Here in Nauvoo the temperature has dropped twenty degrees.

Everyone is breaking out their sweaters and Fall clothes.

Don't you love our "Performance Costumes"? They make us look very authentic.  We look like blimps but everyone is in the same boat, so it's OK.

 

The tourists are sporadic.  One day there is a bunch and another day people sit at the sites and grow roots. Luckily a bus of senior citizens from somewhere and made everyone's day.  You need to make plans now to come out here next summer then you can save money for the trip and we can get rooms reserved ahead. The accommodations here are expensive but the fun is all free. 

 

Best regards to everyone.  Love you all.

Sister Boyle

Mom / Grandma

What! It is September already!!!!!

It is a beautiful day in Nauvoo! We got a soaking rain day before yesterday so things are still beautiful, green, and humid.  The corn is as high as an elephant's eye and then some, about 10ft. tall. Each week more people are leaving. We will be down about 60 missionaries by the end of October.  Next week they will combine the 3 casts of Rendevous into 2, at which point the casts that are left will have to start putting the play on every other night rather than twice a week.  It is fun performing but I hope we still have someone to put it on for.  The number of visitors has dropped off significantly since pageant ended.

This weekend has been the Grape Festival here.  They raise lots of grapes and make wine out of them here.  For the festival they had a 5K run/walk which several of the missionaries participated in.  A number of those that entered won an award for their age group, some medals and some trophies. There has also been a carnival and a parade, an Archery shoot, and car show.

I have a new assignment.  They have asked me to be an assistant in the mission post office.  Every time I turn around there is something new to learn. We pick up the out going mail from the offices, take it to the real post office, pick up the mail, take it back and put it into the mail slots in the mission mail room after which we deliver the mail to the Visitors Center, the Facilities Management, and the Lands and Records office, (where you can go to look up info. about your ancestors on the computers if ya wanted to know.)

 I will be doing mail 3 days a week for about 3 hours and then going to the Family Living Center for the rest of the shift. At Family Living Center we tell how to make candles, bread, and get fibers ready for spinning. At the other end of the building the men tell about making barrels, rope, and pottery.  In the rope making the families actually get to help make a rope and take it home.

Also they have scheduled me at Tickets and Tours.  Tickets and Tours is where you come to get maps and information about Nauvoo, tickets for wagon rides, plays, etc. So if you want to come out for a trip I can possibly be the one who reserves things for you. I can give you info. on housing too.

On Aug. 23, Brook had her little baby boy. He is still trying to gain some weight at the hospital so he can come home. Sure is a cute little fellow; black hair, 5' 11", 18 in. long, with a little turned up nose like Elena's.  Brook is sure getting tired of hanging out at the hospital waiting for him to come home.

Well school is starting every where.  Makes me wonder what everyone is doing this Labor Day weekend. Would you believe the Grape Festival ended today, Sunday.  Seems so weird for them not to carry it through Labor Day.   Have a lot of fun at the fair.

That's all folks.

Angela Thornton was here in Nauvoo about three weeks ago. She was an aid in my room with the kindergarten kids back when and we've been friends since.  Her folks said they were here because she wanted to come. Angela suffers from allergies which cause her to have seisures. Hence she is not allowed to drive and has to be very careful what she does.  She basically has to eat gluten free and I am not sure what else, but she seems to get along pretty good. We got to ride the carriage together one morning when I had a late work shift.

The hat, dress, and collar are what I wear when I am in the nightly play of "RENDEVOUS IN OLD NAUVOO". All the women in the cast wear similar clothing which also includes long pantaloons with ruffles on the bottom for the stage. The men wear white pioneer shirts with ribbon bow ties, vests, black pants and shoes.

Today we have been in Nauvoo 4 months. The time surely has flown by.  The YPMs have gone home.  The Pageant is over for another year and the crowds have dropped off dramatically.  Today I was serving at the Brigham Young home.  We had all of about eight tours, (groups that came to go through the house). That in comparison to two weeks ago when we were having fifty and up tours a day.  Then the tours would be in numbers of 4 to 20. They gave out over 4000 cookies at the bakery in one week a month ago.  Now the tours are mostly couples with an occasional family of more.  We did have one school group of younger children this week they were from a YMCA. There was also one family reunion that had about 25 in their group.

