Happy 4th of July

• We sat outside on porch swings at a little frozen custard shop in Jamesport, Missouri, a 1953 Old Order Amish Settlement, and enjoyed listening to two ladies playing Mountain Appalachian Dulcimers.
• We went to Adam-ondi-Ahman – a sacred historic site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s very green, pretty and peaceful.
• An elder from the Church Missionary Department spoke to us. He told about being on a cruise with his wife when they announced over the loud speaker on ship that there was a man overboard. He rushed to the edge of the ship and saw the man and the rescue team pulling him in. The man had been 3 days in an inner tube in the ocean. Referring to that experience, he said “Who will man the life boats?” We are all members of a crew working on behalf of the Savior. He said to imagine ourselves wearing lifesaving gear of orange rubberlike suits when we look in the mirror. It will have an impact on what we say and do.
• We’ve enjoyed watching professional performers come to Nauvoo such as the Hughes Brothers, the Young Ambassadors, Vocal Point and The Nauvoo Brass Band.
• We had lunch at an old mill called the Bonaparte Retreat Restaurant. It sits on the Des Moines River. You wouldn’t know it was a nice restaurant from the outside but it was very nice inside. Our waitress was 87 years old. There is a historical marker by the restaurant that says, “March 5, 1846 – Brigham Young and {the} Mormons crossed {the} Des Moines River on {their} way to {the} West.”
• We watched the Steamboat Days Parade in Burlington, Iowa. Little girls would have liked the pink, blue and yellow horses hooves. A man watching the parade shouted "Go back to Nauvoo!" as we walked past him. We are easily spotted with our missionary name tags. It didn’t take but a minute for Elder Jaster to strike up a friendship with him. He used to be a Mormon at one time.
• It’s so fun working with the Young Sister Missionaries. On Father’s Day they said they have raised their vision of all the qualities they want in their future husbands after being here and seeing the good examples the Elders are setting.
• Several people spotted tornados last month close to Nauvoo. We’ve had some foreboding skies, hot temperatures and high humidity.
• The Nauvoo Pageant will start this month. “The City of Joseph” had gone on for 39 years but President Hinckley had an idea to start a new one in 2004. . The new pageant was to tell the doctrine of the church and its early history. There is also a Frontier Country Fair with 25 different activities. There were 7,000 missionary referrals last year from the pageant.
• President Ludwig announced that he and his wife have been asked to extend another year here until January of 2012. They are the best!
• The Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum was 166 years ago on June 27, 1844. We went to Carthage, Illinois where the martyrdom took place. The program started at 5:17 pm. I’m assuming that’s the time of the martyrdom. On Sunday, the young performing missionaries sang, Praise to the Man. It was extraordinarily beautiful and powerful. There were only 10 men and 10 women but it sounded like there were 500 angels singing with them.
• Elder Jaster has been in the Women’s Garden the last several weeks replacing brick on the walkway.
• We had another 6:45 am Farewell Breakfast for departing missionaries on the outdoor stage. It’s always a sad event but was a glorious gathering of all the missionaries. The sun was just coming up and the weather was perfect. The band played “God Bless America.” They had three long tables set up on stage full of food. It was like an Easter Sunrise Service that I remember as a child at Memory Grove in Salt Lake.
• For me (Elder Jaster) it seemed like a taste of heaven. Here we were on a perfect morning with all of our friends and all of the good food we could eat. What more could you ever expect in Heaven? Then all too soon it was over and I had to go to work cutting out broken bricks in the women’s garden and helping Elder Wilcox replace them. I never pictured retirement as getting up at 0530Hrs and working all day then putting on 2 shows at night getting off at 2130Hrs. But where else could you work with so many good people and have a 25mph speed limit? The pageant starts this week. They have priority over everything else. I don’t know if Sister J mentioned it or not (I don’t read her blogs) but I’m the Official Pig Squealer for the entire Z cast during Grandma’s feather bed.

