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.

April 10-Easter Program, Sister Visits, Spring is Here

Us at the Prairie Fire Burning

 Dear Family and Friends,

           Two weeks have flown by since I last wrote, and so many things have happened here on our mission in Nauvoo. On March 29, we had the Easter program, “Because He Lives.” It was a great success, despite of so much illness throughout Nauvoo community and the missionaries. There was a really bad influenza, and cold going around. But we were able to pull it off, and even had about 400 people in attendance. We weren’t in charge, but were on the committee. We helped with publicity, inviting the churches to participate, and Elder Schultz wrote all the narration, and introductions. We were so pleased with the response and performances from other churches. We had 3 Methodist churches, a Catholic, and Presbyterian churches all participate. There was such a great unity and coming together, and a wonderful variety of music; string quartet, a male vocal duet, and family of 11 sang together, a rousing Methodist choir with clapping, a fiddle and guitar duet, and 2 other choirs. All songs were about the Savior, and His atonement.

             The next day, Monday, we had the annual Prairie Grass Fire and Hot dog Event. The whole city turns out, and the fire department, with the mission, lights an acre square of tall prairie grass to see how fast it burns. It burned in about 3 minutes. 

            This was to show how the pioneers had to deal with these fires on their journey west. It was great fun to have a big picnic with the city and missionaries. 

            The weather has turned into Spring and has warmed up to about 65-70 degrees. Everything is turning green, and early flowers like daffodils and tulips are blossoming.

Look what was over us as we went into church today. A beautiful rainbow!

           The first weekend in April, there was a Nauvoo Women’s Retreat out at Camp Nauvoo- owned by the Community of Christ Church. There is a nice large lodge, where  many guest speakers came, and told interesting stories about the saints who lived here. There were also some modern saints who shared some of the humanitarian projects they are working on throughout the world. It was a wonderful event.

            One special highlight this past week was having my sister Lynnae, and her husband, Carl come to visit us. They have been called to serve in the Quetzaltenango Guatemala temple, for 23 months. They wanted to come and visit us before they leave in May. We had so much fun together. I'm doing a whole separate post with her posts to show all that we did.  We went on wagon rides, visited the Nauvoo Temple (and got to climb clear up to the bell tower), and while we served in our assignments, they visited many historical sites. We also had a fun drive out to the Amish communities in Betensport and Cantril, Iowa. It was a beautiful day for a drive, but unfortunately the Amish stores were closed for “Good Friday”, however we had fun anyway. We also watched the LDS General Conference together. We were so sad to see them leave us, knowing we won’t see each other for two years.

Here we are having dinner with Carl and his brother, Phil and wife, Susan. Lynnae is taking the picture

            We were excited to welcome many new couples to the mission, including Phil and Susan Knapp (Carl’s brother). And a funny coincidence: they were assigned to the home right next door to us. We have already had a barbecue with them, and are looking forward to getting to know them better.

            I would love to tell you how much we enjoy living right on the Mississippi River. I never realized what an awesome river this is to our country! It is over 2,000 miles long and is so wide, at some points over a mile, that you can’t see to the other side. When we stand on the hill by the Temple, we can see a whole wide panorama of the river as it curves around the bend here in Nauvoo. It is full of so much life; over 200 varieties of fish, and thousands of birds feed off the river, including pelicans, eagles, ducks, and geese. In the winter it literally turns solid white with snow and ice. Barges can’t pass through from November to March. But in the Spring, we see ducks and geese with their babies walking along the river’s edge. And groups of small turtles line up on long logs to warm in the sun. All day long and into the night we hear train whistles blowing from the railroad moving along the edge of the river banks. It is very peaceful and tranquil to live along this river.

            This past week we had the privilege of going to the home of a couple who live here in Nauvoo right on the river; Brother and Sister Tukuafu. They are an older couple who left Hawaii after raising 14 children, to come and spend their golden years here in Nauvoo, and serve in the temple. They have built a cool round house that looks like a cross between a log cabin, and The Hobbit’s house. Sister Tukuafu makes beautiful musical instruments in her own wood shop, like dulcimers, harps, and lyres. She plays a beautiful harp. They sang together for us while they both played. I was in awe of their willingness to share their talents, and open their home to us. They are so welcoming and gracious. It was really a treat to experience that. By the way, Tomasi Tukuafu is from Tonga, and a cousin to Mikeli Wolfgramm through his mother, Salote.

We had a great past two weeks doing missionary work. Elder Schultz taught 3 nonmember Japanese visitors, and shared his testimony in Japanese after giving them a tour of the visitors center. I had the great experience of teaching a French couple from Quebec, nonmembers who knew nothing about the Mormons, and were so interested. There was a little language barrier, but the spirit was strong when I bore my testimony. And there were hundreds more, mostly members here on their Spring breaks, bringing their children to experience Nauvoo, and strengthen their testimonies.

