July is Here

Dear Friends and Family,

Can you believe that the summer is half over?  The mission here has been gearing up for July when all the people come to see the pageants.  There are people all over the place.  Dave and I worked in the Browning Gun Shop on Sunday with another couple and I can't even tell you how many people we had in that four and a half hour period.  Fortunately, the two men were good at it because their two wives had never served there before.  You only work with your spouse on Sunday.  Other days you work with another sister and the gun shop is usually a man's site.

We love it here!  We love the people and we love the missionaries.  We work hard.  This is not a Disneyland mission!  When you open a site in the morning you clean, dust, vacuum, and sweep.  You are on your feet for six hours.  You hurry home and change your clothes and then you either go to "Rendezvous" or "Sunset."  We have two evenings off a week.  We use any spare time to learn "Preach My Gospel," study the scriptures, write to family, study your site book for the next day, listen to conference talks, go to the temple, etc.   We have lots of memorizing of songs and lines in the plays.  It is not a mission for the faint in heart.

Until you have walked on these streets, you cannot really understand what the pioneers gave up when they were forced out of here.  We drove over to Montrose, on the other side of the river last Wednesday, and looked back on the beautiful city.  I can only imagine their heartache as they looked back, seeing Nauvoo for the last time.  The wagons lined up and came down Parley to cross the river.  It used to be called the Trail of Tears but President Hinckley, who was president of our church until 5 years ago,  changed the name to the Trail of Hope.  Our mission president, President Gibbons, told us that the pioneers were not here to build cities, they were here to build faith.  I love telling their beautiful stories in the homes.  But, I mostly tell the visitors that no matter how many homes or artifacts you see, if they were here what they would want you to know most is that they loved the Lord, they loved the Prophet Joseph Smith, they loved Brigham Young and that they would do whatever was asked of them because they had such great faith.  Wilford Woodruff asked that we not forget the sacrifice and it is by coming and visiting here, that we don't forget. 

We are doing our vignette in "Rendezvous" once a week, two performances in a row.  Since some of the bridges are out across Iowa because of flooding, many visitors have had to make detours to make it across the rivers.  There were two busloads coming from Canada on Saturday night.  They had 60 tickets to "Rendezvous."  The busses screached up and some people ran off but we were already half way through the second performance.  It was decided to to a third performance just for them.   We made history.  No one has ever done three performances in a row!  There were 101 of them.  They were very appreciative.

The pageants have started.  We saw the Nauvoo one on Tuesday and it was wonderful.  We are seeing the British Pageant on Friday.  I hear that one is even better than the first.  I can't wait.  Trevor is coming to see that one.  I am sure that he will love it as he went to the MTC in Preston, England. 

We are looking forward to friends and family coming over the next few weeks.  Nan and Richard Hunter and some of their children and grandchildren are coming next week, Faye Avarell and her sister are coming on Saturday the 19th, Kim Verespey and her kids are coming at the same time as Kendra, Trevor and Michelle are coming at the end of the month and then my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and some of their family are coming the first part of August. 

I put some pictures on my blog yesterday.  You are welcome to look at it.  It is called Curtis Review of Old Nauvoo @ blogspot.  I will put this letter on there, too.

We love you all and appreciate you thoughts and prayers in our behalf.  

Love,  Sherry