October 27, 2015- Farewell Nauvoo

I love this red bush in front of our house during Fall.

Dear Family and Friends,

            I am sad to say this will be our last letter here in the mission field. We will be leaving on November 6, 2015 to come home. We will have been here for twenty months, and have had a wonderful mission. We received news last week that Elder Schultz (Harry) has prostate cancer that has spread into his left pelvic bone, and we need to go home to start treatments. As a result, we won’t be able to put on the Miracle of Christmas concert again. But we are handing it over to very capable missionaries here who have had much experience in music, pageants, productions, so we know it will be a success. 

Last dinner with our missionary group before going home last August

Our last performance of Sunset on the Mississippi

            As we end our mission, a flood of feelings and memories keep coming to us. We feel so blessed and honored to have been called here to serve. What an awesome experience to represent those early saints who actually lived here in Nauvoo. I would like to share some of the wagon narration I give each week to visitors here, both members and nonmembers of our church:

            “We hope you’ve caught the spirit of Nauvoo as you’ve traveled with us today. It takes all kinds of people to make a community. In Old Nauvoo thousands came from many walks of life to form a community of believers in the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. You will be able to hear more about the lives of those courageous men and women who built this city from a swampland in only six and half years, as you go through these homes and shops. They gave their all to build this beautiful city and the beautiful temple on the hill.”

            And another wonderful quote by President Gordon B. Hinckley about Nauvoo’s temple that I share:

            “Today facing west, on the high bluff overlooking the city of Nauvoo, across the Mississippi and over the plains of Iowa, there stands Joseph’s temple, a magnificent house of God. Here in the Salt Lake Valley, facing east to that beautiful temple in Nauvoo stands Brigham’s temple, the Salt Lake Temple. They look towards one another as bookends, between which there are volumes that speak of the suffering, the sorrow, the sacrifice, even the deaths of thousands who made the long journey from the Mississippi River to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake.”

            These are examples of the kinds of people and stories that we have represented for the past 20 months. What a privilege! And most of all, I honor my own great great grandparents on both my mother’s and father’s sides who lived here. The Smiths, Whitings, Coxes, Berrys, Fieldings, and Harrises all left here and followed a prophet, Brigham Young, across the United States to Utah because of their strong faith. Oh how hard that must have been to walk away from their homes, businesses, farms, gardens, orchards, and load a wagon and head to an unknown place in the Rocky Mountains. Being here and seeing and living it has made this place come alive for me.

            We feel that we have gained so much more than we could have ever given on this mission. The other missionaries we have served with are valiant people, who have spent their lives in service to the Lord. We have grown to love them so much! They will be lifelong friends, almost like family. Our families have been blessed while being out here. Three grand babies have been born while here and three grandchildren baptized. Our business has carried on successfully, thanks to our sons, Ben, Ryan and Harrison.

       We have met hundreds of wonderful people from all over the United States and the world, while serving in the Visitor Center. We hope we have planted seeds of the gospel, and helped strengthen church members too. We have gotten acquainted with the amazing local citizens who live here in Nauvoo like Mayor McCarty, Fathers Sydlick and Tony from St Peter and Paul Catholic church, our pharmacist Luann Haas, Marian in the post office, Barton Golding, president of Chamber of Commerce, Kim Orth, young mom of 2 girls and head of Nauvoo Tourism, Robert Saint, owner of a hair salon, Durrell Nelson, in the temple presidency and owns the Fudge Shop, Laurie Peterson, director of the Nauvoo orchestra, Rick Marshall, the temple recorder and conductor of our Christmas concert- and so many more! We will miss them all! We have also been blessed by going out in the communities of Burlington and Fort Madison as members of the public affairs committee.  We met many Christian people with strong values who we have learned so much from, and made great friends.

Missionary friends at last breakfast before we all leave this month

       We have been able to attend the beautiful Nauvoo temple many times. What a blessing to be in that sacred House of the Lord, a replica of the original one that was destroyed. We will miss it so much. Our testimonies have been strengthened by our weekly and monthly trainings from our presidency and zone leaders. We also have been spiritually fed by church leaders who have come here to teach us i.e. Elder Tom Perry, Elder Jeffrey Holland, and many members from the Seventies quorums, and the Durrants.

