Sunday, August 2, 2009

Trip to Nauvo

The second weekend Kathie and I went to Nauvoo, Illinois.This was our third trip. It is always
great going to Nauvoo. We stayed at the Nauvoo Inn, which had very small rooms, but very convient. I think the Nauvoo temple is just beautiful. I think out of 40 pictures I took, 20 of them were of the temple.





We were able to watch the presentation of “Sunset on the Mississippi” and the Nauvoo pageant, twice.

We had seen the Sunset skit on previous visits, but this was the first time we saw the pageant. The Sunset skit is great because it is just down right entertaining. On Friday the Sunset skit had a mini-skit where a person gave the Cinderella story but each word was started with a different letter. It was so funny that when we went back to see it on Saturday I brought my video camera to record it. Unfortunately, that skit wasn’t performed on Saturday night.

The Nauvoo pageant told the story of the settlement of Nauvoo by the Saints. It was very good and uplifting.

Kathie and were also able to visit the Carthage jail where both
Hyrum and Joseph Smith were martyred. The door still has the bullet holes from when they were killed.








In the visitor center they had a section of sculptures that I really liked. Here is one of Joseph Smith's vision of the Father and the Son. And another one with Jesus at Lazurus' tomb.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Trip to Kirtland

While Kathie was with me in Indianapolis we went on two side trips on the week end. The first was to Kirtland, Ohio. Neither one of us had been there before. Kirtland was a site of some of our church’s history. It is interesting to see how people lived ‘in the olden days’, so much different than us today. The living conditions weren't unique to the early Saints, but what was was the sacrifices that they went through. Leaving their homes and in many cases living in more a primitive environment. Also the sacrifice that they made to make the temple. The temple was a big building in those days.

A very interesting fact was the distance between the different places. I had always thought that the homes, cities and farms were next to each other. But they weren’t. Just driving to the John Johnson farm from Kirtland took 45 minutes.


These are some pictures of Newell K. Whitney' store and house. We were told a yellow house was a sign of wealth.






This is the John Johnson home. The bed room had an intersting checkered floor.






Kirtland is also in Amish country, and we saw some of them.



Indianapolis


Since Kathie had a break from work this summer she spent some time with me on my business trip. Here are some pictures in Indianapolis.

This is a picture of the monument at Monument Circle.


This is a canal that goes through the city. I eat lunch here sometimes.


Youth Conference - Pioneer Trek



Kathie and I spent some time as cooking assistants for the Greensboro Stake youth conference. Our youth partook in a pioneer trek reenactment. We worked hard but had fun. Kathie hasn't camped out that much so sleeping in a small two man tent wasn't very fun.