Nauvoo, Part 1

July 4, 2011

My sister Melissa has been living in South Dakota because her husband Lyle has been doing his internship out there this summer. She has been lonely--so me being the good sister I am went to visit. We ended up doing a drive out to Nauvoo.

When I flew out, I hit the Minneapolis area. I had never been to Minnesota before--so new state number one I was in. All I got a picture of there was this...

too bad I was by myself so I couldn't put my face in...

Then, I flew into Sioux Falls--for which at the time I got there--it was late. It was also the Fourth of July--and I was amazed at how many places were doing fireworks from the airplane. The best part though was as we were flying to Sioux Falls--God was busy doing his own lightning show in the sky. It was beautiful.

The next morning, Melissa and I decided to head out to Nauvoo in Lyle's car. Our original plan had been to drive up through Missouri. But--the Missouri River has been flooding terribly this summer--so we were not able to go through Omaha. We ended up just driving to Nauvoo through Iowa. I got some interesting pictures of the flooding though.

This McDonalds was very prepared in Iowa while the Subway next door was not so much.

The levy along the interstate to keep the water off

Melissa and I made it to Nauvoo that night. We got there and drove by the temple very first. As we were driving by the temple, we noticed that below they were set up for the pageant. We went to check it out and found out it was night one of the pageant. We were lucky--and it was one of the best pageants I've been to!

Me at the Nauvoo Temple

They had different pioneer activities set up all around the pageant area

Missy and I cut the log with the saw--we were pretty fast.

The cast of the pageant

The Nauvoo Pageant was pretty amazing. I think that I learned a lot from the pageant--mostly what I posted about previously. I learned about the importance of following the prophet and having faith. It was a good reminder to me of believing and not giving up on the things I know to be true. I think that I came out of the pageant with new appreciation for the Nauvoo saints and all they went through. The pageant though was just the beginning...