       We have also felt the power of prayer and priesthood blessings on our mission.

            Elder Schultz and I have been performing a vignette called Thomas and Elizabeth in the Rendezvous nightly show. It is about a husband and wife who are preparing to leave and go west. But she doesn’t want to go, and he has to convince her, which he finally does. We sing a duet together at the end with very tender words which I would like to share in closing, and it expresses our true feelings about leaving Nauvoo:

            “And so Nauvoo, I say farewell to you, with numb and aching heart, one last adieu

            As through our tears we look to homes beyond, will ever we be fond of one as you?

            One cardinal song, one sunset glow, one Nauvoo dawn, one silhouette of woods on             snow…

            On templed hill, faint echoes ring…. Where prophets walked and talked with God,

            Their memories linger…

            And so we go and hide our aching hearts, No one will see our tears when we depart

            This home we leave will shelter memories clear, of all that we hold dear….In Old

             Nauvoo…. Farewell Nauvoo, Farewell Nauvoo.”

Thank you everyone who has written to us, encouraged us, sent us gifts, packages of treats and supported us on this mission. This place has truly made us better people than before, and we are grateful we had the opportunity to serve here in this blessed place.

We love you all, and look forward to seeing you soon.

Love Elder Harry and Sister Nancy Schultz

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)

            

May 17, 2015-Lots of new things, my walk in the Groves, and Elder Schultz speaking japanese

Dear Friends and Family,

            It has been three weeks since I last wrote and time seems to fly by so quickly. I apologize because this will be a long letter. Spring is here and Nauvoo is beautiful and green once again. We have had a lot of rain, and are still wearing sweaters and jackets, but it is warming up.

 Tonight we had our first district meeting with our new “Martin Harris” district. We have the Harwoods, who came out with our MTC group last year, and he is the first counselor in the presidency. We also have 2 young single sister missionaries, and two new couples; the Sullivans and Swensons, both from Utah. We had dinner here, and then discussed the principles President Gibbons was taught at the Mission Presidents training conference in Denver last month. All twelve apostles were there, which shows how important missionary work is to our leaders. This great work of bringing souls unto Christ is their first priority, and we surely feel it out here on our mission. We received the last 5 couples on Friday, so now we are up to our full quota for missionaries. And we really do need them! We are getting more and more visitors per day here; we average about 300-400 a day, and that will increase when school gets out.

Elder Schultz with Nauvoo Temple President James MacArthur. An old missionary leader from Japan. He was his AP.

            One big event here is the re-opening of the local grocery store, formerly named “Duck’s.” It is now the "Nauvoo Market," and was bought by 2 LDS men, and remodeled. It opened last Friday, and we are so glad! It is clean and very light, and has well stocked shelves. Now we don’t have to travel to Keokuk for everything!

            We have more new responsibilities added to our very busy lives. I became a wagon narrator last week, and narrated three school field trip wagons. It was a lot of fun telling 30 children on each wagon all about Nauvoo, and pointing out the different homes and shops. I only get to do it once a week, until we get busier. We only have six wagons and six carriages going out now, but starting next week, we will have 18 wagons and carriage rides. This is exciting!

            All of the new summer shows start next Saturday, May 23, including the outdoor "Sunset by the Mississippi" show. We are all busy learning our songs and actions to participate. They chose Harry and I to perform our song and jokes again. And then I will also be singing the duet with Sister Swindler and the blue grass band. That leads to Elder Schultz’s new job: he will be performing every night in that show, not just twice a week with our cast. That means we will not be doing our Peter and Abigail vignette, and I will go to Rendezvous show alone. The reason is that he is needed to play for several specialty numbers with his bass, in the small bluegrass band. Needless to say, he is in heaven!! One of the Young Performing Missionaries plays a five string banjo, so they have his bass, a guitar, a strumming banjo, and the picking banjo. A girl also plays a fiddle. So their band is playing “Dueling Banjos,” “Orange Blossom Special” and about 5 other numbers they are backing up. AND he is helping setup the sound equipment for the show, and making sure everything is hooked up correctly, so that the YPM sound intern can run it; lots of cords, cables, cordless microphones, and monitors. He is really  reliving his former life of shows and loving it!

