June 26, 2015-Lots of people, holding down the fort, visiting John Deere

Dear Family and Friends,

            How are you all? It is hard to believe we now have been on our mission for almost 16 months! How time has flown by! I am sure it is because we are so busy with our many duties here in the Nauvoo, Illinois mission. I try to sit down and write a letter every 2 weeks, but get so distracted by life, that I can’t seem to finish. I apologize again, because  it has been 3 weeks since last writing.

            The weather here has been crazy like the rest of the United States! We have had rain almost every day; sometimes in the morning, sometimes at night. It is always accompanied by lightning and thunder storms too! It hasn’t even gotten hot yet, but is so wet, that the farmers are concerned about too much rain for their crops. What an opposite problem to the west, where they are experiencing a drought. Texas is also getting overloaded with rain! We have had to move our outdoor program “Sunset” inside to the West Theatre many times, and since it only holds 244, we have to turn over a hundred guests away. But oh how green everything is from the moisture! All trees, bushes, plants and flowers grow so much faster out here.

            We are now averaging about 1,000 persons a day in the Visitor's Center, and that will triple starting July with the 2 Pageants coming. The Core Casts arrived this past week to start rehearsing (they have all the lead parts).  We are getting so excited! Tomorrow we all help set 3,000 chairs up on the newly laid sod in front of the big outdoor Pageant stage. The bagpipers arrived last night, and started to practice. This becomes a totally different mission during Pageant time with all the people in town, and the hundreds of cast members that come to perform in both the Nauvoo and British Pageants.

Martyrdom Commemoration

            Tomorrow is June 27, and time for the commemoration of the Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith down at Carthage. We aren’t able to attend, because we need to stay and keep the Visitor's Center open. Since we went last year, we are allowing the “new” missionaries to go. I’m kind of sad to miss it, but realize the importance of being here in town, and “holding the fort down." There are usually hundreds of people that come to honor these two fallen prophets. They setup chairs all over the grass in front of the Carthage Visitor's Center. It was a wonderful spiritual event last year.

Surprise Visitors & Connections

            We had a surprise visit from a good friend from Brea this past week: Buddy Reed, who was in Kansas City on business and had an extra day so drove up to visit. He is in our home ward, and Elder Schultz was their family’s home teacher. What fun we had taking him around to the sites, and going to Carthage Jail together. His highlight was finding much information on his ancestors who lived here; he is descendant of Ezra T. Benson, great grandfather of Ezra Taft Benson. We took him to Land and Records where he was able to put all of it on a disc to take home. We also made a connection with the grandmother of one of our male YPMs named Elder Hendrickson. His grandmother is Sister Simpson (can’t remember her first name) wife of Woody Simpson, from the San Marino, CA ward where I grew up. She came with her daughter Marilyn’s family to see them. They live in Thousand Oaks, and the dad works with Myles Steimle, our son-in-law, in some kind of backyard construction. What a small world when you get to talking! I love it that we meet so many wonderful new people here and rekindle many old relationships with past friends too!

            The Ballroom Dance Company from BYU has been here the past two weeks, and what a wonderful, beautiful show they have put on every night, immediately following our Sunset Show. They are so professional, and their costumes are modest, but very beautiful! Their precision in all of the dances was amazing! Again, Harry introduced their show each night, and we have enjoyed getting to know all of them. I was even able to give them narration of wagon rides around Old Nauvoo.

Good News

            We had some fun and exciting news in our mission this past week. We work with Sister Sharon Watkins, a single senior sister here who is head of the Public Affairs Committee. She is also from Orange County, Laguna Hills area, and we served in the Newport Beach Temple, but on separate shifts. We have become such good friends, since we have so much in common (only a handful of us from California) and both grew up in the Pasadena/Glendale area, only one year apart. We have shared many activities and meetings together. Anyway, remember last letter when I told you about a man named Elder Nickell, who services and fixes all the computers in the mission? He is a widower, and also helps us a lot with Public Affairs. They have decided to get married! We are so happy for both of them. They have been super secretive and following mission rules, and their relationship has blossomed from serving together in the PA Department. He lives here in Nauvoo, so they are getting married in September after she is released from her mission. She will move here to live permanently! After telling the Mission President, and her companion, they shared the news with us! We are so excited, and now it is out in the open, and everyone here is so happy for them!

