Week 24 and 25: December 9th to December 19, 2013

Hello again.

Before we begin our update we would like to wish each of you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a fantastic NEW YEAR!  We love and appreciate each of you so much for all of your love and prayers for all the missionaries.   We don't get any extra days off for Christmas but we find ourselves surrounded by Christmasy things.  Our little downtown has pretty street lights and Old Nauvoo is decorated so cute with wreaths, pine cones and berries and all those old fashioned things.

Tree in Heber C. Kimball home

Heber C. Kimball home

Heber C Kimball home

Now the most exciting news is that our oldest grandchild and granddaughter, Brenna, got her mission call today.  She is going to the Richmond, Virginia Mission on April 23.  We are so excited for her and so happy that she can go to invite others to come unto Christ.  She really wants to go on this mission to tell others about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are so proud of the good work  she does and has always done.  We know she will love the time she spends serving a mission and helping other people in their lives.

People are making fudge, caramels and toffee and all kinds of fun little "neighbor gifts" show up in our mail boxes every day.  We have been involved in Humanitarian projects for the needy and those in the care centers.  I made two lap quilts that turned out cute-I hope they end up with an older man, maybe in an assisted living center. 

On Dec. 10th we traveled to Iowa City to visit sister Mendenhall, the lady who got burned.  She was
in a lot of pain and wasn't very coherent, but she has since had a skin graft and is making better progress.  She even thought she might get to go home for Christmas but this week it seems it will be after Christmas now.  She is in much better spirits  and her husband is holding up well. 

My cookie baking assignment makes the Christmas Spirit shine through.  The gingerbread cookies are for the guests when they visit the Scovil Bakery in Nauvoo but the Christmasy smell of the ginger fits right in with the season.  I have felt a little jinked the last couple of day however.  Yesterday we had baked half of the cookies when I discovered that the fridge was not on and the contents of the fridge were warm.  I thought the dough was sticky because we had used less flour in our last batch to experiment with the moistness.  No! the dough was just warm.  We had to throw out all the cookies we had baked plus the other half of the dough plus 16 dozen eggs that were in the fridge.  The ingredients  were  probably alright but when you are serving things to the public you don't take a chance.  I have to go in this afternoon and make cookie dough so our process will go on.  Oh, yes, the power strip that the fridge was plugged into had been tripped for some reason (maybe a power surge or outage).  

Gingerbread cookies

making cookies

Yesterday I wrote this blog and on the last paragraph I lost the whole document even though I had saved it several times.  Only I could make that happen.  But David is patient with me because he knows how frustrated I get with computer things.  And to top it off, I started this blog today and as I typed the Christmas Tree fell over.  I had just wrapped all the presents and arranged them and had the lights twinkling  when it fell.  It was looking so pretty.  I hope my spell of bad luck is over now.

We went to the Messiah last weekend.  It was at the Saints Peter and  Paul's Cathedral.  Quite a few missionaries sang and played in the orchestra.  It was very well done and such a Spiritual thing to do during the Christmas season. 

Where the Messiah was held-  St Peter and Paul Church

For the last two weeks David and I have taught the Gospel Doctrine class in Sunday School.  We did  team teaching and enjoyed the assignment.  We all take turns here in teaching all the lessons.  We taught the Family Proclamation and Zion- the Pure in Heart.  The same lessons  you all enjoyed on those weeks.  Thanks to Rob and Braeden and Cayden who made it possible for us to use a very effective power point with slides and video clips.  Thanks you guys!!!!! 

Sunday night our Mission President hosted a Family Home Evening with popcorn and the movie-Mr. Kruger's Christmas.  Then they reenacted the stories and live nativity scene and music that they did the night of the Christmas Walk, since most of us were busy helping and did not get to enjoy the activities. 

David and I have been assigned to be assistant site leaders at the Gun Shop and me at the Heber C. Kimball Home.  That means extra duties for the cleaning, maintenance, and study about the history of those sites.

This week we went to Quincy to shop and finish up our Christmas shopping.  We met another couple at the Pier for lunch and had an enjoyable time.  This restaurant overlooks the Mississippi River and has a beautiful view.  It was all snow covered and we saw an eagle flying overhead.  The eagles have migrated to this area around the river and starting in January many more will be moving in.  The river is mostly frozen over now and it is very pretty. 

icy Mississippi River

Susan Easten Black Durrant and George Durrant give Church History lectures 2 times a week.  She is amazing with her knowledge of Church history.  We go to a lot of them and enjoy them.  They are fun to listen to and she knows so much about this area we really like to attend the lectures.    I have finished all my Christmas projects now and put away my sewing machine today.  I really had fun sewing the  doll wedding dresses.  The other day I was with a fun sister who took these cute pictures  as I was finishing the hand work.  I made these dresses out of my wedding dress. 

a doll dress

 

Thanks to our home ward( Rigby 3rd) for the cards, gifts and especially the personalized copy of the Book Of Mormon from Alexis Codere.  It contained a special message and we will make sure we give it to one of our guests.  Thanks to all of you for the cards, gifts, e-mails and prayers.  We really appreciate everyone.  We hope  you have a very enjoyable Christmas and Happy New Year.  Annette and Christian will arrive here Sunday to spend the Holiday with us and we are so excited.  We got the tree tied up and it's looking good again.

