I'm back! I'm in Lincoln, Nebraska tonight. The drive across Iowa was lovely. I'd thought it would be very flat, but it's actually quite hilly with emerald green fields. It was a perfect day for driving, again. I've had such great weather so far!
I won't be without internet access again for the rest of my trip. Today is day 19 since I left home, I have 11 more to go. It's gone by really fast, and the last few days in church history sites have been almost overwhelming. I already wrote about my experiences in Palmyra, now I can tell about Nauvoo and Carthage.
The drive from Ohio to Nauvoo was long, about 9.5 hours and my anxiety to get there was making it feel even longer. Nauvoo is a very small place, I'd call it a village right about now. I think "town" would be stretching it a bit. The area that the Saints developed was mostly on the flats by the Mississippi. That area is now a historical site, and I don't think anyone other than those associated with the church (maintenance staff and missionary couples) live there. Everyone else lives up on the bluff where the temple is.
As soon as I checked into my room I grabbed my camera and went to the temple. What a magnificent structure. I just can't think of any other words to describe it right now. Just magnificent.
I drove down to the flats to get an idea of where things were. Based on what I'd heard about how many people lived there before the Saints were forced out under threat of death, there must have been many more homes there at that time (about 1846). There are a few brick homes rebuilt or restored, and some frame homes that were rebuilt. There is a lot of property on the flats, but I guess the lots were large and everyone had a garden and stuff. Farms were up on the bluff to the east and the farmers lived in town so they could socialize with everyone else. The Community of Christ (formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) has claim to some of Joseph's properties at the very south end of the flats, and you have to pay to tour them. The Smith family cemetery was free, though, so I went in there and took pictures of the stones for Joseph, his wife Emma, his brother Hyrum, and his parents Joseph Sr. and Lucy. All the sites and entertainment in the rest of historic Nauvoo was free.
The next morning I went to the temple visitor's center and watched a video about the rebuilding of the Nauvoo temple. They played the voice clip of President Hinckley announcing that they were going to build it again and I got choked up. I remembered that announcement, and I remembered I'd had the same reaction when I'd heard it the first time. What a wonderful tribute to the faithfulness of those Saints in Nauvoo who worked so hard to build that temple, only to be forced out before it was finished and to know it had been destroyed. I remember watching the temple dedication from my stake center and it was one of the most powerful events I can remember. Joseph died before he could even take part in the ordinance work for himself, and I suppose he was there that day the new one was dedicated.
I noticed that the angel Moroni on the top of the temple pointed west, not east, as the statue does on almost every other temple that has Moroni on it. I asked the missionary couple about that, and they showed me a framed quote from President Hinckley that said that the angel Moroni statue on the Salt Lake City temple faces east, and the one on the Nauvoo temple faces west to act like bookends on the trials of the faithful saints. What a lovely thought.
I went to the Historical Nauvoo visitor's center and tried to get a ticket for a carriage ride through the area but all the tickets were already gone. There are just hordes of tourists there in July because the church puts on the Nauvoo pageant and it's a really big deal, stuff going on pretty much all day every day in July. I walked through the beautiful Relief Society garden just behind the visitor's center and took pictures of the statues of women and some of the beautiful flower beds.
From there I walked along the Trail of Hope. This is along Parley Street, where the Saints lined up with their belongings on wagons to leave Nauvoo before the deadline. Anyone still in Nauvoo after a certain date was threatened with death by the anti-Mormon mobs. Along the road are plaques with quotes from some of the Saints, taken from their journals many years later. At the end of the road was the majestic Mississippi, and a building called the Pioneer Memorial. I braced myself and went inside. All along the walls are the names of over 2,000 Saints who left Nauvoo but perished on the long and difficult trek towards the Salt Lake Valley. I read as many as I could, then went outside and wept. I can't even imagine the strength and faith it would take to leave the beautiful city they built with their own hands, be forced out at gunpoint in the middle of the winter, and yet start that journey with great faith that the Lord would look after them. They were tried so bitterly and yet they persevered and kept going, looking forward to finding a home where no one could come and threaten them anymore. I wonder if that kind of call ever comes to me, if I could do what they did. I hope I could be counted as faithful as they were.
At the river is a statue of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, looking west over the river, and Joseph is pointing, as if he's telling Brigham to lead the Saints to peace and safety far off into the mountains. Joseph was kind of like Moses, in a way, who did so much work and yet was not allowed to set foot in the promised land. Moses handed the leadership to Joshua, and Brigham was chosen to succeed Joseph as the prophet and President of the church. It's kind of sad that Joseph didn't get to go with them, but he got the foundations laid down and the rest of the work was to get the Saints to a safe harbor.
Later in the afternoon I went to the temple for an endowment session. It is so beautiful inside! It's like the Cardston temple in that you move from room to room, and the artwork in those rooms, especially in the creation and garden rooms, is just stunning. Very realistic and vibrant. It was such an honor to be in there. I don't know how many people use it on a regular basis, but I know in July you have to call ahead and reserve a seat for a session! My session was actually very small, but when I'd been by in the morning the parking lot was jam packed. One of the sisters told me that the exterior is almost 100% true to the original, but the inside is quite different because they had to allow for current building codes and plumbing, AC, wiring, those kinds of things. I wish I could know what the inside looked like in the original one.
