Nauvoo: Day 3

Tuesday was a significantly busier day than Monday, and I did remember my camera that day. So this post will not be long and boring with no pictures. We started off our day in the Brigham Young home. If there was a house or a place that really made an impact on me, it was there. This was the sitting/living room inside Brigham Young's home.

 This is a cute little tea sit in the little girl's room. It wasn't necessarily from the original Brigham Young home, but it was from the period. It's adorable though!

We walked into a room off the side of the house. This was the room where the Twelve Apostles and the Church were organized to continue on after Joseph died. My grampa made a comment to all of us that in this room was where it happened for him. This was where he gained his strongest witness that the Church is true and that it is led and directed by Heavenly Father.

One of the Sisters who was giving us the tour told us to think about our ancestors. She told us that our ancestors are praying for us to stay strong and with the gospel. This one hit me pretty hard because I started to think about all these people on the other side that are rooting for me to stay strong and keep strengthening my testimony and faith. I thought about my Grampa and Gramma Mecham, I thought about Kam, I thought about Heber C. Kimball, and I also thought about Brigham and Joseph. I thought of all they have sacrificed in their own lives for the sake of the gospel and I thought of all the work they must be doing on the other side to continue to further the work of the Lord. It filled my heart with so much peace and joy to know that I have so so many people on my side pushing for me to do what is right. I also gained a realization that this gospel is true and it is led by Heavenly Father and nothing can take it from the earth again. 

This is the Twelve Apostles at the time that Joseph died. Three future prophets were among that Twelve.

One of the Sister's who was giving us the tour turned out to be Sister Russell. Long story short, she and her husband lived in Safford, AZ and he taught at EA. Come to find out that her husband (Elder Russell) was the public speaking teacher at EA, and Dan was one of his students. Dan was super excited about that and she let us know that he would be at the Jonathan Browning home later that day so Dan could see him. 

Brigham Young had built an outdoor cellar to keep food and other things in. It surprisingly was pretty cold in there. And my stinking little brother locked Chandler and I in there!! When he finally let us out, I told him (completely jokingly) that I didn't want to talk to him. Poor kid has such a guilty conscience that he kept trying to hug me and apologize! 

We went next to the printing shop. The Elder told us that the upper case was full of the capitalized letter and the lower case was full of the non-capitalized letters. He said that was where the names "upper" and "lower" cased letters came from-the early printing press.

This is the printing press that was used during the time. Ethan got to help demonstrate how the press actually worked. They had a demo of the Times and Seasons on the press to show how it worked. 

We then went next door to the John Taylor home. This home had one of the steeper staircases of all the homes we visited. I don't remember too much about it beyond that. On that note though, I cannot believe those pioneer women walked up and down such steep staircases with their long skirts and all! We were struggling to not trip and we were all in shorts/pants. Another place we went to was the Drug store-which had a ton of herbs to mix up for different remedies, fabric, sewing supplies, and even different housewares!

We stopped at the school house and were given a math and spelling lesson. Those benches were dreadfully uncomfortable to sit on. I really felt bad for those poor kids! We also finally met Sister Hatch! By complete accident even! She came into the room because she heard we were from Arizona and she said she was from Mesa. My mom talked to her for a bit, and it turns out the Hatch's knew my Gramma and Grampa Mecham from when my grandparents used to work at the temple (and when my Grampa was governor). We told her we were going to Rendezvous that night and she just laughed and said it would be fun and interesting. She told us that she and Elder Hatch were not actors or singers!

We finally made it to the Jonathan Browning home and Elder Russell was there. As soon as Dan walked in the door, Elder Russell immediately recognized him and gave him a huge hug! I think that was probably a trip highlight for Dan! Elder Russell was one of his favorite teachers at EA. He asked us if we were going to Rendezvous that night because he was going to be in the show, and we told him we were.

 

This was a display that was set up to show the different guns Jonathan Browning had made and different guns from the period as well.

We went to the family living center (the last stop of the day before dinner and then Rendezvous). We met an Elder who was from Canada (we picked it out immediately because he said "eh" after he talked). It turns out he knew my uncle Dennis (my dad's brother) from serving their missions together. We learned how to make barrels, and how to make rope! Your arm sure gets tired after spinning that wheel for a long time! But we did get to keep our rope and it stood up straight which meant it was good quality rope!! 

We also got to taste bread that had been made in these special ovens, and I cannot remember what they are called so if anyone knows, please comment and tell me! Basically the oven was a brick chamber with a fire built below and it had this fancy wood door to close the chamber where the bread/meal was cooking. We saw how they made candles in large quantities, and how they made their rugs from scrap pieces of fabric!

That night we went to Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo. Holy cow, what a hoot!! It was hilarious to watch and I loved every minute of it! After, we finally met Elder and Sister Skidmore too! 

Elder and Sister Skidmore made sure we were coming to Carthage and that they would love to be the ones to give us the tour of Carthage jail. 

{Elder and Sister Skidmore, Dan, Elder and Sister Russell}

And the moment we had all been waiting for, to see the stars of Rendezvous (okay not really), Elder and Sister Hatch!

{Caitlin, Rylee, Chandler, Elder and Sister Hatch, Dan, Me, Ethan}

It was so fun to see them. Elder Hatch was giving Caitlin a hard time because we had seen him quite a few times and each time he asked Caitlin where her fiance was! Tyler didn't meet up with us until Wednesday, and Elder Hatch gave Caitlin a hard time saying that Tyler wasn't real and she was just making it up. Funny funny!!

We talked to the Hatch's for quite a while after Rendezvous and Elder Hatch said some pretty hilarious things which I had to write down immediately so I wouldn't forget them

. 

Elder Hatch: I gave away 3 extra bricks (from the brickyard) one day and you would think I gave the gold plates away!

*All of us just laughed

Elder Hatch: I really got in trouble!

Elder Hatch: How many bricks did you get

Us: Oh lots!!

Elder Hatch: No don't say that!

Us: Oh...we only got 1.

Elder Hatch: Okay good- say that!

Elder Hatch: You have to stay an extra week if you call your spouse by their first name. We had 3 extra weeks by the time we walked out of the mission president's office.

Tuesday was a very long but very very funny day, mostly thanks to Elder Hatch. He has us rolling we were laughing so hard and some of the stuff he said! He kind of reminds me of what I picture Ethan will be like when he's an old man-goofy with funny stories!

And just for kicks: some other Nauvoo funnies that don't really fit on any particular day. So this one is as good as any.

Dan and I rode in the car with my grandparents for most of the time that we were in Nauvoo. We took to singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall...root beer of course.
Anyway, gramma thought we had said 99 bottles when we were already down to 95, so my Grampa, being the quick wit that he is, says "Gramma's too drunk to remember how many bottles we've had!"

We also sang Row row row your boat a few times and started singing it in a round. Well, leave it to us to get confused between which line in the song we're singing and replacing words, namely getting stream and dream confused. Don't ask me how.
Row row row your boat
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream.