Yesterday we had another busy day in Nauvoo. A very rainy day, but busy nonetheless. We didn't let the rain stop us from exploring. We started out with a wagon ride through Historic Nauvoo. It was awesome. Here we are before the ride started:
This is a replica of the barges they used to move their wagons across the Mississippi river. Can you imagine?
Here I am in front of the wagon. My umbrella is covering up the words "Wagon Ride" or something like that, and I'm about to say something in the picture, but you get the idea. The Mautzes were excited to meet a young couple whose brother is in their home ward. The world is so small.
We went to visit the brick yard, where they make the bricks. Obviously.
The guy who gave us the little presentation was from sojo (what are the odds, again?), and so along with my free little brick, we got a behind-the-scenes tour of how exactly the bricks are made. It was awesome to see how much the missionaries work there. As our tour guide sister on the wagon said, this mission requires that the missionaries use every talent they ever (and never!) had to the umpteenth power. It is amazing to see all they can do!
Next stop was the blacksmith/wagonmaker. It was pretty awesome to see how things like the wagon wheels and horseshoes were made.
You can see the little square-headed nail ring that I got on my little finger.
We saw the printing office, which was great. Everyone worked so hard back then, it's crazy! Even the jobs that you wouldn't think of being labor intensive... they were. Cool to see how the newspapers used to be made.
In the post office/dry goods store, Bro. Mautz found out how hard it was to have portable water back then...
The tinsmith was a complete riot! He is from Chile, and his daughter happens to live in the Mautzes' home ward also. The world just kept getting smaller and smaller! Anyway, he was HYSTERICAL. He was saying that this thing in the picture looked like a frosting bag, and then he just kept pretending like it was a cooking show--taking the sheets of tin, and then showing us each step of the process of making a bucket or something, and then he'd pull out the bucket and be like, "ta-daaa!!" We were dying laughing.
We were lucky enough to attend an endowment session in the temple on Saturday afternoon. It was just wonderful. The craftsmanship of the work is beautiful, and I was obsessed with how well the decor of the temple matched with the city itself and the surrounding area. It was amazing to be inside that reconstructed temple that the saints originally worked so hard and dedicated so much to build. It truly is a blessed place, a blessed city, that City Beautiful.
Afterwards we went out to dinner and I had the best fried chicken I've ever eaten in my whole life. And then I went and took some pictures of the temple at night. It's times like these when I wish that I owned a really nice camera. Oh well, you get the idea.
We checked out this morning and we were so sad to say goodbye to this wonderful city! I will certainly miss the view!
"Goodbye Nauvoo!"
A parting shot.
We drove a lot today. All the way across Illinois. And then we stopped and had a picnic with Sis. Mautz's family, which was fun. I missed my own family, and since it was Mother's Day, especially my mom, but it was nice to be with such a loving and fun family, even if it was not my own.
Hello, Indianapolis.
Goodbye, Indianapolis.
We'll be back to Virginia by tomorrow, if we can stand the drive!
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