Touring Nearby Places

         We have been able to visit many new and wonderful places around Iowa and Illinois, such as Lincoln’s home and museum, Bishop Hill, Illinois, an old Swedish town, Bonaparte- an Amish community, and more. 

John Deere Factory

            Today was one of the highlights of our mission. But today on our P-Day, we went with another couple to see The John Deere Factory up in Moline, Illinois  about 2 hours north of us. Oh my goodness! It was one of the most educational and fascinating experiences I have ever had! I wish all of you could come and see it! This happened to be the warehouse of building their huge Combines! I couldn’t believe how big and intricately built they are. They are as tall as a 2-story building, and they are what the farmers use to harvest their grain crops, such as corn, wheat, barley, soybeans, and more.

They took about 10 of us on trams around huge factories, showing us all the steps from laser cutting the sheets of metal, to the welding and painting of all parts (green of course) which are dipped in huge tanks, to the assembling of the parts, engines, and giant tires. It takes about 2 weeks to complete one combine, and they sell for $650,000 each! There were about 50 on the assembly line today, and they don’t build one until they have orders and paid for. They had 2,200 employees at this one location. There are more JD factories all around the city that make tractors, lawnmowers, and other farming machinery, but this is the biggest! They said one wheat farmer in Russia bought 12 of them last year! Yikes! How did he afford them, and to ship them over?

            We continue to love and serve the Lord every day in the Visitor's Center. We meet so many people from all walks of life. And they come to Nauvoo to either learn church history and doctrine, or strengthen their own testimonies, and those of their children. We try to help them have those special “spiritual experiences”, by providing fun and  wholesome activities, films, and tours of the historic sites, which all have a “gospel message” given by our missionaries.

 “Our (missionary) purpose is to bring others unto Christ, by helping them to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and His atonement, through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.”

 We recite this purpose in all our training, district and zone meetings. I feel we have been able to do that, since being on this mission. We love the Savior, and are so grateful for the blessings He pours out on us and our family every day! What an honor and privilege it is to represent Him; and such a small sacrifice to give 21 months to show our love and gratitude to Him.

             We hope you might consider and plan on serving a mission some time in your life. It has been the most awesome experience for us. Thank you so much for all of your love and support!

Love Elder and Sister Schultz

(Mom and Dad to some of you)

            

June 8, 2015-VIP Tour, more visitors, our show

Dear Family and Friends,

            How are you all? We have been so busy, I didn’t realize it has been almost 3 weeks since I last wrote. On May 23, Memorial Day weekend, all of the shows opened, so we are in full swing of our summer schedule again! 

            Here are some pictures of the beautiful pictures from Carthage.

            The Visitor's Center is now open at 7:30 a.m. and stays open until 9:00 pm. Our sites also open an hour earlier at 9:00 am, and close an hour later at 6:00 pm. We are spending long hours in our various assignments, and we are so happy to be busy in the Lord’s service. 

Elder Schultz teaching Church of Christ visitors yesterday. They had lots of questions about temple, why called elder and who has highest authority? He answered questions for a half hour!

            I am now an official wagon narrator through the Old Nauvoo Historic sites. I go on the wagon rides once a week and narrate for the whole day. Each wagon takes about one hour, and carries 25 persons. We have a script to follow, so it is not difficult to give. The weather is still very cool and pleasant. We are also performing twice a week in the "Sunset" show on the outdoor stage. On one day, Harry and I sing our duet and he tells his jokes as part of the “specialty numbers." Then on other night, I sing a duet with Sister Swindler called "Walkin in the Sunshine." It is great fun to perform on stage again, and entertain people. It has been about 44 years since we performed with the Young Ambassadors. Everyone comments after the shows that their favorite number is Elder Schultz’s routine. And I agree! He has a natural talent for humor and telling the jokes.

            Our VIP Tour with the mayor and city officials from Burlington turned out to be a great success! But I woke up that morning and had the stomach flu, so Elder Schultz had to make it happen, with other members of our committee. It started with a continental breakfast out in the Women’s Garden, then they watched our film in the Visitor's Center and took a wagon ride down into the historic sites. We gave them fudge from the Fudge Factory as a parting gift. They all seemed to enjoy it so much. 

