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

September 22, 2015-Anniversary, rodeo, general authority speakers, testimony

Dear Family and Friends,

            Hello from Historic Nauvoo! We have been having a fantastic mission here, serving the Lord, and sharing the gospel with all of the visitors who come here. They come to learn about the history of these valiant people, and to feel the spirit that is here in abundance! I apologize in advance that this letter will be a little long because I have much to share.

            I would like to first tell you about the news and activities we have been experiencing, and then to share some really special and spiritual things too. On September 10th, which would have been our release date, we celebrated our 45^th anniversary and my birthday. We went over to Fort Madison and had fun at the annual rodeo with our cast. Then we went to eat at a new little downtown restaurant, and stayed in a bed & breakfast called the Kingsley Inn; an old charming Victorian style hotel. Of course we had to get special permission from our mission president.

Throughout the past two weeks we have been saying goodbye to all of our fellow missionaries who came out here from the MTC together, and the others who have been here for 18 months. It has been difficult because we have all grown very close and love them like family. Most live far away from us in Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and even Canada, and it is most likely we won’t see them again. But we have made many memories that will last a lifetime. The hardest ones we said goodbye to were the six young sister missionaries who served here last year and went home. (The newer 14 sisters will go outbound to other U.S. places in October). We have grown extra close to them because they served in the Visitor's Center with us for two summers. Elder Schultz put on a late Sunday night snack of tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, and Italian sodas for all of them as a goodbye party. He also made his special “Altoid” boxes for each sister. (If you don’t know what those are, they are 2 metal boxes glued together at the bottoms; one side is filled with pain relievers, and the other side with emergency items like bandaids, floss sticks, antacid, laxative, etc.) They are amazing young women who are dedicated and have served the Lord valiantly for 18 months. We almost feel like they have been like “granddaughters” to us, and will miss them very much.

These are 45 of our fellow missionaries who are leaving this month. So hard to say goodbye to our good friends we have served together for 18 months!

We have two new missionaries who have joined us this past week; our good friends and former Young Ambassadors, Bob and LeeAndra Lowe. We are so excited to serve with them the last 3 months of our mission. They will be here until Feb. 2017. They live only 2 blocks from us and we hope we can spend some choice time together before we leave. They bring many talents to this mission, so I am excited for them to be here.

Last night we had a special experience. The two wonderful women who are sisters and live in Fort Madison; Carol Foss and Pat Kious and who we met this year at the annual Chamber dinner, invited us to Carol’s home for dinner. You might remember I told you about them in an earlier letter, and that Carol won "Volunteer of the Year" for all her work in the community. They are 80 and 85 years old, and are so active and have amazing energy! We have met with them a couple of times for lunch, and Carol called and invited us. They also had 3 friends come, and we ate on her back deck overlooking the Mississippi River. It was a beautiful evening, as we ate, and heard many trains go past blowing their whistles. It was the most peaceful and wonderful visit with new good friends, and I hope we stay in touch with them. They are very active in their Catholic church, and had lots of questions for us about Mormons and temples. We made a “long lasting bond of friendship” that evening.

This past month we have had two great spiritual experiences that I would like to share. On September 13, we had a special Sunday evening fireside with Sister Elaine Dalton, former General Young Women’s President, and her husband Elder Dalton, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy. Even before she was President from 2008-2013, she served as a counselor and on the board for  9 years before. Many important decisions were made under their direction, i.e. updating the “Strength of Youth” booklet and adding the value of Virtue to their theme. They were also involved in the decision to lower the ages for men and women missionaries.

Elder Dalton spoke first and told of his 7 great, great grandfathers who lived here in Nauvoo in the 1840’s; and most of them had worked on the temple. One of those was Edwin Whiting, which is also my great ,great grandfather, so I really related to what he said. He mainly told of their great sacrifices and how much Nauvoo meant to him, and the spirit he felt every time he came here.  Not one of these grandparents ever faltered or strayed away from the gospel, and all went west with saints. He did talk about having a sure foundation in Christ, and said it is “better to prepare and prevent than repair and repent.” 

Then our 20 young sister missionaries sang a medley of “Sisters in Zion”, and “Army of Helaman.” They had all been young women during Sister Dalton’s time as President. When she stood to speak, she was very emotional, and choked up. She said that these beautiful sisters were great examples of the quality of Virtue; that they prepared themselves to be worthy, and answered the call of the prophet to serve. She had them all stand and recite the Young Women's Motto. The theme of her talk was that we must all be prepared to help and be part of this great “Hastening”! “The Lord Needs All Of Us!” She spoke of many other things too, but wow! The spirit was so strong in that meeting and I am so grateful to have been present.

Running into friends!

The other exciting event that is happening here is having George and Susan Black Durrant return to teach us. They have a home in Nauvoo, so they come here every year for a few months. They are giving lectures in the Visitor’s Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He introduces her by telling funny stories and giving a short gospel message. Then she has been talking about Joseph Smith’s history, the First Vision, and his family. Tonight she discussed his courtship with Emma, and her biography. She is a great specialist on Joseph and Emma Smith, and about the Nauvoo era. She relates interesting and unusual stories and information that she has found while doing research here. It has been a real spiritual “feast” to learn from them.

I think it is getting late and time to end this letter. I want you all to know how much we love serving on this mission in Nauvoo, and that we are going to be so sad to leave in 3 months. The time has raced by so quickly. But we have learned great gospel principles, and our testimonies have strengthened in leaps and bounds. We serve with the most wonderful missionaries here, who are great examples to us of unselfish service, and who love the Lord.

I want you all to know that I have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I also know that Joseph Smith is a great prophet called to usher in this last dispensation, and help restore all things as in Christ’s day. What a wonderful privilege to know that we belong to the true church of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the sacrifices of my ancestors who were here in Nauvoo. They went west so that they could worship in peace, and their descendants like me could be taught the gospel.

Thank you everyone for your words of encouragement and support. We love you and look forward to seeing you soon. Please write us a short note of your family news.        

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.