Happy Anniversary FOR ETERNITY!

On Wednesday, December 18th Elder Cullen and I Celebrated our 31st Anniversary by working, then attending the Nauvoo Temple to do work for our ancestors. Reg and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the Oakland Temple. Temples are the only place where priesthood authority resides to bind families together forever. Every temple has it's own beauty and feeling inside and out, but the ordinances there are the same and purpose is the same. To bring families together forever. I love to see the temple. Every morning we drive past it, and ever day after work as we walk to the parking lot, we look up on the hill and see it sitting on the bluff like a great guardian Angel looking over our fair city of Nauvoo glowing night and day. It's a very peaceful and beautiful place to be.

You can click https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/temples/why-latter-day-saints-build-temples?lang=eng to find out more about temples and other wonderful things that take place inside.

There and Back Again Week 7

We've just finished our first Month in Nauvoo and these wonderful people are like family to us. They check on us when we're sick (Elder Cullen missed a week of work!), they bring dinner and treats...just because (Think 50 special grandmas and grandpas...missing their families and all nurturing each other with the best treats and food in the world.) They go on driving adventures with us, play games, sing, play instruments, and work darn hard in the freezing weather. I couldn't ask for a better group of people to work with.

Speaking of COLD weather....we had an ice storm which scared us. We canceled all driving and walked the one block to the store to get something but regretted it.. SLIPPERY SAM!!!! We ended up trapsing across people's lawns because they had more traction and would hurt less when we fell. The side walks were suicidal. I've never experienced anything quite like it. Here are some pictures my daughter took of her front yard! She lives in Iowa City 2 hours from us.

YAH...that's ICE because it was raining in sub zero weather...My question is...why wasn't it snowing?? I'll have to go to Google University to figure that one out. LOL Love you all!

The Power of Fasting and Prayer

Over a decade ago I ordered a VHS called transformations that showed real examples of the power of fasting, prayer, and faith in Jesus Christ. I KNOW that through faith in Jesus Christ we CAN change the world...start in your own heart, then watch the power of God do His work through you. Doubt not, fear not. Please watch this video and start your miracle now! This is Part one. Part Two is below.

SLOW is FAST and CLEAR is KIND!

A Week ago we got a new boss...I'll call her Sister J. She looks SO young but she had adult children and grandchildren. She is a bright light and is continually modeling Christlike behavior. Because she's new to this department and the rest of us are new too there is a LOT we have to learn together. She taught us that "SLOW is FAST" meaning, if we are patient and take the time for EVERYONE on the team to learn how to do everything....then later on we'll all be able to work very fast because everyone will be properly trained and everyone will know how to do every task. We can totally divide and conquere many assignments at once. My job has been to document everything the team has identified as problematic...unclear procedures, missing items, faulty or redundant tasks. This has been quite an undertaking. Every time we think we have it all "Tied up with a bow", we get a new assignment and we find we're still bumbling around and things need to be added or deleted or clarified. Today was particularly frustrating and I could tell our morale was slipping. We were divided into teams to check out some Young Sister Missionary Housing. We thought it was just a check of the exited missionaries home. It ended up being a deep clean and it took each team 4 hours and we still hadn't finished. The Basements were the scariest... Ancient and spidery...lol We realized we had forgotten to put dust caps in our totes...our heads were inches from the spiders..we didn't get our normal lunch/snack break because we had all left our food at the office "knowing" these homes only take us a couple hours. So we were both tired and hungary and thirsty...and yet, no one complained or lost their temper. They stayed kind and considerate of each other. At our end of day feedback council, many people expressed their thoughts on how we could have done this better. We were direct, unaccusing, and kind and it ended up being a very productive day. Sister J was so grateful for the feedback and so grateful for everyone's work, their comments and observations. I added MORE edits to our inventory lists and protocols. Tomorrow we will test them again on another assignment. I can't wait until this "slow" part is over and we can start being FAST! LOL Actually I am extremely grateful that we're here now at this SLOW time to learn all of this. In March hundreds of people will be staying here to be in the shows and help with the thousands of visitors...We will not even have time to think. So...grateful for this learning period. I can feel Heavenly Father blessing me with energy and strength.. My knees don't even hurt walking up and down stairs...it's a miracle.

