Burlington

There's the sign I will talk about in the next picture.

The two churches you see coming up have an interesting thing about them, they are both for sale. There are a whole lot of the older church buildings in Burlington that are for sale. I don't know if it's lack of congregation, too costly to repair or why they are, but I found it interesting.

I was driving down the road while taking this picture, so the thing I wanted didn't come in very clearly, but the marquee tells when the Bees baseball game is and then advertises church that evening at 5:30 PM.

One of the old churches in Burlington. That's what I call "Letting the light in".

In case you don't remember your history, that was about the time that Nauvoo was being settled. This is at the welcome center in Burlington just as you cross over the bridge on HWY 34 from Illinois.

Goodbye Old Girl

Last Sunday, the band and the stage missionaries joined together to sing "Invocation", the signautre song of the YPMs. In this grouping are the kids I became closest to, minus one and I never did get her picture. We say goodbye so often in Nauvoo, it's almost like, Okay, just get out of here. But the truth is I kept singing the song "Don't you let my heart know that you're leavin'... Leave me now, before my heart finds out."

Some of the Young Performing Missionaries at the Talent show, which is also their big goodbye. The sister on the far right is Sister Smith. She is an orchestra teacher and is fabulous on the violin and the clarinet. We had a lot of good visits together. It was hard to see the band go. They would stop by Land and Records every day but Sunday and get a popsicle of some other little treat we had for them and visit for a few minutes.

Oops, I uploaded the wrong picture--- this is the table setting for the goodbye party I threw for Sister Longhurst. We had all of the Senior Single Sisters in the mission over to our home for dinner and an ALOHA. It was pretty fun even if I do say so myself.

Elder and Sister Andrus, and Elder Black as they did their "goodbye". It was really funny. They kept moving around on the stage like they were going to put on a huge production and finally they sang, "Well goodbye to Nauvoo" took a bow and sat down. I loved it!!!

Elder and Sister Camp and Elder and Sister Myers were the directors of the Sunset by the Mississippi. The Myers were asked to stay on until the end of Sunset, which they did and were so fun. The Camps were primarily responsible for the Young Performing Missionaries, but had the final word on any staging or scripting changes.

Elder and Sister Foster were our zone leaders along with Elder and Sister Nelson sitting behind the two that are standing. They met the Ludwigs in Colorado and were very good friends.

Sister Longhurst, my former companion , sitting literally in the limelight as they made all the departing missionaries sit on the sunset stage at 6:45 AM while we said goodbye to them with a breakfast of cinnamon rolls, bisquits and gravy, sausage, fruit, juice and eggs. If I had my way we'd have scrambled eggs, and hot cakes cooked on Dad's grills and we'd start the thing somewhere around 9 AM, but that's not negotiable.

Ghost hunting

One of the challenges of Land and Records is being accurate with the information you provide people, so if you're not afraid of chiggers or big dogs, you chase down leads on headstones in obscure places and come up with truth. Such was the case with this lady from Nauvoo. Her husband sold the original 135 acres of Commerce to Joseph Smith. It seemed important to make sure we had good information on her. If you look between the weeds you can see EME the beginnings of her name.

If you look carefully you can see "died" and April 11 on the born.

Why that looks like a headstone to me!

Tomatoes

This may not look like much to you, but this is the first tomatoe I've grown since Dad died. I am excited to eat the "fruits of my labors".

In Nauvoo, you don't irrigate your crops, you rely on the rain. With our 100 degree temperatures, my poor little plant doesn't look like much but I remind it that I love it and it continues to produce.

Nauvoo Restoration Incorporated

Located near what used to be known as the upper landing of Nauvoo, the main offices of NRI are an amazing site. They have some of the nicest furnishings in Nauvoo, and certainly some of the hardest work in Nauvoo. Nauvoo Restoration Incorporated was started by Dr. LeRoy Kimball, second great grandson to Heber C. and Vilate Kimball. He came back to Nauvoo and bought his great grandfather's home. When he saw how interested people were in the home, he began the process of restoring Nauvoo. He was president of NRI for 25 years.

I don't know that this shot gives the full detail of how large the shops are and how many there are. My car is in front of the main office about the size of the old Walmart in Riverdale. The shop behind it is about twice that size,and the one in back where the truck is parked is about the same size as the second building. In addition, there are two more buildings that I couldn't get in to the picture. It's a city almost unto itself. There are 16 full time employees and there are 45 missionaries that keep Nauvoo maintained, plumbed, safe, gardened, watered, mowed, and finanacial records.

This is the greenhouse at NRI--empty. During the late winter and early spring about 10,000 plants are planted and grown to be placed all over Nauvoo. It is remarkable to think of all the work that goes into keeping this place as beautiful as it is.