Nauvoo is kind of like LDS Church Site Disneyland. Happy workers, clean, tours, rides, activities, food, dancing shows and music...it was a fun change from the other spots.
We enjoyed the house and shop tours a lot. We did probably 10 of them and really loved the sweet short testimony the missionaries would bear at the end of the their spiel. It really brought the spirit and reminded us why we were there.
We did the Trail of Tears walk, each of us reading the quotes from the different men, women and children who left Nauvoo to walk across the country to escape persecution and follow the prophet and join with the Saints. I loved knowing my children would picture that spot for the rest of their lives as they heard stories of Nauvoo.
We loved the little plays and musical numbers put on by the young and old missionaries...definitely a highlight of Nauvoo.
We did baptisms (family names!) at the Nauvoo temple. It was Jane's first time in the temple and it was such a great way to have her experience the temple.
We toured the visitor's center and took pictures with the famous statues (doesn't everyone have these picture remakes in their photo albums?)
We drove to Carthage and took the tour of where Joseph and Hyrum were killed. It was solemn and special. I remembered going as a 7 year old and having one of my first real witnesses that Joseph was a prophet and that he restored the Gospel to the earth, and I was grateful to share that place with my kids.
We said goodbye to Grandpa Mike and Grandma Genie and headed over to Adam Ondi Ahman. We spent some time in the car reading to our kids about the importance of that place. It was beautiful and had a neat spirit there, but, honestly, our loud and crazy kids were a little bit of a distraction. I was glad we stopped, but no huge spiritual experience was happening there.
We spent the night in Kansas City and began our trip back West.
1 comment:
I've loved reading about your trip! I definitely want to do this in a few years.
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