June 2, 2010

We are Loving our Mission

• On our Preparation Day a few weeks ago we drove along the Mississippi and took pictures of turtles on logs and geese with their cute baby goslings.
• We have 380 missionaries serving in Nauvoo this summer.
• We walked down The Trail of Hope on Parley Street. Several missionaries did vignettes of pioneers. It was wonderful.
• We had district meeting at our house and cooked steaks and salmon outside on the grill. We have two young performing missionary sisters in our district. They are so talented and add so much energy and enthusiasm to the mission.
• When weeding at Lyon Drug and getting ready to plant new herbs, I found a little bird’s nest with 4 baby birds in it. How sweet they were.
• Elder Jaster has been working hard helping to make major changes on the outdoor Sunset stage, getting the Pageant stage ready and maintaining houses, roads and assisting the carpenters.
• President Hill said the culmination of repentance and obedience come close to a “Cure All.” …things that are common temptations for all of us are dishonesty, pride, anger, impure thoughts, complaining, criticizing and comparing.
• We are thankful for our little grandson, Mason, who is recovering from his recent surgeries. He is only 3½ but has undergone close to 8 major surgeries as near as we can recall.
• We have enjoyed going to several of Susan Easton’s Black’s lectures. She has some great stories to share of Nauvoo and early church history. I notice that she usually ends her talks with something similar to 'Someone did something to prepare the way for us.' How true that is and how grateful we are for our ancestors.
• One of the sisters told me it took her husband 48 years to finally become active in the church. He will be 82 in June and still wants to serve 2 more missions. He’s here as a teamster and I’ve heard he jumps on back of the wagon like a 19 year old. They are both an inspiration to all of us!
• All the tulip bulbs have been dug up and now we’re planting new flowers in the Womens’ Garden. They’ve given flowers and vegetable plants to the missionaries to beautify their homes. It will be convenient to pick a tomato at dinnertime and run if we are short on time.
• We performed Sunset by the Mississippi for the first time last Saturday. I haven’t worn ponytails for over 60 years but now I am. Elder Jaster did a great job as a “Pig Squealer.” The Hughes Brothers from Branson, Missouri did their performance after ours. Their whole family of over 40 some were involved. They are a fun group.

"...Jesus Christ... I bear testimony that as long as there is one spark of the will to repent and to reach, he is there. He did not just descend to your condition; he descended below it, ‘that he might be in all and through all things, the light of truth.’ (D&C 88:6)”

Truman Madsen, Christ and the Inner Life, 14

May 9, 2010

• Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! You’ve been a wonderful example to all of us for 90 years.
• Elder Jaster has been busy grading roads, fixing equipment, unloading trucks, bringing back fence from Carthage to paint and extending the stage for ‘Sunset.’
• I’ve worked with the sisters at the Mission President’s home weeding to make it nice for his son’s wedding reception. We’ve also worked near the temple, at the Women’s Garden, the Visitor’s Center and at various homes and shops. We unloaded a semi truck full of flowers. Nauvoo will be beautiful in the next few weeks when the flowers are planted.
• We went to a symposium on ‘The Great Beyond.’ It was a panel of five ecclesiastical leaders from the community: St Peter and Paul’s Catholic Church, the Community of Christ Church, the Methodist Church, and the Lutheran Church. President Jack Hill and Elder Dean Hughs represented our church. President Hill bore his testimony at the end saying that the true gospel is on the earth today. Elder and Sister Hughs are with public affairs and are doing a wonderful job in spreading goodwill among the local churches and communities.
• Elder Jaster is excited about his new part in Sunset. He is the official ‘Pig Squeeler’ when all the men sing Grandma’s Feather Bed.
• We recently got 80 new temple missionaries and 25 new site missionaries.
• I have gained a love and respect for the Prophet Joseph Smith’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith. She was the mother of 11 children and watched 6 of her immediate family and one grandson die as a result of mob violence. She died just before age 81 with her faith and testimony of Jesus Christ.
• Elder Jaster has been called as District Leader for the Heber C. Kimball District. We have 4 couples in our district. It’s kind of like being home teachers to each other.
• Our neighbor calls herself a ‘People Collector’ because she loves people. I think that’s a perfect name for Elder Jaster. Just the other night he saw the Wilson's from Santa Clara, Utah passing our apartment and invited them in for root beer floats. It turned out that they play the accordion and mandolin. They have come over on several occasions now to ‘jam’ with us.
• President Obama was recently in Ft. Madison visiting the Siemens’ Wind Turbine Blade Plant in Iowa. From the plant you can look across the river and see the temple. I hope he took note of it. He also visited Quincy. We often shop in both places.
• Elder Jaster loves to tell the sisters his story about Chief Johnson. At our practices it’s fun to see them all sitting spellbound waiting to see what happens next. He usually gives them the next episode at each practice.
• This is a picture of ‘Snake Alley’ where we visited on our preparation day. Snake Alley battles San Francisco's Lombard Street for the title of "World's Crookedest Street." …Snake Alley is still paved with cobblestones, with an old timey entrance sign and replica Victorian lamposts.
• Attending church is a sacred experience. The reverence in the chapel is something I have never experienced before in a Sacrament Meeting. However, it would be a welcome sound to hear the cry of a baby or the sweet sound of a young child. On special occasions when families visit we have that rare treat.