Elder Pincock out in the snow

snowman in our neighbors yard

our yard

from the Riser Boot Shop

We brought our older van to the mission field and are proud to say that it now has over 290,000 miles.  Hope it lasts another 12 years!

 

We love you all.   Merry Christmas!
Elder and Sister Pincock

 

Weeks 22 and 23---November 25th to December 8, 2013

Its time to bring you up to date with happenings in our life and mission in Nauvoo.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  It was especially nice because we had family to share it with.  Thank you to Todd and Shannon and Family for making the trip.

What an enjoyable time we had.  It has definitely cured my homesick blues for the time being.  I'm sure they will come back but not for a while.  Especially with more family coming for Christmas.  To see the pictures of the Ricks' trip to Nauvoo including their train ride click on the following toddandshannonricks.blogspot.com

The day The Ricks' family got here we went to the Cultural Hall for a tour.

Ricks family at the Cultural Hall

The E/S Jones were there  and we got to watch them practice for their new parts in Rendezvous.  They are very fun people and the kids really got a kick out of them  We also had a practice because the Ricks  family is going to be part of the Thanksgiving Day program after the meal.  Then we went upstairs to see the original dance floor of the Cultural Hall where the Prophet Joseph and Apostles would have attended dances and banquets.

E/S Pincock dancing? at the Cultural Hall

We all had fun dancing on this same floor and thinking about how it would have been back then. We also went to the Bakery, Boot shop,  Brickyard and Lucy Mack Smith Home.  We had fun meals while they were here and our little apartment was big enough to accommodate everything  and everyone. 

Ricks family at the Log Schoolhouse

On Monday David and I had to be in our sites and they all came to get their tours from Grandma and Grandpa.  They also enjoyed the wagon ride and film at the visitor's Center.  Tuesday we took a special tour called the Martyrdom Trail.  We followed the same path that Joseph and Hyrum took as they went to Carthage for the last time.  Our tour guide was very good and gave us such good information.

Our Martyrdom trail tour van

After the tour our family got to see us perform our parts in Rendezvous.   Wednesday was Braeden's birthday. How fun to celebrate with him presents, games and ice cream and cake.  They also took a little trip about 30 miles from here to Harvestville where they had fun doing crafts and making Christmas plates to use for the Holidays.  On Thanksgiving Day we ate at the Church with all the Missionaries and their  families.

Thanksgiving Dinner at the Church  (about 200 people there)

Enjoying Thanksgiving dinner

Todd and Shannon and David and the kids sang "I am a Child of God" for the Thanksgiving Program and they sang sooo good..  It was a very nice event.  Oh, yes, the food was excellent.  On Friday, I started a new assignment  to bake cookies for the Scovil Bakery Site.  We have to bake 50,000 cookies for this next summer.  We baked over a thousand cookies on this day.  I really enjoyed being there.

making gingerbread cookies for the Scovil Bakery

I took Todd and Shannon and family to the train station in Burlington that evening and hurried home for Rendezvous with parts in every scene on this night.  The Ricks' had cleaned our apartment and put up our Christmas tree that we have been enjoying this week.  We also started our fancy advent calendar from my sister, Sandy, and we are getting very excited for Christmas. 

On Thursday our Rendezvous cast went Christmas Caroling in Carthage.  We walked around the town square singing and wishing people a Merry Christmas.  We then went inside  the County Courthouse and sang in the rotunda around the Christmas tree.  It was a lot of fun but was pretty cold when walking around the four blocks of the town square.

E/S Jones singing in Carthage (they are new missionaries and from Burley
 

  
This last week was very busy and eventful.  I was on the decorating committee for the Christmas Walk that was held on Friday. We decorated the area where the refreshments were served in the Family Living Center.  It was beautiful and the food was very good and fancy.

Family Living Center food tables with decorations

We started the evening with a program and the  tree lighting ceremony.  Our "Light Up the Tree" song turned out great and very cute.

Light Up The Tree program (before the tree was lighted)

Tree after the lights were turned on

The other activities were so good.  They had Christmas stories in the sites, wagon rides to the events and around town, caroling around the big fire barrels.  It was very festive and well organized.  There was a terrible accident, however, that evening that quite marred the event.  A gust of wind blew fire embers onto the skirt of one of our missionaries and she was completely engulfed in flames and has severe burns on her legs and back.  They were suppose to leave today to complete their mission.  She will be in the hospital in Iowa city for about 3 weeks before she can go home.  (Sister Mendenhall)
Please pray for her.  She was in the same dorm at with me at Ricks College 47 years ago.  I have enjoyed being here with her.  We are very sad about this accident. 