I have been thinking recently about the great missionaries that we serve with here, and I wanted to share some of them with you. We have about 300 missionaries here now, including the temple missionaries, young single sisters, and 40 Young Performing Missionaries. We could not keep this mission running without the help of all of these people, especially our FM (Facilities Management) people. The FM team are also a really different breed of people that we don’t usually relate to, but we are so thankful they are here. We have electricians, plumbers, computer tech people, vehicle mechanics, horticulturists, and gardeners, caretakers of artifacts and antiques, housing people who prepare all of the houses for us to live in, and so much more! And the majority are volunteer unpaid missionaries. We also have over 20 men who are Teamsters and take care of the 20 horses and 4 oxen that we have for the wagon and carriage rides. And we have a full-time veterinarian here and our own full time doctor. 

But specifically I want to mention those people that silently do their responsibilities without much recognition. Elder and Sister Cluff’s job is to water all the pots and plants all over Nauvoo with a big water truck and giant hose. They also make sure there are no weeds coming up through the streets and parking lots. Elder Knapp loves to ride on his John Deere lawnmower and mows all the acres of lawns all around the sites. Elder Nickell goes around to all of the offices and makes sure the computers and phone systems are working in order. Sister Stroud and Elder Toomer sit in a small office cubicle every day, and spend their whole mission making new weekly schedules so that we get a variety of places to serve. The Guest Services sisters take all phone calls and reservations for tickets, especially scheduling all of the large groups who will be coming this summer. We have over 40 of them, totaling about 5,300 persons, in addition to all of the other visitors.

We feel so honored and privileged to serve with these faithful missionaries, and others too numerous to mention.We have learned so much from them, and have grown to love them all, as if we have known them for many years. It is hard to believe we have been on our mission now for 15 months! Our MTC group have even received their release papers for September 10, which will be 18 months. However we will be staying until December 21.

We all showed up to serve in the Visitor's Center wearing the same colors! It happens a lot without planning it! 

This is me Sisters Johnson, Robison and Larson

The Young Ambassadors and director Randy Boothe, our good friend, are here performing for 2 weeks. It has been great to reminisce about those days at BYU, and seeing their wonderful show. He has put a live band back into the show, similar to Harry’s band in the 1970’s, instead of recorded music. He told Harry that he always loved his live bands. Next week we have the Ballroom Dance Company coming to perform for 2 weeks too. Harry introduces the show each night.

My cousin Diana Fife Rice

I also had a Whiting cousin visit last week; Diana Fife Rice with her husband, and daughter’s family. It was a surprise to see them. Then today we had Libbi Pettit Jeppesen’s in-laws from Rexburg, whose grand daughter is getting married in the Nauvoo Temple tomorrow. She was a singer in Showtime Company. I better close now, since it is so late. We love this mission and representing the Lord’s true church.

Love Elder and Sister Schultz

April 15, 2015-Guest Bloggers, Carl & Lynnae Knapp (Nancy's Sister)

We just watched Harry and Nancy in their show called "Rendezvous" and they had lead parts and sang duets! A fun way to end our wonderful Nauvoo visit. We go home tomorrow and won't see them for two years !

(This is Christy, Nancy's daughter)

          Nancy's Sister, Lynnae Knapp, is only 1 1/2 years younger than Nancy. They have been close their whole life. She and her husband will be leaving to Guatemala soon on their 2 year mission so they decided to visit Nancy and Harry to see their life and tour Nauvoo.  These pictures have been taken from Carl & Lynnae's Instagram posts.

       We're on our way to Nauvoo, Illinois to see Sister Nancy and Elder Harry Schultz, thanks to the goodness and generosity our our wonderful sister and brother, DeAnne and Mark. We're sooooo excited and love them very much!

Here at the Nauvoo Stake Center. This is a missionary breakfast to say goodbye to all the departing missionaries.

We shared breakfast with all the missionary couples that were serving. We got to meet a lot of the people Nancy and Harry work with and their Mission President Gibbons.

Nancy and I are standing near the Indian Burial mounds from the people who died between the ages of 300 B.C. to 500 A D here along the Mississippi River.

This is Carl and I with Tomassi and Irene, where we just visited their beautiful round home and They are related to the Wolfgramms. They have 14 children and 58 grand children.

We are here with the Tukuafu family that are Tongan and are related to the Wolfgramms two or three generations back, they live here in Nauvoo and we have come to meet them. They built this beautiful "round" house.

They make instruments and sing together.

Irene plays the "Lyre" that she made.

This is a bread knife and she's cutting the bread she made.

