Monday 25 August 2008

Talked with Elder Swallow for about an hour this morning, after prayer meeting,. Time sure flies. I spent most of the day measuring and making parts, to move the panels from a temporary rack, to the concrete wall. The power company lifted the transformer off the pad and set it on the grass, so I could extend the conduit to the new location.

After I finished with the conduit, I visited Carolin at the Print Shop, and Elder McKissick at the Blacksmith Shop. There aren’t many visitors now, so I was able to make a horseshoe before they closed for the day.

The weather has been quite cool lately. Today the temp. was 75, with a slight breeze, most of the day. The humidity also seems to be down. Maybe we will have an early winter.


Tuesday 26 August 2008

The 26th of May was when we drove into Nauvoo. Today is three months.

I spent the day working on the conduit for out water tank panel project and Carolin served in Land and Records.


Friday 29 August 2008

After work, I went to the Blacksmith Shop and made a branding iron for Elder Land. It was fun to have the forge to heat the iron, instead of using a torch, and the anvil to pound on and shape the brand on the horn and step.


Saturday 30 August

An interesting turn of events today. Saturday is our P-day, Carolin and I go shopping, I get worn out following her around the stores, or dehydrated, waiting for her in the car. Today, we talked about going to the Temple before shopping. I started to get ready but didn’t feel like going, so I suggested she go shopping and I would go over to Carthage, to finish a job needing to be done. I usually have a lot of other things to do on our day off, but I had the thought and it felt good so I changed clothes, rounded up the material needed for the job and left. On the way, I got a call from the NRI director. Carthage was having trouble with their projector, and couldn’t show the film in the Visitor Center. I told him I didn’t know anything about the system but would look at it. I was able to fix the projector, but couldn’t finish my light project because of a bad ballast. I hope someone was helped today, by being able to see the film, and that was why I had the idea to go to Carthage. Now I still have to go back and fix the light.

On the way back to Nauvoo, I saw a car show in Hamilton. I spent an hour looking at nice old roadsters and 3 window coupes. They even had two 57’ Chevys.

Rendezvous tonight. Carolin had her debut with a speaking part in the Ashby boys and I start as Elder Gailey in the Noah chorus. I had to memorize 25 words for that part. We had two shows tonight, because of the tour busses

Sunday 31 August

There are two tour busses in town so our Sacrament Meeting attendance was up today. I helped bless the Sacrament, we had 10 Elders in the Chapel, and 8 in the Cultural Hall.

Listening to one of the speakers, I had a thought about the special feeling, mentioned so often, by those visiting Nauvoo. The feeling is usually attributed to those saints who built the town and sacrificed so much for the Lord, and I believe that to be true. I think, in addition, the spirit here is due to the great number of Missionaries, assembled in this small area, who have dedicated this time of their lives to our Father in Heaven, and serving others. All that goodness has got to be felt by those who visit, from the world..

Carolin and I are on call today, so we need to be by the phone.


Monday 1 Sept.- 5 Sept. 2008

This week has been much the same. Worked a little on the tank panels, replaced lights in the Visitor Center, Carolin locked herself out of the house and car Tuesday so I took the key to her at the Land & Records office. She walked to the Site that day.

The more I am involved with ordering material and trying to get work done, I see how the process can be improved. Suggestions are listened to and then I get a response, different each time, but with the same message. “The missionaries are only here for 18 months and we have to live with whatever we do from now on”. Also they say; “we have been working with this for 8 years, you don’t understand”.. I may not understand all that they have to deal with, but it seems obvious that good, accepted, material handling practices, would make their life easier, no matter who was working with it. They asked everyone who drove the trucks, to cut down on the miles because of the gas costs. I asked if I could stock my truck with the material needed to work on the Sites, so I didn’t have to go to the Site, see what was needed, go back to the warehouse for the material, and then back to the Site to do the work, and repeat the process for each work order. I was told, they wanted to control the material at the warehouse level and if I had truck stock they wouldn’t know every time I used some light bulbs. I suggested they have me fill out a work order for each job, listing the material used and the time I spent, so they could track the material by the job instead at the warehouse. It was a new idea and they didn’t know how to work with it so I was told to continue with the established procedure. I continue to burn the gas.

Today, Friday, Carolin had some visitors to the Print Shop, from Highland. Ray and Iris Adams, Leland and Lynn Coleman saw Carolin standing outside the Print Shop and had quite a reunion. They didn’t know we were serving here, so it was a surprise for every one. I came to visit about the same time so I was able to talk for a minute.

Monday, Carolin will start on her new assignment as the NRI secretary. She feels inadequate but I know she will do fine. We have discovered the Lords help in all we have been asked to do, with memorizing the Site scripts to learning the parts and songs in the shows.