors and the BYU Ballroom Dancers will be here next June.  That will really be fun and exciting. 

We miss you all and are looking forward to seeing you soon either at school, church or the temple.  We have lots to share with you. 

I will be posting this letter and pictures on our blog (curtisreview of old nauvoo@blogspot).  Hope to see you in a month.

Love,

Sherry  

The Pageant and Young Performing Missionaries

The Nauvoo Pageant

More pictures of the Pageant.

Joseph and Emma dancing in "Love Letters to Joseph."

Young Performing Missionaries - 2014

Our Sarah Granger Cast at "Sunset by the Mississippi"

Young Performing Missionaries and our cast at Sunset.  Dave and I are near the right side.

Who would have thought that tap dancing would be a part of our mission?

Heber C. Kimball taking the gospel to the people in England.  The church would not have survived if the members from the British Isles had not gathered in Nauvoo to give strength to the church.

Remembering July in Nauvoo

This gorgeous picture was taken by Trevor.  It is so incredibly beautiful.

"Listen carefully, Thomas.  You will be tripping over your whiskers before you see me sitting atop any wagon, leaving Nauvoo."

Don't you just love these expressions in "Rendezvous?"

Trevor, Michelle Me, Kendra and Dave at the Stone Bridge.  It was so much fun having family here to enjoy Nauvoo with us.

Trevor in front of the Nauvoo Temple.  It had been 20 years since our family came on vacation to Nauvoo.  Only the cornerstones were left of the temple back then, waiting for it to be rebuilt.

July is Over

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been a long time since I have written and that is because we have been so incredibly busy during the month of July.  We had a lot of visitors in Nauvoo and the sites were busy all day long giving tour after tour.  One day we gave out 951 cookies in the bakery and during the month of July there were over 47,000 visitors in the Visitors Center.  People line up early in the morning for the carriage and wagon rides and stand in lines for all the productions.  It is an exciting time with the Brass Band and the bagpipers in town.  The pageants were magnificent and we loved every moment of this exciting month.

We had some wonderful visitors during the month of July.  We had Faye Avarell and her sister, Amy, come for five days.  It was so much fun to show them around.  The next week we had Kendra, Kim Verespey and Caitlyn, Danny and Emma.  We then had Trevor and Michelle.  It is so much fun to show our loved ones around Nauvoo as it is such a special place and we love it here so much.  Nan and Richard Hunter, Ann and Steve Hayden and lots of Nan's grandchildren were here the first part of July.  It was all so exciting.  The last night of the pageant was Saturday night and now it is beginning to quiet down a lot.  The Young Performing Missionaries are here for one more week and then there will just be wagon and carriage rides and "Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo."  Dave's brother and sister-in-law are coming next week-end and my friend, Liz Semichy, is coming for eight days near the end of August.  By September it will be quiet in Nauvoo and the missionaries will then begin to bake cookies, make bricks and prairie diamond rings, getting ready for the thousands of visitors next summer.  They also do lots of indexing and making humanitarian kits for babies and hospitals.

Many of our friends are nearing the end of their 18 month mission and are getting ready to go home.  We will miss them so much.  I have never met this many friends in such a short amount of time.  By the end of October, there will only be a skeleton crew of missionaries to carry on the work.  Dave and I will be home from our first six months on the 29th of September.  We have very mixed feelings about leaving but this is our call and we have things that we need to finish up and accomplish at home.  We have decided to leave our car here with our friends and take the train home.  We will then use our truck to get around in before it is time to come back.  We are coming home on the train.  It leaves from Ft. Madison (15 minutes from here) and takes us to San Bernardino.  We will see how that goes.  We will leave a lot of our stuff here and just take home our clothes.

Our mission has been life-changing.  We have loved every moment of it.  We were just put in as assistant site leaders over the Nauvoo Visitor's Center.  We wear church clothes instead of our period clothing every day.  We are there four days a week and only one or two days in the sites.  It is not my favorite place to be but we have decided to be immediately obedient to whatever we are asked to do and so we are doing it happily.  At least we get to work together. 

We love doing "Sunset By the Mississippi" and we will really miss that when it closes this week.  We also love doing "Rendezvous."  It runs all year - rain or shine - no audience or big audience.  There are three casts this summer but the rumor is is that there will be only two in the winter.  We shall see.

We love you all and know that your thoughts and prayers are with us.  Ours are with you, also.  We pray that your lives are happy and you have had a happy summer. 

Love,

Dave and Sherry