i read a book

can you believe it?

and i loved it. i picked up a biography of emma smith while in nauvoo. it was amazing, and it got me interested in the stories of the early saints. it also got me thinking a lot about polygamy, and tina told me i should read this. wow.

it's the story of a fictional character, dinah kirkham, who has more trials than any of us could ever imagine. the character is mostly based on eliza r. snow (that's how i figured out she was fictional - some of the events were starting to sound a little familiar.)

it was the kind of book that stays with you. i have a feeling it has changed me. read it.

"saints" by orson scott card

"Beautiful Place"

when we moved here, we were excited to be so close to so many historic places, and swore we would take weekend trips to see some of them. this is the first time we've ever gone to Nauvoo, and we met Eric's brother John and his wife Tina and their kids.

we had so much fun! we realized when we got there that we had only had to stop once on the 7 hour trip, thanks to the fact that we no longer have any babies! Yay! no diapers or car sickness or feedings! it was great! and thanks to movies, pretty uneventful.

the weather was cold. i thought it would be perfect, seeing as how it was the second weekend in may, but it was in the low 50s and windy. brr. and i had a touch of the flu on the way out and that evening, but thank goodness, no gross stuff. just a fever and tummy ache.

what an amazing place! it's hard to believe that the early saints built it and then left it in a manner of a few years. at one time it was the second largest city in the state, after Chicago.

its so fun how they have these cute missionary couples running everything. we made rope, saw demonstrations on candle-dipping, weaving, barrel-making (did you know that Joseph Smith, Sr. was a cooper - made barrels), baking (got a sample!), brick-making, wagon-building, horseshoe making, gun-smithing. all taught by these wonderful senior missionaries. i think it would be a fun place to serve a mission, but Eric says no, and here's why.

thursday evening we got to see a show - "Rendezvous" - which is put on by the missionaries. the senior missionaries. it tells the story of old nauvoo in song and acting. a little cheesy (to quote a song, "willingly, because we have to") but fun and well done. and EVERY missionary participates. even if they don't do that sort of thing. so, Eric's hoping that when the time comes, his mandarin chinese fluency will get us sent somewhere else.

the temple was amazing. i can't believe the hard work it must have been for the early saints to build the original, only to have to leave as soon as it was done.

we saw Joseph and Emma's home, their store, and many other buildings. we walked down Parley Street to the river, which is where the wagons lined up, waiting for their turn to get on the ferry and go to Iowa. it was cold, but the saints left in February in zero degrees, without enough food, clothes, etc. to make it through the winter, let alone across the plains to salt lake they had had to leave their homes so many times before. i'm sure it took a tremendous amount of faith to leave everything and start over again.

we stopped at the Carthage jail on our way back, but it was closed so the missionaries could attend church. we'll go back this summer to see it.

our weekend in Nauvoo was a much needed spiritual boost - i'm so thankful for the sacrifices those early saints made.

these are not my pictures - i forgot my camera. i found them on the internet.

Youth Conference

Eric and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Youth Conference with our stake, and it was incredible. We went to Kirtland, where we saw the Whitney store with the school of the prophets above, and then drove on to Geneva that night. The next day we visited the Hill Cumorah, where we watched the new movie about Joseph Smith which was amazing. The Spirit was so thick in there you could cut it with a knife. We saw the Grandin Press, where the Book of Mormon was first published. We visited the Smith farm, and then that evening we walked out to the Sacred Grove and had the most amazing testimony meeting. On Saturday we drove back to Kirtland and saw the temple there, where we sang a verse of "The Spirit of God" which was also a very spiritual experience. We stopped at the Johnson Farm where Joseph Smith was tarred and feathered before coming home. It was incredible to feel the spirit testifying over and over, with one experience on top of another. It was a great experience for the kids, too.

Have you ever been sitting there in church and thought, "Wow, those kid's sure are being good! I guess the new sticker book I bought them is doing the trick!"

My New Accidental Calling

So, we moved to this ward a little over a year ago, and in that time, I have never heard much in the way of food storage. Around November, I started really feeling strongly that it was time to get serious about our family's food storage. In asking around, I found out that a)nobody had been called to be the food storage person in our ward, or b)two names were mentioned, but no one was sure if that was the food storage person, c) our stake owns a mylar bag sealer, but d)when my friend tried to find it, she called 20 different people, and finally gave up when #20 told her to call #1 again.

So, needless to say, if I was going to buy long term storage for my family, it was going to be left entirely up to me. I did what anyone would do, I called my big sister and asked her for help. She lives in Columbus, and I figured she would know how it was done "in the mission field". She told me that a lady in her stake puts together a giant group order from a place in Idaho called Walton Feed, but they had just received their order for the year. So, I called Walton Feed, and they referred me to another group in Dayton (about 1 1/2 hours from here) and I was welcomed into their club, so to speak. I invited my Gourmet Divas friends (recipe group) and some of them ordered with me. I also had a few other people add on through word of mouth.

A short time later, I was called to be on the Activities Committee. A few weeks ago, the bishop asked our committee chair to put food storage under her banner, and I volunteered to take that over for the ward. (It gets me out of other activities responsibilities.) A member of the bishopric said to me today that they were glad to find someone with a passion for food storage, and I explained to him that I would NEVER say I was passionate about it, only that there are many things I would rather watch than my children starving. I'm glad to do it if no one else wants to, and I think there are many people in our ward who want to get their food storage, but like me, don't know how or where to start. I will learn so much by doing this, and that part does make me a bit excited. I also feel very peaceful, knowing that our family is on it's way to being a little more self-sufficient.