We love Nauvoo, we love the Lord and His restored church is true! May you all have a testimony of this truth, and live righteously. This is what brings true happiness. I want to end with a quote by Richard G. Scott:

“When you trust in the Lord, when you are willing to let your heart and mind be centered in His will, when you ask to be led by the Spirit to DO His will, you are assured of the greatest happiness along the way, and the most fulfilling attainment from this mortal experience.”

 Love Elder and Sister Schultz

March 26, 2015- City Presentations, RS Reenactment & New Assignments

Dear Family and Friends,

            How are you all? Time just seems to fly by so quickly! And every week is packed with so many activities here in Nauvoo. After my last letter, on March 18, we had the presentation at Burlington for their Mayor, and 50 Chamber of Commerce members. It went well, except for when we showed the 3 minutes video of Nauvoo, there was no sound- so the silence was embarrassing. We were using their computer, and they said it was working fine when they tested it. But other than that, it was very successful. We have followed up by scheduling a VIP tour for several of them to come to Nauvoo in May to have a wagon ride and short tour of the historic sites. We are hoping this will unify our “region,” and that they will want to refer many visitors to Nauvoo.

            Later that afternoon, I was able to attend the Relief Society Organization Reenactment in the Red Brick Store. All of us 40 sister missionaries wore our pioneer dresses, and rode in wagons down to the store.  We took pictures together as a group, and then went upstairs. Several missionaries took the parts of Joseph Smith, John Taylor, and Willard Richards. And then there were also many sisters depicting Emma Smith, Sarah Kimball, Lucy Mack Smith, Bathsheba Smith and others. What an amazing experience this was! I can’t even put it into words, to do it justice. To be there in the actual place the Relief Society was organized meant so much to me and all of us.   We sang the same hymns they sang, and the same words were spoken, taken from the notes of Willard Richards. Then I felt very honored to be asked to give the closing prayer as one of the only relatives of Emma Smith. (My great, great aunt)

            Last week, the director of “Rendezvous,” Sister Jones, handed us the script to learn a new vignette. Right now the 3 casts have been dwindling as missionaries go home. We are the only Peter and Abigail, until new missionaries can learn the part. But now she wants us to learn “Thomas and Elizabeth” who sing a song together at the end. We are working on memorizing and blocking it too. We are still very nervous, but have faith we can do it.

            Elder Schultz was also asked to be the new Audio Visual missionary for the mission! This is in addition to his other regular duties, and extra projects, i.e. updating the new website and directing the Visitor Center. He basically is in charge of setting up all the microphones, computers with power points, and lighting in the theaters for every training, sociable (fireside), Sunday meetings, etc. I guess he knows a lot about sound and lighting from his years of show experience! He also recently finished writing the whole script and introductions for the Easter program/concert that will be held this Sunday at the stake center. We have over 6 churches participating in this Interfaith Program, with 3 choirs, a string quartet, a family of 9 singing together, male and female soloists, and other various numbers. It should be a wonderful evening of music and spoken word; different from our Miracle of Christmas, but just as good.

            We were so excited and happy to welcome 12 new couples to our mission this past week. They are from all over Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho. About 18 more couples come next month! We have been so short staffed, that many of the sites are shared by one set of missionaries. 

            We continue to have wonderful missionary experiences in the Visitor's Center. A Young Men's quorum from Arkansas- about 12 of them, plus leaders came to ride bikes down the Carthage trail, for a scout patch, and then tour Nauvoo.  Their leader said that he was helping to prepare future missionaries, and wanted them to “feel” the spirit here. Elder Schultz gave them a tour and was able to share his testimony as he told about these valiant saints who lived here, but had faith to follow a prophet to leave and go west.

 We also had 17 German exchange students come in today. All of them nonmembers, and had not even heard of Mormons. We gave them a wagon ride, they watched our 20-minute movie, and we handed them a bag with brochures and pamphlets. Also this week we have had numerous families on Spring Break from Idaho and Utah. It is so fun to help them plan their visit here, to make it memorable for their children.

We are surely very busy! We perform twice a week now, and we practice for the upcoming Sunset by the Mississippi show twice a week. We are also in the Mission Talent Show next week, performing our song and jokes from last summer. But I am also singing in a duet with another sister in my cast. So we spend extra time practicing for that and learning our new parts in the musical. Whew! But we love it here, and wouldn’t have it any other way.

We have also gotten to know many of the people who live here in Nauvoo as permanent citizens. We work with Kim Ourth, head of tourism, and a descendant of the Baxter winery people. She is a young mother, expecting her second baby, and such a hard worker. She is a strong and valiant Catholic woman, and we love her. We also have grown close to LuAnn, who has been the owner of the Nauvoo Pharmacy for 35 years, and a nonmember. Also I love Marian, a Lutheran here who is our postmistress in the little Nauvoo Post Office. Craig Dunn, the chiropractor, and his wife conduct tours down the Carthage Trail, and are great people. Lachland McKay, head of the Community of Christ sites and descendant of Joseph Smith has also become our good friend. We bond over being Smiths together, and he always pull me aside to tell me the latest “information” he has discovered about our ancestors. We love many members, too, who helped us and performed in the "Miracle of Christmas" show. The Miller, Saunders, Evans and Seaman families are awesome.  I taught all of their young children in the program, and we loved seeing them at Stake Conference last week. And many more that I can’t mention, but we understand now why it is so hard to leave here when our mission is done, because you grow to love the local people so much!

