Winter Quarters and Nauvoo

Church history part of our trip begins:

First stop - Winter Quarters, Nebraska

Second stop: Nauvoo, Illinois

Austin's parents have been in Nauvoo serving an 18-month mission. When we were there, they only had 6 weeks to go.  They were great missionaries and I am so glad we go to go and see them in action. Nauvoo is an amazing place. We were charmed with the perfect weather - not too hot or humid.

 Elder Nunn is the site manager for the Barn.  They take care of all of the horses they use to pull the wagons and carriages.  We got to go on a wagon ride with Grandpa as the narrator and a carriage ride with Grandma as the narrator. We loved hearing their comments and testimonies of Nauvoo.

Who knew they were also great actors, singers and dancers?  The missionaries perform in Rendezvous and Sunset on the Mississippi. We also LOVED seeing the young performing missionaries performing plays and vignettes. During one of the first plays with the young missionaries, Austin kept recognizing kids he had taught in school in Utah. It was fun to be able to talk to them. They were surprised to see Mr. Nunn.
We also LOVED the Nauvoo Pageant.  It is worth going to Nauvoo in the summer to see.

Sister Nunn is a site leader at Lands and Records. You can go there and look up your ancestors who lived in Nauvoo and find out where they lived.

 We made it to most of the homes and sites of Nauvoo.  Lucy's favorite: Lucy Mack Smith house. Carly's favorite: Cultural Hall (because we danced upstairs).

 Jill and Hanna got to do baptisms for the dead in the Nauvoo Temple. Austin and I went with his parents through a session. We loved it.

Carly in the kids parade before Sunset on the Mississippi.

Carthage Jail is an amazing place and a big part of church history. We went on Sunday afternoon and so did a ton of other people. It was crowded, but we still felt the spirit of Joseph.

Nate and Malinda Nelson went on a cross country trip this summer, and we ended up in Nauvoo at the same time for a few hours.

Can you believe Malin hugged me? Only in Nauvoo.

This is what she really preferred - hand hug.

For some reason, Jill connected with Sister Zabetti at the Visitor's Center. If Jill ever goes on a mission, we will owe it to Sister Zabetti.