            We are also very busy on the Public Affairs Committee. We are preparing for two BYU groups to come in the month of June: The Young Ambassadors and the Ballroom Dance Team. We have been setting up outreach events for them to help with service projects, and then perform at local cities i.e. Keokuk, Burlington, Fort Madison (our 2 cities), Carthage, Quincy, Hamilton and Montrose. This is to do missionary work, by getting people to come to Nauvoo to see them perform. We are also getting publicity materials out like flyers and posters- flooding the stores and public places. Elder Schultz and I are also hosting a VIP tour with all the leaders of Burlington on May 28- the mayor and 20 people are coming here (it is about an hour away) and we are providing a continental breakfast for them, taking them on wagon rides and to see some sites. A lot of planning has gone into this, so we hope it turns out!

            Elder Schultz also can’t get away from feeding the multitudes! 2 weeks ago he put on a “Grateful” breakfast to all of the FM (Facilities Management) people, men and women who literally run the place. There are about 60- he did a pancakes, sausages, and drinks, and they loved it. They have a big “break room” down at their complex, and he used their large griddle. This week he is feeding breakfast to all the teamsters: about 30 of them! He can’t get catering out of his blood!

             We continue to serve in the Visitor's Center as the site leaders, which means we are training lots of new couples on how to greet people, give them tours, help them plan their activities, show films, and be missionaries. We had a few familiar visitors this past two weeks. Buddy Youngreen, our good friend from Utah who was head of the Joseph Smith Sr. Family Organization for 33 years came with 2 friends. He is an expert on Nauvoo and Church History. We didn’t know he was coming, but we spent our whole Friday P-day with them, and he took us to special unknown places involving the Smith families. What a treat this was to listen to him explain many unique things. Then Devin Davis, or Elder Davis, who was a YPM last summer, came back to Nauvoo for a week-long visit, and he stayed with us in our extra bedroom. We really bonded and became his “other parents” last year, so we enjoyed catching up with him. Then yesterday, we saw and visited with Lacey Murdock and her new husband Barry ( I don’t remember their last name). She was in the Fullerton 8^th singles ward when Harry was the bishop. They live in Arizona now, and seem so happy! We love seeing old friends and meeting new ones. That is one great thing about being in the Visitor's Center.

            I had a wonderful personal experience yesterday. I went on a walk down on the flats of Nauvoo, in what we call “The Groves.” They are next to the pageant stage, and it reminded me so much of The Sacred Grove. There is a winding path with “reader boards” telling about sermons given in the groves around Nauvoo by Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young and others. They had to meet outside because there were no buildings big enough. It was a beautiful sunny day, with a quiet breeze blowing, and the birds were singing. I just sat on a bench and took it all in- I took time to ponder things, and just listen to the sounds. It was an amazing time and it really fed my soul. I was overcome with gratitude of being on a mission in this sacred place, and how much I have grown to love the former saints who lived here, but also the new people we have met; fellow missionaries, and Nauvoo citizens. I will really miss them when we have to leave in 7 months.

            I was privileged to give many tours these past weeks to nonmembers, and share my testimony. I met a great family from Japan yesterday who were here visiting, and chose to come to Nauvoo; a grandfather with his daughter and 3 grandchildren. They were not members but loved the history. I gave them Japanese Books of Mormon, and told what our church believed. Elder Schultz spoke Japanese to them and it was a special time. We have these experiences several times a day.

I am so grateful that I have this gospel to guide my life, and grateful for the Lord making it possible by restoring His church on the earth in these latter days. We are having an awesome mission!!!

Love to all of you,

Elder and Sister Schultz

Or (Mom and Dad)