Oh, and it is great to tell people about the early members here in the 1840's.  Brigham Young was a hard sell when it came to conversion to the gospel. He read a Book of Mormon with difficulty because he had only had 11 days of formal schooling.  But when he heard the missionaries he was sold.  He then promptly traveled the 200 miles to meet the Prophet Joseph.  He said when he met Joseph that he was everything a prophet should be and he never wavered after that unlike many others who joined early on.

By the way the Book of Mormon Brigham read was one left by Samuel Smith with Brigham's sister and also read first by his brother, Phineas.  Samuel Smith, the first missionary ever to go, was the Joseph Smith's brother.  He had gone on a mission back to the Eastern states and returned home feeling like he had totally failed as a missionary. Brigham Young and Heber  C. Kimball were fast friends and were baptized like almost the same day.  You never know what will come of the work you do in spreading the gospel.

In September we will go back to shorter hours in the sites. Possibly we will have to make 3 play casts into  2 in Oct. because about then we lose over fifty people going home from their missions.

Next week several of the young sister missionaries leave to go home, their missions complete.  A bit later like in October or so the remaining YSMs will leave and go "out bound" for the winter. They will be in a more typical missionary situation on their "out bound". When Spring comes they will come back to be with us for the tourist season.

Well, it is getting late. I better go to bed.  Tomorrow is prep. day and my birthday.  What should I do to celebrate?? I don't know. Tell ya later what we did.

G'Nite  Love You All.

Hello from Nauvoo,

Today is Sunday.  The pageants ended last Saturday.  This week the place sorta feels like the wind is going out of it, like when you let the air out of a balloon.  There were thousands of people here just last week and now they are not coming.  Only family reunions and youth groups and by twos and fours.  In a way it is a relief and in another way it is kind of like the day after Christmas.

Tuesday early morning the Young performing missionaries fly out of St. Louis to destinations all over the country having finished their four month mission here.  We will sorely miss them.  They have become like extra grandkids to us.  They are amazing.  They are practicing or performing like 12 hours a day. They dance and sing and act. Or in the case of the band they play all day for different things in different places. Most of the YPMs play more than one instrument and sing and/or dance. Elder Davis for example plays violin, piano, trumpet, clarinet, sings, dances, etc, etc.  On the other hand some of them come not knowing how to sing or maybe they don't  dance that well and they learn here so fast because the Lord is helping them and they are working so hard.

Our tour hours at the sites will become shorter soon.  We are however losing missionaries as they go home so there won't be as many of us here to do the work.  We will have to double up on some things.  Soon there will only be enough for 2 casts to perform Rendevous, our nightly play put on by senior missionaries. We will be in it more often for that reason.  This summer there have been 3 casts putting on Rendevous each 2 nights a week. The play is every night but Sunday.

Received letters from Lisa's kids yesterday in the box with my prescriptions and a bag of yummie black licorice from Idaho Drug. You are welcome to send letters and packages any time.  Address

Sister Tamara Boyle
P.O. Box 215
Nauvoo, Illinois 62354

Love you,
Sis. B. (Grandma Tamara)

Sunday July 20 -The Pageants have been going since the 8th. The weather has been beautiful.  It did rain one night on the Nauvoo Pageant. They are well done and wonderful to watch. The British pageant is such a treat with all the British and Scottish accents, the folk dancing and reminders of our heritage. 

So here is a typical week in Nauvoo for a single sister site missionary.

Sun. 8 am
 Sacrament meeting at the chapel. Super talks by senior missionaries and Young Performing Missionaries. Dismiss. Hurry to Visitors Center for Sunday School and Relief Society. Lessons taught by missionaries.

Come home from church. Eat dinner and get dressed in site clothes i.e. pioneer dress, slip and apron and name tag, always the name tag. Today is a white apron.  Some times it is a colored apron. I get to serve at the Lucy Mack Smith house 12:15 pm to 5. You remember Luck Mack Smith is Joseph Smiths mother. She lost all but one of her eight son's before she died.
My companion Sis. Layne on the other hand has the day off. This is the first Sun. we haven't served together.
   Sister Olsen (S.Sis. Miss. age 82) wants to have folks over for supper. Sister Layne will take pot luck at 5 pm.  I will come in pioneer dress as soon as I get off.

