Week 60 - SETTLED IN IOWA

Total Exposures Filmed 388,413   to date, BUT WHO IS COUNTING?

We are going to post a running total of the number of exposures that we have taken. It will help us and you understand the progress that we are making.

Names Grandma has indexed 132,341   While Grandpa is at the camera, Grandma uses her extra time indexing for Family Search. She also does this while we are traveling, in the evenings, and any other time when she could be pursuing other more self-centered activities.

Nauvoo Temple.  The grassy foreground is the site of the home of Oliver Snow,
your Great Great Great Great Grandfather and father of Lorenzo Snow.

 

FAMILY MATTERS
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Congratulations to Kaden for his new calling as Deacon's Quorum President.  Grandma and Grandpa are very happy that you have this opportunity.  We are also confident that you will be an excellent Priesthood Leader. 






We had a Holloween Party with the other
Missionaries.  Sister Lloyd is seated next to
Grandma.  She was a Student Teacher Basketball
Coach at Bear River.  She had lots of good to say
about Jordan Oyler (Shari and Jeff's daughter)


Happy Birthday Grandma,  Nov 5  







Happy Birthday Holden
Nov 11













Happy Birthday Mylee
Nov 13

The Nielson girls get into Halloween.

Holden and Owen at their
piano recital

CJ has it right

Ali. Need we say more?

 

 

 

 

The Pynes in Key West Florida;  Ivan, Jackie, John, Jenna,
Stockton and Fisher.  They are in our family section, because
after all, they are family.  We are planing a cruise with
 their family and ours for next year.

Filming Progress



This is one of the nice neighborhood
streets around the Capitol.  Of course,
we have found a couple of good
restaurants on this street

We have been filming probate records for the last month.  We have had great success and have had higher productivity than at any other time so far.  We were pulled off that project to film 440 books of divorces.  This project will record 30 years of divorce records for every county in Iowa from 1906 to 1936.  We have had some difficulty getting started.  Grandpa has had to build new equipment that will provide us a good system for filming these unique book.  The nice thing about these books is, they do not require the use of spring loaded clamps that cause pain for Grandpa's arthritic thumbs and joints.  We will see a distinct improvement in our film progress this week. 




The freeway back to our apartment is seldom
backed-up. When it is we go home this way - a
street with beautiful historic homes and buildings.



Train Ride With the Mission Staff

This is great old Steam Locomotive

A few weeks ago we went on a Saturday excursion with the 2 couples from the Mission Office.  They are the Gardners from St. George and the Scovilles from Sacramento, CA..  We have done several things with them, which is becoming a  nice friendship for us.  Afterwards we went to the Flying Mango for dinner (see below).





The missionaries boarding the train

The Gardners are on the left and Scovilles are
behind them. 



When we went over this 200'
high trellis Grandpa took this
photo when the locomotive 
released steam.  We traveled for
about 15 miles and used 4,000
gallons of water.
 



Here we are!










 

The Flying Mango
Remember our story about the deli where we met the guy that bought our lunch.  We had a great time talking to him while we ate our sandwiches from the deli that we discoved.  His name is Mike Wedeking.  He was very impressed that we were helping preserve Iowa history at our own expense.  He invited us to his restuarant. 

After we rode the train we retured to the city in the evening.  Grandpa suggested that we eat at the Flying Mango. When we arrived they asked if we had reservations.  Of course, we did not, but they were gracious to seat use at a large table in the middle of the restaurant.  Most of the tables in the dining area were filled by about 5:30.  I had not seen Mike.  I was uncomfortable bringing six of us to the restaurant knowning that he had invited just Grandma and I to dinner.  When we were seated Mike recognized us and came to greet us.  We introduce the other missionaries and told him that they worked in the mission office for our Church.  He expressed thanks to us for our work in Iowa. 

When our waitress came to the table, I quitely told her that Mike knew us and that he may try to give us a complimentary meal.  I told her that I was adamant that we were there to pay our own way.  I looked at her with great seriousness.  She return my gesture with " I understand".  We ordered and had a marvelous meal. At the close of our eating, Mike again returned to our table.  He stood directly behind Grandma and put his hands on her shoulders.  He then, in a loud voice, asked for the attention of the entire restaurant.  He introduced us a Missionaries from our Church who are here from Utah to help preserve the historical records of Iowa.  He told the crowd that we were there at our own expense to do this important work.  He said that he and everyone in Iowa are grateful for our contribution.  He then leaded the entire restaurant including cooks and waiters in a clapping ovation for the six of us.  It was truly touching.

He concluded with a personal expression of gratitude to each of us and bid us farewell.  Shortly after that our waitress came to me and said, "Mike is more adamant than you are that you will not pay for this meal."  We left her a big tip and said our thankful goodbyes.





"Lies Unanswered Become True"
This is a phrase that Grandpa coined about 10 years ago.  People say things that, simply, are not true.  People that speak untruths can be placed into 3 catagories; 1) those people that are purposely and knowingly lying, 2) those people who are well intentioned, but are misinformed.  They have the wrong information, 3) those people who do not care if they are speaking truth, but will say anything to meet their selfish purposes.  These people are careless gossipers.  All three catagories of people are liars no matter what they have as intentions. 

There are also two kinds of listeners; 1) those that hear and then verify truthfullness before repeating.  If these folks cannot determine if what they hear is true, they will not repeat it, These are good people.   2) those that listen and then repeat anything and everything without caring if it is true.  These people are dangerous.

