Our stake youth group took 280 people to Nauvoo, IL on July 15-19. There were 60 adults and 220 youth. Ragnar is in the stake young mens organization and was asked to attend and therefore I was asked to go as well. I'll be honest, I was not very excited to attend. Mostly for the super long bus rides! I do not enjoy road trips. Given that we had just had a hurricane, there were some hiccups with the transportation company and some logistics, but we made it work.
Monday started off horribly. We had to register the kids in the dark because the church lost power, the bus company was an hour late, then we had to stop for another 1.5 hours to get all the busses gas, they didn't have enough drivers so the drivers were exhausted, many busses lost air conditioning, and Ragnar spent the last 3 hours talking to our bus driver keeping him awake because our bus only had one driver and the others had 2. Needless to say, our 15 hour tops bus ride turned into almost 22 and we didn't arrive until 3:00 a.m. It truly was a miracle that we even arrived safely.
I timed us from door to door. From leaving the stake center, to arriving at the Old Nauvoo Inn.We only got 3 hours of sleep and had to be up with our company to attend baptisms in the temple. Cavin and Ella both came on the trip but were on different busses and different companies. We were with the orange company and our Ma and Pa were the Lindsays, Jen and Mike. We were the aunt and uncle.
The temple is beautiful. The baptismal font has stairs leading up to it and a cool spiral staircase you can look up to. I loved it.
Rachael and Jen got to be on the same bus with me all week and it was fun to be with them.
We took a huge group picture with everyone at the temple before we all went to the Nauvoo pageant. This was our 21 kids we were in charge of.
Cavin participated in the county fair dancing which was fun to watch.
We had great seats and it was so fun to see the pageant.
Cavin got to meet the actor who played "Joseph"The next day we toured historic Nauvoo and saw many of the historic sites, went to the living center, rode a horse wagon ride, the gunsmith shop, the post office, John Taylors home, the red brick store, the Smith homes etc. It was neat to be there. Ella was in love with the assembly hall and the live performances. I guess you can try out to be a performing missionary and serve there. She got the missionaries card and now is determined to try out and do that as part of her mission! Ella and Cavin both had great groups which I am grateful for. On Wednesday we got to go to Carthage Jail which was one of my favorite stops.
Here Cavin is standing at the window where Joseph Smith fell and died. Ella and her friend Cayden participated together in the trail of hope which was nice. It was neat to see where the pioneers crossed the river. Thursday we went to Liberty Jail and Adam Ondi Ahman.
Liberty Jail was not at all what I remember it as a child, it looks more like a museum now, but there was still a spirit there.
The weather all week was beautiful and we were grateful it wasn't near as hot as we thought it would be.
It ended up being a really nice week. The kids in our company didn't complain and they were really good troopers with all of the walking. Adam Ondi Ahman was my favorite. I was of the attitude that even though it was great to see all the historic sites, that I didn't need to actually be in those places to feel the spirit of it all. I could read D&C and feel that. However, the testimony meeting there with our company changed my mind. This experience wasn't for me, but it was very beneficial to so many who needed to be there to feel the spirit of it all. The kids in our company bore special testimonies and the patriarch who spoke to us before was wonderful.
All in all, I am grateful Ragnar and I had the chance to go and that my parents were kind enough to watch Channing and Deacon while we were away. It was a great experience.