We had a fun trip to Des Moines, Iowa this Tuesday.  I had my 6 month check up with my surgeon from Idaho Falls.  He moved to Des Moines at the same time we came here.   It was so nice to be in familiar surroundings and yes, my CT scan came back clear.  No cancer!  We got to have dinner at Cracker Barrel and a fun shopping trip while there.   What a fun way to spend my birthday.  Thanks to all of you who contributed to my birthday cash.  I really had fun with it. 

We continue to have great experiences in the sites with opportunities to teach people the gospel of Jesus Christ and tell about the History of the Church.  It is amazing to me the opportunities that come to us every day and more amazing that couple our age and older can keep up with it all.  We are certainly blessed to be able to have such remarkable experiences.

We love you all and hope your  Holiday plans are going well.  We are looking forward to hearing the First Presidency Christmas Message tonight and participating in fun Christmas activities that are coming up.  May you enjoy the same.

The first snow of the year

Are we sure we are in Illinois??  Found this camel on a local farm

 

Love,
Elder and Sister Pincock         

Week 20 and 21: November 11--November 24, 2013

Hello again:

We have some computer issues this week so there will not be any pictures attached this time, but will include some next blog.

I'm going to start this week's blog with a quote from one of the vignettes in Rendezvous.  "Don't confuse that which is impressive with that which is important."  I think about this a lot because I think we miss a lot of important things because we try to be impressive.  Our Mission President's wife gave an example of this at Church this morning.  She said she was visiting a friend one Christmas time when some carolers came to the door.  The friend ran to the kitchen to try to find some candy canes she had put away for just such an occasion.  (A treat for the carolers.)  She looked and looked but could not find the find the candy canes and when she returned the carolers had finished singing and were leaving.  She missed the gift of their songs and was disappointed for that and also that she didn't find the candy canes in time.  In reality the carolers probably would not have been too impressed with the candy cane.   So I encourage you this Christmas season to remember that which is important vs. that which we try to be impressive with. 

Sorry to be two weeks behind again.  We have just experienced a wonderful week of Thanksgiving with the mission and a visit from Todd and Shannon and family.  On the next blog I will tell you all about our great adventures with the Ricks family.  And our best wishes go to Logan on his baptism yesterday.  We truly missed being there for your wonderful occasion.

A  couple of weeks ago we traveled to a cute community to do our grocery shopping.  It's called Cantril.  We have been there once when we first got here.  It's a Mennonite Community  with a grocery store that features all kinds of good food.  They have fresh ground spices, all kinds of homemade breads and rolls, all kinds of mixes for soup,  jello,  pudding and many other items that are packaged in plastic bags by the pound.  It reminds me of Armenia in some ways.  They still have fresh garden produce from this season that we were happy to find.   We had a yummy hamburger with fresh ground hamburger  and our first pumpkin pie of the season.  We have included some unusual pictures from the day.  On the way home we stopped at Aldies, a European  style store with Grocery carts that you have to pay a quarter  to use and then you get your quarter back when you return the cart.  The store is set up like our Winco food stores in Idaho. 

I did a lot of cooking and baking for Todd and Shannon's arrival and put it in the freezer so we don't have to spend a lot of time cooking during their visit.  I have been homesick a lot lately and can hardly wait for their visit. 

We went to eat at the Hotel Nauvoo on Saturday night (November 16th) because they close down for the winter and we will miss them.  It's a very nice place to eat.  It's one of  only a handful of successful businesses here in Nauvoo.  It's definitely a tourist town with most of the activity in the summertime. 

Sunday, the 17th of November was the day all those tornadoes hit the area.  We were in church and the thunder and pounding of the rain made me pretty scared but most of the damage was north of here.  It makes me a little nervous for the tornado season ahead of us. 

All the  missionaries were given the assignment to study about the Holy Ghost and write a paper on The Influences and Experiences we have had with the Holy Ghost.  It  caused quite some excitement as most of the Senior Missionaries have not written a paper since college days.  We had to turn them into the President for him to read.  You would have thought we were going to be graded or something.  It turned out to be a very good learning  experience for all of us.  It really brought a good spirit to the mission and sites as we gave our tours and felt the influence of the Holy Ghost as we taught.

Nauvoo is beautifully decorated for the Christmas season.  Every site is decorated and we are busy making preparations for the Christmas Walk on the 6th of Dec. There will be tables and tables of food and treats along with Christmas stories told at the sites.  Christmas carolers will be gathered around barrels with fires built in them.  And the wagon and horses will be taking people around for rides in the decorated wagons and bells that adorn every wagon.     The evening starts at the Visitor Center where we will have a Christmas tree lighting.  We have been practicing the "Light Up the Tree" song for a month.  The Nativity scene at the Visitor's Center is gorgeous.  There will also be a live Nativity Scene at the Cultural Hall that evening.  I am on the committee to decorate the food tables and surrounding areas.  David and I are in charge of one of the caroling groups.  I'll be excited to report to you about it next week. 

Hope you all had a very nice Thanksgiving  and are looking forward to the Christmas Season.  Remember to spend your time on those things that are important and memorable for good.

 We love you all and pray for your well being. 

Love,
Elder and Sister Pincock