Nauvoo Day 1

For Memorial Day weekend, my parents and little brother flew out to Nauvoo to visit since they have never come. It is about 4 hours away from us, so Eric, Q and I drove down. If you have never been to Nauvoo you have to make the trip. It is amazing. This is my 4th trip to Nauvoo, and every time I learn something new.

Here are some thoughts I wanted to get down before I forgot:

The Brick House
One of the sites you can visit is the Brick House where they teach you about how the pioneers used to make bricks, and then how they would build their house. The 6 of us were the only ones on the tour at the time, so we got special treatment :) Our tour guide shared these thoughts with us.

To make a brick house it is 3 bricks thick. So when you buy the bricks once they are made you just get a bunch of bricks, and depending on their color will depend on where they were when they where in the fire. As you can see below, there is the black brick, the light brick and then the prettiest red brick. The pretty red you usually put on the outside layer of your house so it made you house prettier. The other 2 bricks are still great bricks, so they will be on the 2 inside layers, where no one else can see them.

- Do we look at the black and beige brick and think it is useless and would just throw it away, just because it isnt as pretty as the other one? Do we belittle ourselves and some of our talents and hide them because there are people that are better and more talented then us? Each brick is needed to make a house.

Another interesting thing to note about bricks- is when you make a brick you have to get all impurities out. This includes pebbles. Otherwise, when the brick is burning the pebbles cant stand the heat like the other clay and it ruins the entire brick. From the picture below the beige mold of brick looks perfect, you cant see there is anything wrong with it, but once it has been in the fire or underpressure the impurities come out.

-Do we tried to hide our sins, thinking that if i can look good on the outside, no one will know about my secret sin? That will only get us so far before our faith is tested, we are put under the refiners fire, and our sin is revealed.

Rendezous in Old Nauvoo
This is a super cute little play the senior missionaries put on. It is about some pioneers and what their lives were like living in Nauvoo. It is a cute little musical that will keep you laughing. One of my favorites songs is about the exodus west. Some of the men are worried that they are going to be remembered as cowards for fleeing the mobs, and not standing up for their rights. The song says- we will be remembered that we went "willingly- because we have to" by the last verse though, they have changed their tune and now are saying they are going "willingly - because we WANT to".
-Are their times in our lives that we do things, such as callings, service, etc. Willingly because we have to. Meaning, have to to please our parents, because other people will look down on us, because the prophet said, but i dont want to but i have to do it. You know that tone right? Usually it is said with a sigh, or a huff. maybe even rolling of the eyes. An example of this is those shirts that say" I can't - I'm Mormon". Like being LDS is keeping you from really enjoying life. How much better though would we feel if we did it Willingly because we WANT to? You want to fulfill your calling, you want to not double pierce your ear or get a tattoo. You want to go to the church and clean it on Saturday morning at 9 am. Instead of saying I cant I'm Mormon, take a stand and say, I drink, or smoke- or whatever you feel being LDS is keeping you from doing. How many blessings are we keeping from ourselves because we do not have the right attitude?
Can the dialogue of a pioneer that was crossing over the Rocky Mountains in the dead of winter because they HAVE to? I imagine there would be a lot of murmuring, mumbling under their breath, and I bet they would just turn around. Every Pioneer story I have heard is they went Willingly because they wanted to. If they were going because they HAD to, I'm sure their faith went out the window after the 1st storm. But there are countless of stories of the pioneers recieving amazing blessings because they had the faith, and because they WANTED to go. They WANTED to listen to the Prophet, and the Lord.

These have just been my thoughts as I have been in Nauvoo on Day 1. If I have any other thoughts I will share those tomorrow.

We also did a session in the Nauvoo Temple. It is beautiful. I love thinking about the pioneers, and that I am walking where they walked. I know they walked in Salt Lake as well, but there is just a different spirit here in Nauvoo.

Tomorrow we are doing Baptisms for the Dead in the Temple, and then heading down to Carthage and more site tours.

Till then!