There and Back Again: Week 6

WE LOVE OUR JOBS!!! Elder Cullen is making hundreds, maybe thousands of picket fences to protect young trees from the deer, to put around archeological digs (old basements and foundations), and unsightly other things to make Nauvoo safe and beautiful. He's also repairing an OX cart that got broken from an OX going coo coo. Those guys are STRONG!

Reg says, "The door didn’t close easily so I got to fix it. The Mansion House was the second residence of Emma and Joseph in Nauvoo. It was great to be in this home alone. I was visualizing the Smith family living, working, and entertaining in this home."

I am LOVING my job! I need to take pictures of me doing my job! LOL This is a picture of our rear view mirror on the way to work at 6:50am.. Do you see it's 11 degrees!! Today it was 50 degrees and we went out without jackets! I guess we're acclimatizing. ALSO THIS WEEK we had FOUR performances for Christmas. One on Thursday we had a Caroling in Carthage gig, two on Friday, I had a harmonica performance....OH my! We just started two weeks ago, we were not good, but we were brave. Friday night our Celtic Community choir did an hour performance, then again on Saturday night. Autumn and her boys (Emmet age 7 and Taran age 2) came down Friday to experience the Nauvoo Christmas Walk. There was a wonderfully beautiful and Sacred creation in the Activity center as it was decorated like Jerusalem and as our group walked from "scene" to scene, it would come alive and tell the part of the Nativity and people who saw Christ as a baby or child. It was very cool. The angels are some of my friends from housing where I work. videos and pictures posted below. Having Autumn and the boys here for the weekend was a delightful treat. ALSO, due to the new aquisitions from the Community of Christ.... this week The Collections/Artifacts care department and the Housing Dept separated and we got a NEW boss. Because Housing has never been it's own department we got to work with our new boss to create OUR own way of doing things. It was SO fun to team build, and Sister Barnard and I got to document all of the protocals, procedures, and Inventory lists for each type of housing (Missionary, Guest, Pagaent) We also made a huge list of questions, purchasing needs, and tasks to do. We will NEVER be bored. It was EXTREMELY satisfying to be allowed to work on organization and creating documents so that ANYONE could now start working with us and know what to do. It's all written out. I really really love my job here. I feel My Savior helping me to have energy and strength to do what needs to be done. I spend hours cleaning, DEEP cleaning and organizing and I have joy. That's the fun part. The infamous harmonica performance (we had only been practicing for two weeks! BUT it was a very family like environment..fun and funny) The more professional Celtic Community Choir! I LOVED it. Wish I could post the whole thing

We REALLY loved having the McConegheys here!

My Angel Friends

Just ONE more reason why we love serving here!!

Christmas Devotionals for EACH DAY of December!

Last year on my youtube channel I recorded a Christmas Devotional for each day of December. Each 5-10 min devotional includes a sing a long Christmas Carol, a verse of Scripture, and a cozy Christmas Story. Please Enjoy! These devotionals came from a book my mom made me 30 years ago and are an integral part of my children's Christmas memories and they can be just that for you too! It will help you to focus on Jesus Christ every day in a fun way.

There and Back Again: Week 5

Elder Reg Cullen got the job he wanted!!! Carpentery and woodworking. He is so happy. He got to install a door the other day. There is also another part of his job. The new guys gets to sweep! LOL

I also got a job I wanted (since I wanted them all) I get to be with Dobby! I'm a house elf. HAHAH Actually it's quite fun and this week we were going to town cleaning the historic houses and decorating for Christmas and then setting up for two BIG meals: Thanksgiving lunch and dinner for over 100 people. I got to use my creative skills to decorate and make beautiful displays. I was in heaven. PLUS the people I'm working with are really kind, fun, hardworking people. WE got to decorate the President's house too and his wife gave us hot chocolate and she and I played a piano duet and now we've been asked to perform in church on the 22nd. LOL

The cold weather has started! It was 17 degrees this morning as we headed into work. It hurt! and they say it will get colder. But our hard work keeps our blood going so that's fun. As I was sorting photographs in the attic I came across a picture of OLD Nauvoo in the late 1800s. It was sort of like the Three Little Pigs. There were SO many houses back then but those who built their houses out of sticks (wood) their houses are not here any more.. They dissolved into the swamp. Only the BRICK houses remain.

