Week 11 (September 9 -- September 16, 2013)

Hello:

We had a great week!!!!!!

Sunday evening we went to a "sociable" fireside tonight.  The speaker was Mr. Lachian Mackay who is the director of the local Community of Christ Church (Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).  He talked about the lives of the children of Joseph and Emma Smith.  It was a very informative and interesting meeting. 

Sister Pincock served at the Cultural Hall on Monday and while there got to play the piano for the Smith's audition, a new couple that just arrived for their mission.  The Smith's sang the hymn "Called To Serve". 

On Tuesday we went to Hannibal Missouri with one of the couples that live nearby and have the same preparation day as us.  Hannibal is where Samuel Clements lived (the famous author whose pen name was Mark Twain and wrote the famous story of Tom Sawyer).  We visited the sites that Clements  wrote about in the book the "Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn".  We visited the Huck Finn house, (actual home of Clements best friend, whose real life name was Tom Blankenship),   the Becky Thatcher house (actual home of the girl that lived across the street) , saw the Tom Sawyer picket fence and many of the other historic sites in Hannibal.  We also went on a river boat ride that took us past Jackson Island which is where Tom Sawyer had some great adventures exploring and being pirates. The island is just down river from Hannibal and looks like it would be a great place for kids to hide and play.  Mark Twain wrote about the island as being an escape and provided for many exciting times in the life of Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher.  




Tom Sawyer house ( where Samuel Clements actually lived)

Elder Pincock's sweetheart at Becky Thatcher's home

Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher!!!


We were going to go through the Tom Sawyer cave but the afternoon was getting late and we still needed to get our shopping done so went back to Quincy and did our shopping at Sam's Club and Walmart.  (yes, we did buy some raspberries at Sam's).  It was a very fun day and we will go back sometime and see all the things we missed.  We did get back to Nauvoo in time to take some beautiful pictures of the sunset on the Mississippi again.  Wow, what a sunset spectacular!!!

another sunset on the Mississippi

Wednesday we served together at the Nauvoo Visitors Center.   Our training meeting this morning was about the value of senior missionaries.  Wow, senior couples are sure needed.  Elder Pincock is good with the visitors that come to the center.  He enjoys talking to them and is not afraid to say "hello".  Must be from all those years at greeting customers that came into the bank.

On Thursday, Sister Pincock worked at the bakery.  It is a fun spot because the visitors get a gingerbread cookie, so it is always busy.  She served with  Sister Brockbank who is a single sister
serving her mission here.  Sister Brockbank's husband passed away many years ago when they had 11 children at home.  She raised them alone and the family is expecting her 70th grandchild this year.  What a great example of a faithful mother.

On Friday Elder Pincock worked at the Family Living Center making ropes and also making rugs on the looms.  Sister Pincock worked at the Land and Records office where she helped people search the records for information about their ancestors that lived in Nauvoo.  She is getting very good at using the computers and understanding real estate legal descriptions.  Way to go Sister Pincock!!!!! Computers????

We attended the  nightly musical of Rendezvous.  We went because Elder Pincock has a part on our show tomorrow of being a "horse" and he needed to see where and what a "horse" does.  Being a horse is not difficult but requires the person to bend over at the waist, and some of the senior men can not bend over too well so the "younger" (Elder Pincock??)  Elders get to be the horses.

Sister Garner, Sister Holt and Sister Richardson

Tonight the young Sister missionaries came to our apartment to practice teaching us.  The young Sister Missionaries are getting ready to receive their reassignment for their missions for the next six months.  They are called to serve in the Nauvoo Mission and spend six months here during the summer working at the visitors center. (the church cannot have proselyting missionaries in Nauvoo) When the summer crowds are gone the Sisters are reassigned to another mission somewhere in the United States for 6 months.  Then the next spring they come back to Nauvoo again for the busy summer months. So in preparation for their reassignment to be proselyting missionaries they come to the senior homes to practice teach and we act as investigators.  It is fun to have these young wonderful spiritual women in our home.  Tonight they taught us about the Plan of Happiness. They drew a picture of the Spirit World, the veil, earth, death, spirit world and degrees of glory.  It was a cute drawing so we have included the picture.

Saturday night we went to the local high school booster club fund raising dinner.  It was BBQ beef with salads, chips, drinks and some yummy dessert.  It kinda brought back some fun memories of all the years Elder Pincock supported the Madison Booster Club.  A lot of the senior missionaries supported the fund raiser so hopefully the school should be happy to have our donation.

On Saturday, Elder Pincock worked at the brickyard.  Elder Excel, who is the site leader, said that we need to make 15,000 bricks before spring so that they have enough inventory to get through the busy summer months next year.  That is a lot of bricks!

Elder Pincock performed tonight as a "horse" in Rendezvous.  He did well for the 15 seconds the part lasted.  We had two shows to perform because there were so many people that were visiting this weekend. It was a fun evening.  We enjoy doing these shows because the audience likes them so much.

The weather sure has changed.  It was very warm during the week but we had some rain on Sunday and the high temperature was only about 70 degrees.  It is supposed to be cool all week so maybe summer is about over.  We had some good church meetings today and then we went to the Land and Records office to work for the afternoon.  The historic sites are open on Sunday's because they are National historic sites. Elder Pincock caught on very quickly how to help people do the research and help them determine where their ancestors homes were located and he learned how to burn a CD for them.  The CD's give all the historical information about the family members that lived in Nauvoo, their real estate, what ward they lived in etc.  All the historical information the Church has about the people that lived here.  Any one who had ancestors that lived in Nauvoo  can let us know and we can get the information for you on a CD and send it to you.  Just let us know.

Elder Pincock at a computer in the Land and Records Office (looks like he is at home)

While we were at the Lands and Records office we found a book with names of all the women who donated to the Woman of Faith Statues that were originally displayed in Salt Lake City and now are displayed here in Nauvoo.  The names were listed by Stake and Ward and we found names of people that lived in the wards where we lived as kids.  We have attached a picture of the record of women living in the Pocatello East Stake, 14th Ward.  If you look closely you can see the name of Elder Pincock's mother, Shirley Pincock.  We found the names of other relatives, Becky Pincock, Aunt Winnie Sharp and the names of Zola and Paula Hancock that are our friends that lived in Pocatello at the same time.  It was fun to see all the names of people that we know.

Pocatello Idaho East Stake, 14th Ward

Women of Faith ( one of 13 statues)

Elder Robert C. Gay of the Quorum of Seventy is here for a couple of days doing a mission tour.  Elder Gay spoke to us on Sunday night about some of his experiences while serving as a Mission President in Ghana, Africa.  he gave a powerful testimony and while he spoke we thought about our friends, President and Sister Shulz, who currently serving as Mission president in Ghana.


We had a wonderful week with many different experiences.  The very best though is the opportunity to be here in this historic spiritual place and invite others to "Come Unto Christ".


We love you all and hope that you have a great week.  Do your best always!

E/S Pincock