I better close now, because it is getting late. We surely love it when you write us back, even if it is only a few lines. We feel so distant and out of touch with everyone, so it really means a lot to us. If any of you are planning a trip here this summer, please let us know in advance so we can help reserve tickets for shows, and plan your itinerary. That is what we do best! We love you all, and we love serving this mission for the Lord, and sharing his restored gospel to all we meet!

Love Elder and Sister Schultz

March 16- Spring is here!

Dear Family and Friends,

         So much has happened in the past 3 weeks, that I hardly know where to begin. First of all, it got up to 75 today! Hooray! We are feeling Spring in the air. We haven’t worn coats for a week now, and the tulip bulbs I planted last fall are starting to come up! I love seeing the change of seasons here. Growing up in California, I never was able to see them. Seeing the bare trees and bushes come alive and turn bright green, and then blossom is just amazing. And when they turned bright autumn colors in October, that was beautiful too!

         We have gone from 10-20 guests per day, to over 200 a day during March because of Spring Breaks all over the U.S. Families are coming in to see Nauvoo, mostly from Texas and parts of the south. This week we are welcoming people from the north near Chicago, Michigan and Minnesota. We love to greet these people and share our excitement and spirit of Nauvoo. I had a great experience today with a young man named Joe. He is from Champaign, Illinois and had never been here before. He has been searching for a religion, and found Mormons, and has been having the missionary lessons. He has set a baptism date for May. But he wanted to come to Nauvoo to strengthen his budding testimony. We really connected at the First Vision statue, where he shared that he had just read 3^rd Nephi, where Christ comes to America. He got choked up when trying to express how much it touched him. We shared an emotional moment, and I bore my testimony to him, that I knew this gospel was true, and that Joseph had seen the Father and Jesus Christ in the sacred grove. And that I knew the true church had been restored on this earth. He thanked me, and I congratulated him on being baptized.

         After the Exodus last month, we have been very busy on public affairs committee, setting up VIP meetings for us and our director, Sister Watkins and the President. We had one on March 10 with Fort Madison Mayor, and chamber people- about 10 persons. The meeting was a great success, and we told them we wanted to work together as partners. And we invited them to come over for wagon rides and site tours with their organizations. Tomorrow morning we meet with all the City leaders and board members of the Burlington Partnership. The mayor and about 50 people will be there to hear our presentation for Nauvoo. They are giving us about 15 min. which is unheard of they tell us. Usually they don’t allow outsiders of Burlington, but I guess they really perked up when I told them we have over 200,000 visitors a year to Nauvoo, and 60,000 in July alone because of the pageants. Then they were calling us to set up this meeting. So we are nervous but also excited!

         We have been enjoying lectures and training by President Brinley. He is such a scholar on religious subjects, and we are so blessed to have him here. If you remember, he was a professor at BYU for over thirty years. He taught one lesson on the revelations that were given to Joseph Smith here in Nauvoo. Then another lesson which was really interesting was on “Fifty doctrines that are unique to our church different from other churches.”  Just to share a couple; 1. The Trinity- that we believe the Godhead to be three distinct persons, not one. 2. We pray to the Father, and not Jesus. 3. The Plan of Salvation; a Pre-mortal life, mortality, and a spirit world after death with 3 degrees. 4.The nature of angels, 5.sacrament prayers, 6. temple ordinances and covenants, etc. Aren’t we blessed to have a wonderful church with a living prophet who receives revelation for us today?

Picture from Hal and Gina Halladay: "We love this missionary couple! We had a little Brea reunion as Mike Coyle 

happened to be in Nauvoo at the same moment."

         Also since the Exodus, the spirit of Elijah has been working on us to find more of Harry’s ancestors to have their temple work done. Sister Brinley is a genealogy specialist, and has been training me on Family Search and I am getting excited. I downloaded about 20 of his names ready for temple work. I will send some to you all, when I get them printed at the temple. So you will all need to go to the temple and help get the work done!

         Tomorrow afternoon is our Relief Society Organization Re-enactment up in the Red Brick Store, where it actually took place. We are wearing pioneer dresses and being driven down my wagons there, and we will share it with the Community of Christ sisters too. I am so excited to be part of this. I have been asked to give the closing prayer, as a relative of Emma Smith, the original first president of the Relief Society.

         We were called this week to be District Leaders of some of the new couples that are coming in March and April. We will help welcome and train them, and “shepherd” them for the next several months. We will have 2 new couples and 2 young sister missionaries. This will be a special experience. We grew very close to our “district leaders,” the Murrays, who went home last December. We still stay in touch.

         I better close because it is getting late. We sure love you all, and miss home so much. But we also love being here in Nauvoo, and have met and worked with such wonderful people. What blessings we have received! Too many to mention, and we are so grateful for them all.

Love from Nauvoo!  Elder and Sister Schultz