Nauvoo, Illinois

Last weekend, we took a trip to Nauvoo, Illinois with the Young Men and Young women in our congregation and some of their leaders (I'm one of the Young Men leaders). The last time I was there, I was 15 years old and the temple had not been finished. It was fortunate that we got to go this time around - all the week previous to this trip, I split my time between the bed and the toilet. I had no idea so much food and stuff could stick around in your body! But that's another, much more disgusting story which I will spare you from.

You've probably seen pictures from Ashley's blog. If you haven't, enjoy these, with a smattering of commentary:

This is the Nauvoo temple - one of the 134 operating temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For more info about temples, click here.

After spending an evening in the temple doing baptisms for the dead, we headed back to Camp Nauvoo. We played a bunch of fun group games with the youth and with another family who was there.

On Saturday, we spent the majority of the day wandering around Nauvoo and exploring all of the renovated sites. Make no mistake about it, the weather was cold - I'm not sure how the earlier people in the world did it with no heaters (yeah, it was freezing there!), highly unsanitary conditions, rudimentary tools, and sometimes with hardly any money. They had it so much tougher than we do. We have so much to be thankful for! Sometimes I feel like all of the comforts that we have have turned us into a bunch of softies (in more than one way!). If we traveled back in time and spent just one week in the shoes of a 1840's pioneer's shoes (if they even had shoes at all), we'd feel totally different about our current circumstances.

Anyways, here are some more pictures from the day:

First off, we took a horse-drawn wagon ride around Nauvoo and learned all about various people who once lived in and around Nauvoo, about the early Saints in the area, and about how the mobs in the area drove them out, across the frozen Mississippi into Iowa, and what became of the city after. When you think that this small town of 12,000 was once one of the largest cities in Illinois, with close to 120,000 people, it makes you wonder what would have happened if the mobs didn't drive out the Mormons.

Here's Elder King making a miniature horse shoe. One day, maybe I'll have a blacksmith shop in my backyard . . . 

Inside the Seventy's Hall - very nice Christmas decorations.

I really like this bookshelf/cabinet. One day . . . 

At the printer's shop, we learned all kinds of cool stuff, like the origin of phrases like "cut to the chase", "burning the furniture", and "stereotyping". Language is sometimes so interesting.

Of course, we had to stop at the Browning's home (of the famous Browning rifles). Again, maybe one day, I'll have an absolutely awesome (and priceless) collection like this.

On Sunday, we stopped by Carthage, where Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith were shot and killed while unjustly imprisoned at Carthage Jail. Of the many church sites we visited, the feeling here is very strong. That feeling is the Spirit of God, testifying that Joseph Smith was, in fact, a prophet of God, called of God to restore Christ's church to the earth. I'm grateful for the restoration of the church and for the restoration of the full truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.