There and Back Again: Week 4

Question of the WEEK: Will Sister Cullen (Heather) be allowed to learn how to drive the snow plow? I have put in my request! LOL Doesn't that look amazing? I think the first test is can I climb one story up to get to the cab. This thing is as tall as my house. So speaking of what job will I be doing....We arrived at Nauvoo LAST Wednesday, a mere five days ago. We had interviews by the head maintenance leaders and were then taken on a tour with another couple to see all the different options we had to serve. It was very much like Hogwarts! Different Houses included: Appliance repair and electrical, Glass cutting and repair (historic glass is harder to cut!), wood working and carpentry (learning to make doors with beveled adornments with NO nails (period style)and other items, small engine repair, automotive repair, irrigation installation and repair and maintenance, Green houses (think professor Sprout!) and landscaping, housekeeping (Dobby and company), HVAC, welding, etc. We were asked to list our top three interests, I couldn't choose. I told them to pick the one no one wanted or was hardest to fill and I'd see if I liked it. They are praying about the assignments and will tell us tomorrow morning before 7am devotional.

This is a picture of our condo complex. Maintainence missionaries don't live in historic Nauvoo. I have called our humble abode "The Shire" because its' over the hill, small, and full of merry and lovely powerful friends who love each other and work hard.

Historic Frolick: On our preperation day we went to Hanibal, MO to visit the Mark Twain Museum and sites. IT was absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed any of Mark Twain's books.

Spriritual awareness: Today at church a sister compared us to untrained horses and Jesus as the horse whisperer. He stands at the middle of the pen and the horse soon learns that there is more peace and rest as it learns to come to the master in the center of the pen. The pen being our world. Whisperers also require the horse to give them BOTH eyes, because horses eyes are on the sides of their heads their vision is two dimensional, also because they are prey, not predators, they need to see behind themselves to survive. When We give Christ BOTH our eyes we are are in essence telling Him, "I trust YOU to watch my back and I will do whatever you ask me to do." Here's hoping I become tame here. NEIGHHHHHHHHH!

WANT to VISIT us in Nauvoo?

This Link below will give you all the information you need. There are hotels and air bnbs here. Book early. We've been told 10,000 people come here every summer! https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/history/sites/historic-nauvoo?lang=eng

There and Back Again: Week 3

THE Mission Training Center (MTC) was a marvelous place where we gathered with 4,000 other missionaries getting ready to go out into the world and learned about the Character of Christ and how to invite people to know Him better. We focused on principals of Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, Repentance (use that atonement!), Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. We were in a district of 8 missionaries the whole week we were there. Some missionaries who are learning foreign languages are there 9 weeks! We grew to love our teachers and our classmates. Then we drove for days, stopping at our daughter, Autumn's house to play, then arrived at our NEW home in Nauvoo, Illinois. We were met by about 10 other Senior Missionaries (old people lol) who helped us unload our car in minutes. We unpacked and made a dinner of sorts...we REALLY need to find the nearest grocery store tomorrow...and headed out to a very fun game night where we met about 40 other senior missionaries who are serving in Nauvoo. Something that was put on my radar: There are so many ages and stages of lovely humans serving here. God will take you as you are and bless you for doing whatever you can. There is no competition or comparing.

OUR Mission Farewell Speeches and song at Church.

There and back again:week 2

Today we blessed a second grandchild, Wells Thomas Cullen. Our second week after being set apart as missionaries we are spending in Missouri with our son, Benjamin and his wonderful wife, Courtnie. Being a part of two blessings really drives home home how grateful I am for the power of temples. Temples are a place where families can be sealed together with priesthood authority for time and all eternity. this week will be filled with delicious food, fun games and yardwork. then on to the Mission Training Center in Provo, Ut.

There and Back Again: A Heather's Tale

So our journey began last Sunday. My mom was able to come for our actual farewell talks and song. All else watched it on Zoom. We left Sunday afternoon to stay at cousin Aileen's house near Tahoe to break up the arduous drive to Eagle Mountain, UT where we would stay to spend time with our daughter Spring and her husband Calen and her daughters, Caluna and Lillian. Lilian was being blessed that Friday. Also, our youngest, Ephraim is living with Spring's family. Uncle Ephraim is a favorite in that house. So much love in their home. We will leave our Toyota with Ephraim for the duration of our mission. Halloween was a delight. the kids were adorable 🥰 We will fly to Missouri for our Ben's son's baby blessing then return to Eagle Mountain and then drive to the mission training center.