7 pm Sociable (Fireside) put on by BYU Synthesis Band and Contemporary dancers.
 Awesome. Very spiritual.

Come home. Check the e-mail. Go to bed.

Mon. 7:30 am  Get up. Catch some breakfast. Have a prayer with companion. We don't    always say morning prayers together. Depends on who's going where when.
Today I have late shift 11:45 am to 6 pm. so I go out to work in the yard. Mow the edges the big mowers didn't get the day before and add some dirt to the sand the flowers have been trying to grow in. Notice the zucchini I planted is growing a baby, (squash that is). As I finally get this ready to post we have harvested two good sized zuccinnis and the cucumbers are about 2 inches long.

Also growing in our 1 1/2 ft. by 10 ft. garden along the garage are, carrots, cucumbers, green onions, cosmos, & zinnias (2).

Come in, shower get ready, go to serve at Family Living Center. There I will talk about making candles and the light of Christ, making fabric and yarn and having patience while making a fine finished project, and making bread in a brick oven, which bread is like the words of Christ which words are also the bread of life. I also get to sew on rug rags which will be used on the looms to make rugs for the floors in the restored houses.

Tonight at 6:15 pm we need to be over to the outdoor stage just East of the Visitor's Center where we will perform in the variety show known as "Sunset by the Mississippi". We put this show on with the young performing missionaries while they are here.  When they leave we will cease to put on Sunset.

Tues. is preparation day.  This month we don't have a performance in the evening so we can go farther for a road trip. So far we have gone to Springfield to the Lincoln Museum, to the Mark Twain home town of Hannibal, Mo., to Kalona, an Amish/Mendonite town which is all about quilts, and this week we are going to the Duncan Indian Mounds, East of here.

Wed. is 8 am training meeting. Part of the meeting is a wonderful talk about unity and harmony and how it is the way things should be in nature, in our lives, in our bodies, in our mission.

After training I am to serve at Lucy Mack Smith C shift (8:45 to 12 ) and then come back at 3 pm and work until 6pm.  Sister Layne is at the Brigham Young House shift A, which is 8:45 to 3 pm. We generally take some lunch with us.

Be at the Cultural Hall by 6:30 In performance dress, to warm up and be ready for Rendezvous performance. We will do two shows  back to back: one at 7:00 pm and another again at 8:15 pm. Some nights I have a speaking part and some I do not.

Thurs. Go to the Post Office on the B shift, 11:45 am to 6:00 pm.  Here we tell about how the mail worked in the 1840's here in Nauvoo. Letters with no envelopes, no return addresses, no stamps, and which have been cross written.

Perform Sunset again at 6:15.

Fri.  Go to Heber C Kimball's house on the A shift (8:45am to 3:00pm). Here we tell about he and his great grandson, Dr. Leroy Kimball who was actually the one who got the whole "Restore Nauvoo" ball rolling.
Heber C. was a great missionary and could likely have converted your English relatives.

Sat.  Spend the day at the Nauvoo Visitors Center, greeting guests. The shift today is from 7:15am to 1:00pm  We will spend the time telling what's available to do in Nauvoo, showing them around the Visitors Center, and helping them get plans made for what to see while they are in Nauvoo. There are a couple movies to see, and the play, The Promise is put on by the YPM's at the VC, but they must make a plan of when they want to see the other plays and go on the Carriage and Wagon Rides.  Those require tickets which must be reserved at the tickets and tours desk.
 
Rendezvous again tonight.

And then it is Sunday again. Whew the week has flown by

It is raining in Nauvoo today. It has been raining all day.  It is a good thing for all the plants and the corn, but the visitors are having a hard time not getting wet.  When you come to Nauvoo be sure to bring umbrellas for your crew because although the temperatures are usually comfortable there will be lots of wetness to dodge. The historical sites open at 9 am everyday even Sunday. We go to church and then are off to host at the sites.  I guess I may have told you that before.

At the beginning of the month our schedules rotated. Each of the three senior missionary performing casts, rotate days of the week on which they perform Rendezvous, and Sunset.  Last month our preparation day and one of our (meaning my companion and I) performance days were on the same day. This month the evening of our preparation day is free. Since this is the case we are going to travel to some of the other places of interest in the area.