Joy Obedience You

Mortality without soap is like eternity without the Atonement.

• We went to the Prairie Grass Burning Demonstration. It is done in the early spring of each year.
• We had a surprise visit from Elder Jaster’s Navy buddy and his wife last week. He was a cook on their submarine so we put him to work in the kitchen. We hadn’t seen them for 35 years.
• We got word that two of our long time friends died last week. Makes us realize how important the blessings of the Temple are and that life on earth is part of our eternal journey.
• The mission had more visitor’s in March and early April during spring break than we are having now.
• Elder Jaster is staying busy in the motor pool.
• Some sisters are teaching me to crochet.
• We are serving with the granddaughter of the last living person to have personally known the prophet Joseph Smith. She lived to be 107 years old. She was known as the ‘Last Leaf.’ Her name was Mary Field Garner. I had the opportunity to clean a replica of the cabin she lived in.
• The single sister missionaries returned from their fields of labor all over the United States and will serve with us in Nauvoo for the next 6 months. They bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to our mission.

Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010

Happy Easter

• We enjoyed a visit from dear friends from our home ward in Camp Hill, Pa. this weekend.
• On our Preparation Day last week we were in Iowa, Missouri and Illinois and saw a wild turkey, horses, cows and deer all in an afternoon.
• The Easter Concert by the mission choir was so refreshing with songs like “It’s a Grand Night for Singing,” “Younger Than Springtime,” “Whenever I Hear the Song of a Bird” and “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.”
• We enjoyed watching General Conference this weekend and hearing from our Prophet and other General Authorities. We are so blessed to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• We were on stage for the first time as “Jed and Annie” in Rendezvous and performed a polka "Down by the Riverside" with a foursome. Yes, we are doing things we never would have thought or dreamed we could.
• We met some of the new missionaries that came within the last few days. We’re not ‘greenies’ anymore.
• George Bernard Shaw: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
• Elder Jaster has been busy doing all sorts of things like inspecting vehicles, hauling gravel, maintaining roads and hauling old tires to waste management.
• I’ve enjoyed spending time working in the gardens preparing flower beds and weeding.
• Something inspiring we learned from General Conference:

Never let an earthly experience disable you spiritually.

Happy Spring

• We had an enjoyable visit with some family members this last week.
• Elder Jaster drove to Carthage and brought the metal fence around the Jail back to Nauvoo and painted it. It is a tedious job. One of his greatest fears came true that the equipment he would operate might be a paintbrush, ha!
• It was a wonderful opportunity to actually be in the Red Brick Store on the 168^th anniversary of the organization of the Relief Society. Our mission sisters did the reenactment of the first Relief Society.
• Elder Jeffrey R. Holland from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife visited with us. He told us that because of the tears of faith, the silent yearnings of the heart, devotion, patience, humility, righteousness and faithfulness that Mercy will trump Justice.
• I worked in the greenhouse this week transplanting seedlings. Our sweet granddaughter had her poem “Little Flowers” published in the March issue of The Friend. Congratulations, Boston! We’re so proud of you. We’re going to hang your poem up in the greenhouse here in Nauvoo so all those little seedlings will know what they have to do to grow.

Little Flowers

Hey little flowers,
Hey little flowers,
Just start growing.
There is nothing to be afraid of.
The sun is shining,
The water is coming,
Soon you will grow
Into a beautiful flower.

Boston G., age 8, Utah

Nauvoo Notes: “Apparently it is necessary for us on occasion to be brought to a white-knuckles point of anxiety so as to be reminded, when rescued, of who our Rescuer is. Neal A. Maxwell