The next day I drove to Carthage, about half an hour away from Nauvoo. This was where Joseph and Hyrum were taken and imprisoned on false charges, and where a mob attacked them in the jail and killed them. Our group went into the upstairs room of the jail where they spent their last day, and I sat beside the window Joseph fell from. Before the tour we'd watched a video of the events leading up to their leaving Nauvoo for the last time, and the tears started when Joseph was hugging his wife and children goodbye, so tenderly, and when Emma asked, "You're coming back, aren't you?", he didn't answer. He'd been to jail a few times before but eventually was released once the judges realized there was no legal reason to hold him any longer. But this time, he knew. He knew this was the end. A statue of Joseph and Hyrum on horseback stands in front of the Nauvoo temple. It's called "The Prophet's Last Ride." They rode away along the bluff overlooking the city and Joseph said, "This is the loveliest place and the best people under the heavens; little do they know the trials that await them."
In the upstairs room our large tour group walked past the original door with the bullet holes in it and sat down. A tape was played, a narration of what happened in that room, and when it was done there was hardly a dry eye. The spirit was burning very strongly in there and was reminding us all that Joseph was indeed a prophet of God.
I got back to Nauvoo and toured a couple of buildings before the incredible heat and humidity proved to be too much. I went through John Taylor's home, and the home and workshop of Jonathan Browning, inventor and maker of rifles and guns still in use today.
After retreating to my motel room to enjoy the air conditioning and a few hours of mindless TV, I thought I'd try my luck and set out to see a couple of shows in the evening. I wanted to see Sunset By The Mississippi, an old-time variety show held at an outdoor theater by the visitor's center. I got there and there were lots of cars, but no one outside. I went inside and saw that they were doing the show in a theater in the building because it was still just way too hot outside. It was great, singing and dancing and music. Most of the group were the elderly missionary couples, but they had a bunch of young'uns (early 20s) who were serving special missions to be in the pageant. There weren't a lot of them, but they were sure versatile! They all sang beautifully, danced, and the ones who played music were experts on at least two instruments. I wonder if these are students from BYU performing arts or something. They were fantastic.
After this show was done there was about 30 minutes before the pageant started. By this time the sun had set and it was starting to cool off just a bit. I walked over to the other, much larger, outdoor theater for the pageant and wandered through the pre-show festival. They had old-time games for the kids, a band playing and people dancing, a family history research area, drinks and snacks, and lots of other activities. The program started and it was starting to get dark. Behind the stage, up on the bluff, was the temple, and I was surprised to see that all the lights were off, even the interior ones. Usually they're on all the time and it's lit up at night. Hmm.
The show was really well done, another huge cast (including all the young performers from the show I'd just seen), they did lots of dancing and singing and, like the Hill Cumorah pageant, it was quite elaborate, well directed, and the stage was quite creative and versatile.
At one point the narrator, Parley P. Pratt, talked about how happy they had been in those few years in Nauvoo, with so many new converts from England and Wales arriving to join them there, how peaceful it was, and how the children enjoyed running under the stars at night. It was a clear night and I leaned my head back to look up into the blackness of the night sky and felt a closeness to them by knowing I was sitting on the same patch of grass under the same stars they did. A great sense of calm and peace settled over me. What a lovely place this was, and how wonderful to know that all those lights up in the blackness were put there by the same loving Father who made this world for us. I felt connected with everything right then. I felt complete.
The pageant included a reference to Joseph and Hyrum being murdered, and a frame of the temple had been raised, piece by piece, at the back of the stage. When it was done they lit it up, but then as the narration continued, about the Saints being driven out and the temple destroyed, the stage temple slowly came down and the lights went off.
Then I got to hear President Hinckley's voice again as he announced that the Nauvoo temple would be rebuilt as a monument to the Saints in Nauvoo, and then the real temple on the bluff was lit up. It was the star of the show! Happy tears came again to hear his voice, to remember the joy of knowing the temple would stand again, the joy of seeing it stand there now, and to know, just to know, that it's all real and true.
My prayers for the last 19 days have been filled with expressions of gratitude for the opportunity to take this trip. I haven't traveled one mile alone. Heavenly Father has been with me every second, and as I've listened to so many inspiring talks and sacred music I've never felt closer to Him. He inspired me to take this trip and to see all these places and to feel the spirit in them. Now that I've been to these places I'll have these memories forever.
My journey isn't over, but the next places I go to are places a lot of you have already been to. Not many have made the trip to Palmyra and Nauvoo. I hope my memories of this trip might inspire you to want to experience them for yourself. I heard a quote from President Hinckley that every Latter-day Saint should come to Nauvoo and experience it at least once. I whole-heartedly agree. I can't endorse one place more than the other, though. I don't know if Nauvoo would have felt the same to me if I hadn't been to Palmyra first.
Go to both. You'll be very glad you did.
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