Tuesday last we drove down to Springfield, Il. where Abraham Lincoln was raised. There we saw the great interpretive museum, where we spent several hours.  We could have stayed a while longer but the place closes down at 5 pm. We went out a few blocks away to the "neighborhood" where Lincolns home is, walking around the houses because they too were closed.  During the day time the houses have tours much like we have here in Nauvoo.

Oh, the temple bell is ringing. For several weeks I thought the bell I heard was on one of the several churches that dot the streets in this tiny town.  Then someone finally told me that the bell is in the tower of the temple.  It rings on the hour.

Well, on with my story. After leaving Lincoln's "neighborhood" we went to find the Lincoln Memorial at the cemetery.  We arrived just in time for checking out the men and women dressed in 1860's dress,  and to watch as a troop of Union Soldiers retired the flag for the evening. They came complete with black powder rifles, bugler and drummer boy. Very moving!!  Before the ceremony two of those dressed in costumes were out behind the monument giving a narration about the assassination and funeral of Pres. Lincoln. The day was very much worth the 2 1/2 hr. drive.

Our trip home late Tues. night was kind of scarey for we drove into a terrible thunder storm.

This next week when Tues. rolls around we will take off down to Hannibal to see what we can learn about Mark Twain.  Not quite so far but almost.

This week I have been assigned to the Pendelton Log School, The Seventys Hall, (which was the first MTC), the Bakery, the Post Office, (where you can learn about crosswriting your letters to save paper), the John Taylor Home, and the Heber C. Kimball home (today).

I walked to the HCKH today a distance of  about 3/4 mi. It was a lovely walk in my pioneer dress with my crocheting on my back; not too hot, no wind, and cloudy. The wagon pulled by "Nip and Tuck" passed me on the first round about town. At 3 pm when I was due to walk home it was pouring buckets and guess who had not grabbed her umbrella. Luckily my dear companion was thinking of me. She called saying she had asked Sister Hatch, who was also off shift and headed home, to pick me up.

The great grandson of Heber C. Kimball, Dr.J. Golden Kimball, came to Nauvoo in 1959, wanting to buy his great grandfather's house to restore it and use it as a summer home.  So many people came to the door wanting a tour as they were working on  it that he approached the church with the idea that maybe there was enough interest in the history of the place and what went on here that it would merit a restoration.  The Nauvoo Restoration Inc.was formed and the work began leading to the wonderful interesting and inspiring place it is now.

We feel that the restoration is an answer to Wilford Woodruff's prayer when upon selling his beautiful new brick home for only $675. and joining the exodus west he penned these words: I was in Nauvoo on 26th of May 1846, for the last time, and left the city of the saints feeling that most likely I was taking a final farewell to Nauvoo for this life.  I looked upon the Temple and City as they receded from view and asked the Lord to remember the sacrifices of his Saints."  People are now remembering.

It is Sunday again What a great day it has been!

Our Sacrament meeting begins at 8am. If you are not there by 20 min. to the hour you are in the rec
hall on the hard chairs. As summer goes on we will have more visitors and will be even more crowded. 
Tonight the Young Sister Missionaries put on a "Sociable".  The theme was the atonement. They sang and testified and sang and sang while they played, and danced to a gospel song (ballet), testified. Then they had a violin accompaniment with a vocal solo.  It was all amazing.  The young people here are all so talented.

The Young Performing Missionaries have been here three weeks. They practice from early morning to late in the afternoon, eat and then go perform, "Sunset". There is a brass band and then singers and dancers. Most of the kids could sing or dance or both when they got here. Now they are doing everything.

Saturday was the opening for the shows but not the p YPM's Put on "The Promise", ( a history of life  in Nauvoo, funny and sad), Anna Amanda, (a vignette about a pioneer girl, with puppets too), and then they have a big part in "Sunset" with us senior missionaries. They work very hard.

The band plays in "Sunset", they have their own horse drawn carriage to take them around town playing and they get out and play in Old Nauvoo walking around stopping here and there. It almost gives the place a Disney Land feel.  Of course a lot of what they play is songs like "There is Sunshine in My Soul Today" or  "We Are As the Armies of Helaman" or "Oh How Lovely Was the Morning".

We went down and took some more beautiful pictures by the Sarah Granger Kimball house today. Peonies everywhere. Also took some of the Women's Garden.  I will try to post them in the next day or so.

Goodnight everyone.

