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!!