Particulary when working as a public servant, I found that some people were willing to say things that were not true to meet their political or financial purposes. I also experienced that if these lies were repeated by someone in public, in the news media or in groups, most listeners would take them as true.  My initial reaction to these schemes were to ignore them. However, what I found was the longer the lies persisted the lies seemed to become more true if the damaged party would not stand up for themselves.

No where has this principle been more obvious than in the last Presidential campaign.  We watched the Democratic party tell lies about Mitt Romney early in the Campaign.  For months, those lies lingered on the televisions and in the minds of the many Americans. Soon those untruths became true to many voters.  Mitt Romney initially, took the approach that he was going to take the high road and not respond to these negative campaign messages.  By the time he recovered and started to answer the lies it was too late.   Many people were convinced that he was an evil man. 

This is a truism of life " lies unanswered become true".  We must confront the lies that are told about us.  We should do that with kindness and with restraint. But we must see that truth prevails in our world.  We must stand up for ourselves, our families, our friends, our Church, our Nation, our religion, and our Saviour.  We must defend truth.





Easter Lake Ward

Easter Lake Ward

Our Ward in Des Moines was recently realigned.  We are now in the Easter Lake Ward.  Same Bishop but a new branch was formed from the Ward which will allow for more growth of the Church and more growth for families and individual members.

We just had dinner at the Bishops house with the other 4 Elders assign to the Ward.  His wife is from Thailand.  She served us five dishes of great Thai food. What a treat.

We have been working closely with Bob and Betty Lloffredo who have been away from church for more than 3 years.  We hope to have them come to church with us in the next weeks.  They are in their late 70's.  They have done a lot of family history work.  We like them and they seem to enjoy us.  This will be good.
 

 There are two companionships of Elders assigned to our Ward also.  We have not been out with them on any visits, but we have taken all of them to the Deli for a great sandwich.

President Jensen took us to the top floor where
sealings are performed - the rectangular structure
 at the top of the Temple, just below the steeple.
Just east of the sealing rooms is where the first
endowments were performed, before the
Saints were driven out and the Temple was 
seized by the mobs.  

Nauvoo The Beautiful
We traveled to Nauvoo last weekend to attend the temple and make some preparation for our stay there for Thanksgiving.  We were surprised to met several friends from Cache Valley.  Glen O. Jensen is the Second Councilor in the Temple Presidency.  When we finished a session, he took us to other places in the temple that patrons normally do not see. 









Grandma and Grandpa outside the main entrance
as we left the Temple.

In our same session was Tony Bringhurst who Grandpa worked with at the University.  He now lives in Hurricane, Utah.  He and his wife were returning home from a mission at the Boston Temple.  We enjoyed catching up with them. 


We went to the performance of the "Rendezvous In OId Nauvoo" held in the Historic Cultural Hall.  Then on Sunday morning we attended Fast and Testimony Meeting with all of the Historic Site Missionaries and the Temple Missionaries.  There was probably 200 Senior Missionaries in attendance.  That was centainly an uplifting experience.



The plaza in front of the Temple overlooking the

beautiful Mississippi River Valley.  In the winter

 of 1846 it was not such a wonderful scene.  

In the far distance the Saints fled into the

frozen winter of Iowa.  The sculpture in the

plaza is the horse-mounted figures of Joseph

 and Hyrum as they volunentarily rode

eastward to the fateful prison of Carthage .

When we left Nauvoo, heading back to Des Moines, we followed the Old Mormon Pioneer Trail across Iowa.  You, like us, might think that flat Iowa was easy going for the Saints.  It was not.  The terrain is steep, hilly and heavily covered with trees and dense brush.  To make things worse it was an intense winter where the ground was either frozen and impossibly slippery, or ankle-deep in mud that slowed travel to a creep.  We traveled the route in our warm car at 60 miles per hour which took us about 3 hours to arrive at the first major stopping station, Mt. Pisgah.  The Saints covered the same terrain in a month of misery, burying their loved ones along the way. 



The First Hotel in Nauvoo where

Lorenzo Snow stayed between

missions that he served in Ohio,

Illinois, and Kentucky.  Property

records indicate that he owned

this property and may have lived

here for a short time after he was

married before departing Nauvoo.



























Mt. Pisgah Station


Mt. Pisgah site overlooking the Valley of the Grand River.
Here the saints cut more than 10,000 trees for log cabins, fuel
 and wagon repairs.
 

As we returned to Des Moines we followed the Mormon Trail about 175 miles to Mt. Pisgah.  This was established as a resupply station for the 12,000 Saints who followed the Mormon Trail over
about a 5 year period. Many Saints died here. They grew crops, raised cattle, and made wagon repairs to support those driven from Nauvoo. Lorenzo Snow was the President of the Mt, Pisgah Station for about
a year before bring his family and 80 other pioneers to Salt Lake by wagon.



 









Mt. Pisgah is the tree covered land on the slope.
All of the Saints traveling to Zion crossed the
land in this photograph.

  

On our way back from Nauvoo, we happened
upon the birth place of  an obscure man named
Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset Iowa. 

 

Thanksgiving Plans In Nauvoo
Jason's family, Amber's family, and Jessica are traveling to visit us for Thanksgiving.  We have rented a large home on the Mississippii River just outside of Nauvoo.  We are very much looking forward to their visit.  We will report on this in our next blog.

 

When we came from the Historical Society Building last Monday night, this was the scene that greeted us.  All of the roads were closed awating  President Obama's last political rally.  We hurried out of town.  We were not pleased with the results of the election, but life goes on.  We will make the very best of this.  That is what we do.  God Bless America.  There is much good that will come of Brother Romney's valiant efforts.

 

 

HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU. UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN.

GRANDMA AND GRANDPA