And May Goes Flying By

It is hard to believe it is the 22nd of May.  Friday will be five weeks since we came to Nauvoo.

Sunday I sent some of you a picture from the Sarah Granger Kimball home.  Hiram Kimball was a wealthy business man in Nauvoo and was attracted to this beautiful girl Sarah, who had moved to the area with her family from Kirtland when she was 15.
Hiram was 34 and Sarah was 21. They lived in the home Hiram had bought earlier to live in but had now fixed up suitable for his new bride.

Sarah later had hired a seamstress lady, Miss Margaret Cook, to sew for her and they began to consider how they could combine their efforts to perhaps make new shirts for the men working on the temple. Miss Cook said she had the skills but had no means.  Sarah told her she would furnish the material if Miss Cook would sew the shirts.  They felt some of their neighbors might be interested in helping too, combining their means and efforts. The neighboring sisters met in Sarah's parker (March 4, 1842) to organize a Ladies' Society.  After a constitution was written they presented it Joseph Smith who said "Tell the sisters their offering is accepted of the Lord, and He has something better for the than a written constitution." He said, "I will organize the women under the priesthood after the pattern of the priesthood."

He later said, " The church was never perfectly organized until the women were thus organized." Hence began the Relief Society. First organized officially on March 17, 1842, and is now the largest, and longest lived women's in the world.

From small beginnings can come great things.

Sarah's husband was later baptized a member.  Sarah went with the body of the church when they left Nauvoo with her children, some family members, and her mother and without Hiram who was on an extended business trip. He joined her later.

She led a very public life in Utah. She loved politics. She was, in 1882, an active participant in the Utah Constitutional Convention. In 1891 she was a leader in the Utah Woman Suffrage Association. She always "said what she felt forcibly and always with effect." She was almost 80 when she died.

Hiram, at 62, and some others were killed when a boiler blew up aboard a small boat transporting them to a ship which would have taken them to serve a mission in Tahiti.

'Nite for now, Sister Boyle (Mom, Grandma)

Some pics

It has come time,(and past) to write again on this blog. I am sorry for those of you who have come to look and  found the nothingness that was here.  We continue to be busy going to new sites everyday.  They are trying to get us newbees in to all the sites at least once before the rush begins.

The anticipation is thick enough to cut with a knife.  The YPM's (Young Performing Missionaries) have arrived and can be heard about any time of day practicing the music for the performances. The pageants begin July 8th.  There are 2 this year: The "British Pageant" and the Nauvoo Pageant. There will also be about 10 vignettes going on through the week besides Rendezvous and Sunset by the Mississippi. Some of the vignettes are put on by the core cast from the pageants and some by the YPM's.

The brass band has also arrived and is now practicing with us for Sunset.  Except for not being able to hear ourselves think it is quite exciting to have them here.  Their director is a retired college director from BYUI (Ricks).

This week I have been at the

 Lucy Mack House (the prophet's mother) where I learned about her steadfast support for Joseph and her unfailing testimony of the truth of the restoration inspite of losing so many of her sons for the cause.

Cultural Hall which had 16 different uses in the time the Saints were here, including theater, Masonic Hall, school, courtroom, dance pavilion, banquet hall, for funerals, police department, church, and last but not least a place to build wagon boxes for the exodus. After the saints left the hall, in 1851, was sold at sheriff's auction for $4.38  It now, having been restored,  has a quilt display from pioneer times on the second floor, and is where we perform Rendezvous, on the first floor. There are 3 casts which rotate through the days of the week putting on the play every night but Sunday.  If there are enough tickets given out the cast of the evening puts the show on twice. In the summer the YPMs put on a cute show earlier in the day, "Just Plain Anna Amanda".

Today I went to the site called the Pendelton Log School House, where we tell of the importance of education and living healthy.

Tuesday was P-Day.  We went to Keokuk for groceries and "stuff".

I always promise to write sooner than later but someday soon will have to suffice.  Love to all.
Sister Boyle.

Lots to Do!

April 25, 2014

We have been in Nauvoo a week today, can you believe?

The first day we checked in and then went home to our new little house to unpack.  Being that Sherrie came with me we put her to work packing in "stuff", unpacking "stuff", hooking up electronics, trying to hook up internet, which didn't work, etc. She was tremendous help and then she and I made the rounds to as many places as we could before she flew out on Monday morning. 

