Dear
Family and Friends;
It has been a while since we last wrote,
but time seems to fly by quickly. It is hard to remember what has happened in
the last 3 weeks. It slowed down a bit here in Nauvoo in September, but the
past 10 days in October have been crazy busy again like the summer. Many
families are here on their fall breaks. It is becoming the beautiful autumn
season, and the trees are turning many bright colors of reds, yellows, and
oranges. I love this time of year. It is not cold yet, but chilly in the
mornings and evenings; sweater weather. All of our fellow missionaries we came
here with have left and gone home. But we have become good friends with the new
missionaries who came out here last spring.
We
were so excited to welcome Elder Schultz’s 11 Crick cousins from Indiana the
end of September. We have an annual reunion in Indiana, but this year they came
to Nauvoo! They stayed in the Motel Nauvoo right next to our home. We had
Donald, Evelyn, Roberta and Joann, siblings from Aunt Mary, and their spouses.
Also we had Nancy and Janet from Aunt Louise’s family with their spouses, and
Ernie who is the husband of Doris, Uncle John’s daughter. She passed away this
year, but we were so glad to have him come. The night they arrived we hosted a
barbecue at our home, and the morning they left we also had a big breakfast. We kept them busy for two days riding wagons,
eating at the buffet, and visiting most of the historic sites. They also saw
our Rendezvous show in the evening with our vignette “Thomas and Elizabeth”. We
laughed so much, and had a wonderful time renewing family bonds. They are great
hardworking, family-oriented, wonderful Christian people. We love them so much and appreciated that
they made the effort to come here, so that we could join them.
We have been busy in our regular
assignments in the Visitors' Center, greeting guests, putting on movies, giving
tours, solving technical problems in the building and helping with the media
and sound system. Elder Schultz keeps the schedule and website up to date, and
I still enjoy narrating on the wagon rides once a week. In addition, we were in
charge of the concert that was here last Saturday night on our outdoor stage. In August, President Gibbons asked us to be in charge of this event, and we accepted. So we worked with the mission to help sponsor, with Nauvoo Tourism, “The Nashville Tribute Band”.
We were in charge of all logistics, contracts, making sure the outdoor stage
was ready with sound and lighting, and publicity; flyers, posters, press
releases, etc. We are happy to announce that it was a resounding success!! We
had an audience of over 1,000 people, and the concert was great! If you have
never heard them before, please go on their website, and listen to some of
their music. They are actually made up of 3 separate groups, all LDS professional musicians and songwriters in Nashville that come together
to pay tribute to different people, such as Joseph Smith, the pioneers, and
this one was called “The Redeemer”. They wrote this program in honor of Jesus Christ, and from the perspective of those who knew him personally such as the Pharisees, Peter and other apostles, Mary Magdalene etc. What
an amazing message they portrayed through beautiful music. For the concert, we were excited to welcome our son Sam and his girlfriend, Maddie, and also Ryan Williams and his wife, Heather, who came for the concert. We had a fun weekend with them. Sam was the only one who had been here in Nauvoo before, so we showed the rest of them through the historic sites, etc.
We've still had many visitors, even though the summer excitement has died down. A few young sisters from last summer came back to visit us. Four of them now live across
the street from my sister, Cheryl, and are going to BYU.
We are now involved in starting
rehearsals for “The Miracle of Christmas” concert which will be December 19 and
20. We had over 50 attend our first choir rehearsal last Sunday. We will also
have a children’s choir and live orchestra. It’s exciting to be part of this
great event again. Our release date to go home is on Dec. 22, and we are trying
to make it home by Christmas, depending on the highways. We have loved this
mission so much, and will be leaving part of our hearts here in Nauvoo. It has
truly changed our lives,and made us better people. Our testimonies and
spirituality have grown in leaps and bounds!
Many of our friends have come to visit, but we were excited when some of our dear friends, Bob & LeeAndra Lowe were called on the same mission as us. We are able to spend lots of time with them before we leave.
We are anxious to return home and
get our house in order again. And we look forward to seeing all of you too.
Thank you so much for your support. We love you all.
Love
Elder and Sister Schultz
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