Sister Tukuafus woodworking shop. 

Stopped to see the temple quarry where they made the ancient stones for the original Nauvoo temple. Sorry about all the different pictures, but I promised Aunt DeAnne I would send her everything we are going to visit and see.

Guess who we just ran into and found out is going to live right next door to Nancy and Harry, here in Nauvoo? Yep, Phil and Susan, Knapp, our Bro and Sis-in-law who are called to serve here and they just arrived today!

Found this house in a little town, close to Nauvoo and it was settled by the Mormons. Read the plaque.

On the wagon ride before conference.

Carl and I are on a horse drawn wagon ride, through Nauvoo. This is our view of the Temple.

Carl and I sitting on the wagon as we finish the tour.

We got a minute remembrance tour and climbed 12 flights of stairs up to the very top of the tower. We has been there.

In front of the temple after a temple session.

We are here in the Nauvoo Visitor's Center watching conference with Phil and Susan! Who would have ever thought this would and could happen, just 4 weeks before we leave to go on our Mission to Guatemala. They just arrived yesterday, and they have been given a house to live in, literally right next door to Nancy and Harry! Wow, "the Lord doth truly provide". We are having such a great time here, together with the Schultzs and the Knapps.

Carl and I In front of the Nauvoo House , D&C 124 that's mentioned in there.

Carl in front of the first Joseph Smith home, called the "Homestead House."

This is the 3 Head Stones of where Joseph, Hyrum, and Emma Smith are buried, outside of the original Smith home, in Nauvoo.

We are upstairs in the Red Brick Store House where all the meetings took place and where the first Relief Society met. Last weekend, for the Relief Society anniversary they had a special meeting and got permission to have it up here in this room and this is where Nancy was able to give the closing prayer, because she was an actual descendent of the Smith line.

Carl in the Store House.

We're having Easter breakfast here, next door, with Phil and Susan, obviously I'm taking the picture!

This is Carl just standing in front of where you walk down the sidewalk. If you look straight behind him, is the Carthage Jail. We will be sending a lot of pictures with regards to that because that's where we visited today.

This is me standing at the top of the stairs where the mob came up to the room where Hyrum and Joseph Smith were martyred.

Carl is pointing to the hole in the door where the bullet came through and shot Hyrum in the face.

We are standing in front of the window where Joseph fell out of the window when he was shot and fell to the ground below,

We are standing on the ground where Joseph fell out of the second window, next to the little well. It was a really neat experience to be able to go back and see all of this today between the two sessions of conference.

We are with 4 other missionary couples, having a traditional Easter dinner, after conference, here in Nauvoo,

This is me, on a Horse drawn carriage ride, with Carl and we stopped to see across the Mississippi River.

• This is Joseph Smith's farmhouse that is up on the bluff, 3 miles out of town from the city of Nauvoo. Joseph and Emma and their four children lived here while they farmed.

This is part of the posted names who are buried at the little Nauvoo cemetery where we have come to visit today. Obviously they have moved Hyrum, Joseph and Emma to be buried right there in Nauvoo.

Carl and Harry leaving the cemetary

Me standing in the old, original cemetery that many of our Smith ancestors were buried here.

More Smith family names that are buried in Nauvoo cemetery.

We drove down by the river and Nancy showed us the original little, Old StonyArch bridge that the Saints built to get across the canal, going down to the river.

Ok, me standing in front of Lucy Mack Smith's , where she lived at the time of the martyrdom!

Nancy and her friend standing upstairs!

Me sitting on the tiny little narrow stairs going upstairs at Lucy Mack Smith home.

Lucy Mack Smith's tiny "laying-in-room" for the elderly or pregnant women so they didn't have to go up the "narrow" stairs! It was placed right in the middle of the living room area, so they didn't have to miss out on the socializing and visiting of that women who came to visit.

We are in the Visitor's Center with Nancy and Harry and they are showing us around. This is one of the only 3 remaining, original sunstones on display here. It was a very emotional, yet awesome feeling as we stood and realized it's sacred meaning. We are so glad we came here to Nauvoo! Hopefully you have enjoyed all of my posts.

         This is a picture of Estel Neff, who is the great-great-great grandson of Kathryn Smith, sister between Hyrum and Joseph. He joined the church 19 years ago and we met him in his gift shop, here in Nauvoo. The picture behind us is of them on their 65th Anniversary.