We are quite enjoying the house. If any of you Nielson's remember Grandma Nielson/Hansen's house in Preston, this one was build about the same era. It has two bedrooms, a tiny bath, living room, kitchen with a breakfast nook, a back utilities area, and a back porch which we use as a place to set up the ironing board.  We will spend a lot of time ironing in this mission, mainly our site pioneer dresses. The house has been newly painted and is fairly up to date tho' and quite comfortable with a nice gas furnace/air conditioning system.

We have been practicing every night for the program "Rendezvous" which is a play with stories about people here who are going on with their lives when they suddenly have to get ready to leave Nauvoo in February rather than April as they had planned.  Tonight the women from our cast, also started  practicing the "Sunset" program. It is a variety show with a lighter feel to it.

Yesterday was the first day we actually had assignments at the sites.  I was at the Visitors Center.  The season is pretty slow for a while  now because Spring break is over. It is a good chance for us to get things in our heads and get prepared for the onslaught of tourists coming soon.

Today I was at the "Scovill Bakery".  Our message there besides teaching about the bakery utensils, ovens, etc. was to tell how Lucius Scovill had a testimony of our Heavenly Fathers plan for us to be together again eternally with Him and our families. He had lost his wife in child birth giving birth to twin girls, then a bit later he lost a 14 yr. old son to pneumonia. The temple and it ordinances must have given him  much hope.  His desire to be with the body of the church and the prophet surpassed everything. He cried great tears when after being driven out of Nauvoo, leaving the graves of his family, getting as far as Far West,  he was there called to leave on a mission to England. He had to leave his remaining motherless children in the care of friends and travel far away.

There is much more to the story.  I will let you find the rest out for yourself since it is time to go to bed. We are very tired all the time lately.  Tomorrow I am assigned to serve at the Brigham Young Home.

G'Night.

Arriving in Nauvoo

Pics courtesy of Sherrie Petty...

Getting on the road...

Well it is the end of the second day at the MTC.  The weather is warm, the food is good,( I am trying to not eat too much), the lessons are interesting, the company is great.

When I arrived on Monday and was getting acquainted, I realized that the one lady whom I had found was going to Nauvoo also had my name on her packet as her companion and lo and behold when I checked my packet there was her name on mine.

Her name is Susan Brown.  She is from Draper. And would you believe  she also taught kindergarten for 21 years. She has 4 children all boys, all return missionaries.  We have struck up a good friendship. She is 5' 10" and makes me look rather short and wide since she has not an ounce of extra weight on her.

We have each our own nice room just like in a motel only without the funny smokey smell. Mine has a full size bed, plenty big enough for me, with the whitest bedding you ever saw. I hope I get caught up on my sleep soon.  I have had such a struggle staying awake.  It feels like I have narcalepsy (sp.?) It is kind of embarrassing but I can't seem to do anything about it.

Tomorrow we are going to try to teach an investigator. We are learning how from the Preach My Gospel book. You'ld think at our age we would be able to teach someone about the gospel but there are a few things we needed to learn.

There are 180 senior missionaries here right now.  They say that is the second largest group ever of seniors ever here at the MTC.  They treat us very good, like we were really special.  There are many going to church pioneer sites; Martin's Cove, Sixth Crossing, Old Cove Fort, Kirtland, and of course Nauvoo.  There are 4 single sisters here going to Nauvoo. Also about 5 couples.

Tonight there was a devotional with all the missionaries. Elder N? an emeritus general authority was the speaker along with his wife.

So far out of all my methods for alarm clocks some thing always goes off to wake me up. Like the saying on the old shirt I found at home the other day, I have a bit of oversleep aphobia, fear of my alarm not going off and my not waking up on time. 

4-4-2014

Today is Fri.  On Sunday I will enter the MTC  in Provo, Ut.   I am very harried trying to get everything ready.  There are at least 6 things I should be doing all at once. I had to see if I could post
on this blog because I was not sure it was ready to use.  Thanks to my wonderful tech savy daughter Brook it is in fact ready.

I will try to write often keeping track of the activities pertaining to the mission.

Tomorrow we are going to go watch Trisha (granddaughter) play volleyball. Haven't seen her play yet.  I hear she is quite good.

That's all for today.