Week Four

Hello Everybody!!!

We are a week late.  Hope that you did not miss our update too much last week.  It is the very busy season here in Nauvoo because of the Pageant and all of the other vignettes that tell the stories of the people that lived here and their experiences in Nauvoo.

Lilly pads in the Mississippi with their white blossoms

Above is a picture of the Lilly Pads on the Mississippi River.  You can see that the beautiful white flowers are starting to bloom.  Because of our busy schedule, I'm not sure if we have missed the full bloom or not.  We did not get a chance to drive back there to see.  We will check it out on our P-Day on Tuesday.  

line of people waiting for the vignette about the TRAIL OF HOPE on Parley Street

Two weeks ago our speakers in church were Elder Craig Christiansen, of the Quorum of the Seventy, and his wife Debbie.  Above you can see the Seventy Hall on Parley Street and the line of people waiting to go down the trail of Hope by lantern light.  Along the trail the young performing missionaries acted as the people whose stories are recorded on the reader boards.  Their talents just keep going on and on.  You can see the sun setting  and the mini tours ready to begin.  It was a great experience.   We were just told tonight that this event had been canceled because it had rained all day and the forecast was for more rain to come.  But you can see that the rain didn't matter to people.  They wanted to see the story.  At the very last minute it was decided that if people were there to participate then the missionaries should be there to perform.  There was no more rain during the evening and the vignette was wonderful.  Most of us did not get the message that it had been canceled and when the young performing missionaries got there there were hundreds of us waiting in line for it.  It was a Nauvoo Miracle and we are so glad we got to see it as it was the last performance of the year for this event.

On Monday I met a Sister while serving at the Wilford Woodruff Home who is a relative of the Pincock family.  She is a descendant of the King line.  We let her take the Pincock History book and she was thrilled to copy pictures in that book of her family members.  I also met a Sister Hatch who was a neighbor of Ducky and Floyd Haymore (Davids aunt and uncle) in their "big" house in Mesa.  The Pincock Blog readers might enjoy this information.                                                                                                                          

Sister Pincock at the fountain in Quincy Illinois

On Tuesday, our Preparation Day,  we drove to Quincy, about an hour away to do our shopping for the week.  We stopped at this park to eat our picnic lunch and enjoy the traffic crossing the Mississippi River Bridge. 
We had several meetings with Sister Dahl this week, as she is the director of the Rendezvous  show and she prepared us to start being in the production.  I had a few fittings for my Rendezvous dress and got it finished.   We have also started participating in the outdoor stage show of Sunset By the Mississippi.  We are having a ball or do I mean bawl?  Things are happening so fast!!

Elder Pincock doing the tours at the Printing Office

We have especially enjoyed working at the sites.  This was one of Elder Pincock's assignments .  He has served at the Gun shop,  Blacksmith Shop, Tin Shop, and the Family Living Shop.  My assignments were at the Wilford Woodruff Home, Brigham Young's House, the Log School House, Sarah Granger Kimball's House,  (the real place where Relief Society started), and the Heber C. Kimball House.  You can only imagine the study time we are putting in and the remarkable amount of information we are learning about this wonderful place and the wonderful people who lived in this town of Nauvoo.
This is the stage where we perform at Sunset By the Mississippi.  Do we look as stressed as we felt after our 1st performance?


Us at our 1st performance at Sunset by the Mississippi variety show

On Friday morning, we had a special training meeting with Elder Dallin H. Oakes who spoke to us, along with his wife.  He was here attending a family reunion, and came to the meeting in tennis shoes and khaki pants. ( He also had on a suit coat.)  He had already sent his luggage ahead to the train station in Burlington because the family was leaving later that afternoon.  He gave a grand talk about the financial affairs of the Smith Family in the days of Old Nauvoo.  Fascinating!

The Nauvoo Band making their tour of Old Nauvoo with their driver, Elder Gale Harding

If you look close on the back row, some of you might  recognize Elder Foster, the son of Ann Hymas and grandson of Lynette and Jerry Sanders of Rexburg.  If I said it a hundred times I would still not be able to tell you how incredibly talented these performing missionaries are.  They equal  the performers in Disney Land.  Below is a close up of Elder Foster.  What a dedicated Elder.  Even with the tragedy that occurred in his family this summer he stayed here on his mission to serve the Lord.  Fantastic man of faith.

Elder Foster with his trumpet

Sister Pincock giving tours at the Pendleton home and log school house.

Of course I loved serving at the log school house and learning about the school system in those days.

Our daughter Cammie and her family visiting us

A highlight has been to have family members visiting and being able to share this fantastic little town with them. We had a delightful time with Cammie, the boys and little Libby. We missed Lucas who is in Minnesota and Canada fishing with his family.  We are so grateful for their visit and their safe arrival back in Rexburg last evening.  We are waiting for our next visitors.  Who wants to come next?  You are all invited. 


"Our Story Goes On" performance with the Nauvoo Temple in the background

The night Cammie arrived (last Sunday) there was a special show on the Pageant stage called "Our Story Goes On".  It was a Broadway production of our journey through life  with fabulous songs from Broadway Hits.  The temple on the hill shines above our little town and makes a perfect background for the Pageant and other productions. 

celebrating Liberty's birthday

The day they arrived it was Libby's birthday and Paxton had just had his birthday the day before.  How fun for us.  Notice the half and half cake.  Paxton with 14 candles and Libby is 3 already.  This is the little girl who was born while we were in Armenia.


celebrating Paxton's birthday


Can you tell we are busy, busy, busy, and happy, happy, happy  with just a little pinch of stress.
We are extremely fortunate to be here and participate in all that is going on and to see what an influence this history has on the people who come here to visit.  There are Nauvoo Miracles that happen daily and we are blessed to be part of  it.  Have a great week and we will send the last week's blog in a couple of days.  Thanks for your prayers and support.
Love,  Elder and Sister Pincock