Dinner at Jet's Palace

Last Monday we had a fun experience. One of our missionaries had heard about this new Chinese restaurant that had opened in Keokuk that was supposed to be really good, so he sent out an email to anyone interested to meet there at 5:30 that evening. Well, almost 50 of us showed up including President and Sister Peterson! We filled almost the entire restaurant and really overwhelmed the cute little Chinese couple who own and run it. Elder Mills had told them to expect a big group...but they didn't know it would be this big! The wife had extra people to help her, but apparently her husband who cooks it ALL, cannot understand English so she (the wife) had to take all the orders! We were there for 2 hours BEFORE she got to us to take our order and it was 3 hours before we were through! It was really fun though, being with and visiting with all these missionaries who have become our good friends. I am posting a few pictures of some of the people that were there. I'm sure you do not want to see all 50! :)
The food was really good too, in fact we went back on Thursday and took a couple of the young sister missionaries. They leave on Wednesday for their 6 months away to do proselyting. They are all going different places around the country. We are really going to miss them...they add a lot to Nauvoo.

The Coons and the Hepworths. Both these couples will be here in the winter with us.

President and Sister Peterson...and lots of others :)

The Johnsons, Mills, Jespersons, and Evans. All these couples have been here for a year and a half so will be going home this month.
We are going to miss them....a lot. They are wonderful!

The Days and the Deweys. The Days are also 2nd year people...the Deweys are local. She is the main secretary to the Presidency and really keeps everything together at the Temple. I don't know what they would do without her!

Trip to the Dickson Mounds Museum

On September 16th, our p-day group took a trip to the Dickson Mounds Museum near Peoria, about a 2 hour drive from here. It is one of the major on-site archaeological museums in the country and a National Historic Site. There are many of these so called "mounds" in this area of the country, and they are the burial grounds of the ancient people who lived in this area. Many people think the Nephite and Lamanite civilizations were predominately here in this area of No. America. Anyway, it was very
interesting. We had a private tour (about 2 1/2 hours) with the director of the museum.
The story of the Dickson Mounds began in 1927 when Dr. Don Dickson conducted excavations on his family farm. He found the remains of hundreds of people and the artifacts that were buried with them. Dickson Mounds became a state park in 1945 when the state purchased the site from the Dickson family and in 1965 it became a part of the Illinois State Museum.
You used to be able to view many of the skeletons in an area in the museum that looked like an uncovered mound...but in the 80's and 90's many of the native Americans objected to this display of their peoples and the sacred burial spots, so the Governor of Illinois ordered them permanently reburied and a display of artifacts and other exhibits are now there in that area of the museum, but you can no longer see the skeletal remains.
Our tour guide

Some of the displays of how life might have been for these people

This is the museum which actually sits upon one of the biggest "mounds".

A smaller "mound" that we drove over to. This looks really small, but was about 50 yards long.

The men waited in the car...

while the women got out to explore!

After the museum, we ate in the little town of Havana. This is their water tower.

" Sisters" in Havana (Illinois, that is) Bench, Evans, Eichbush, Phillips, and Hannig

Don't know what the men were discussing. :) Elders Hannig, Eickbush, Bench, Evans & Phillips.

Huge grain elevators in Havana...these were all up and down the river. This is where they store all the corn that they grow in this area of the country and they grow a lot!

Looking back at the grain elevators from the bridge

A monument to the early inhabitants of this country ( perhaps Nephites, Lamanites, or Jaredites) erected by a branch of the Church in Havana.

Missionary Service Project

Last week all the Temple missionaries did a service project for the Community of Christ church (formerly the Reorganized LDS) We re-stained the entire fence surrounding the old Joseph Smith homestead. It is a lot of fence, but since there were so many of us, we completed it in about 2 hours. They were very grateful for our service. Afterwards we had a supper there on the lawn between the Red Brick Store and the Homestead. It was a fun evening. It was interesting to see everyone in "grubbies" since we are usually either dressed up as missionaries are in our "whites" in the Temple.

Elder and Sister Bench. aka Farmer Jones

Sister Stapley and Sister Virgin

Part of the "group"

The Blackburns and the Demordaunts

Sisters Blackburn, Jaussi, Romrell, Evans, and Coons

The Jaussi's

Sister's Ostler, Brady, and Ross

President and Sister Peterson.

The Old Martyrdom Trail

On a P-Day this month we also drove on the Old Martyrdom trail with the Benches. This is the trail that the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum took that morning on the way to Carthage. It was out through the farm land and was a very beautiful drive. It was rather overcast as you can see, but that made it even more impressive...thinking about how they must have felt that day. I do believe Joseph KNEW he was not going to ever return to his beautiful Nauvoo!

I would love to live in this farm house...isn't it beautiful and the grounds were so well taken care of!

Isn't this an interesting barn...round no less!

Stopping to see the Horses

On our way to Carthage we saw all these horses in the yard and stopped to take a picture. Just then the owner drove up and asked us if we wanted to come in. He and the horses were very friendly, as you can see...but the horses looked like they were starving. You can see their ribs! I wanted to take them all back with me to the cabin...but Rick said NO! :)

This is a mom and her baby...but look at the ribs!

This one was talking to Brother Bench

Sister Bench was not too sure about them...I think she was a little afraid!

The Court House in Carthage

While in Carthage we visited the Court House which was built in 1906-07. It was so beautiful inside, I thought I would post a couple of pictures of it. We were told it had all the modern conveniences of 1908 including more than 700 light bulbs & "all the principle rooms had toilet rooms", this at a time when few homes in the area had electricity or running water ! It cost $117, 828.00 to build.

Above the staircase leading to the 3rd floor is this beautiful stained glass window depicting "Justice". This one window is today valved at several times the cost of the original building!

The floor was these little tiny tiles of mosaic marble throughout the whole building even in the bathrooms. It was beautiful

Rick, pretending to be the judge in the main court room.

Another picture of the window, "Justice".

How long since you have seen one of these? A phone booth like Superman used!