A Special Day

Wednesday- Oct. 30, 2013
Well, this week has certainly slowed down.  Monday and Tuesday we only had each day 34 people visit the Carthage Jail and Visitor Center.  Those who came it was fun to visit with them and where they were from. Monday I got a phone call and the man said he couldn't be here before we close at 5:00 pm.  So I told him to come on and I would wait and show him the Carthage Jail when he got here it was about 5:30 pm so my husband gave them the tour.  They were all Polygamist.  Elder Harris said their were two young girls about 16 years old traveling with women and these two men were the drivers.  I hope they felt the spirit that you feel in the Martyrdom room. I feel so sorry for those two girls. I'm sure they will be given to older men for their wives.

 Today we met a couple and her sister and family from Tooele.  He builds homes and I hope he will try to find Marshall Bellm.  He sent in a referral card about him, this is my first referral card,  and I hope he will use him to help do landscaping around the homes he builds, that is only my wish. I just love Marshall and wish he would have a desire to come back to church.  He was JB's best friend and was a GREAT Missionary.  Maybe he has already came back to church, I don't know. I just want to help everyone to be as happy as I am in the gospel.  The church is true and I love you!!!

Another busy Preparation Day

Thursday- Oct 24, 2013
                                     Got up and walked. Here are our Autumn pictures.

Elder Harris had to buy this jacket, I think he is homesick for the deer hunt.

Here is our daughter, Kisti-Jo Christensen snoozing at the deer hunt in Blanding Oct. 26, 2013.  Just like Elder Harris last year at the deer hunt.  Does this bring memorizes to you Dad- Elder Harris?

Bradley and his boys, Teagen & Kavan the Monday after the deer hunt roasting hot dogs at Dodge. Megan taking the picture with her phone. Ya have to love it!!!

Sister Harris walking, love these pictures of the Autumn leaves.

We are finally having the autumn leaves in Carthage, Illinois.

 Then at 9:30 am got my flu and Hepatitis shots.  Then drove to Nauvoo and met with  President Gilliland for a 6 Month interview at 11:00 am.  Then we went and practice our new part at the Cultural Hall with Sister Germer.  Then we went and cleaned the Grove signs because it is our district turn to do it this week and we told them we would do it.  Then we went to the Temple which was a peaceful beautiful time.  Then we went and gutted & carved pumpkins.  Here are some fun pictures Elder Harris and Sister Harris took.

 Here the men are gutting the pumpkins.  Sister Harris did this a lot before she started to carving her pumpkin.  There are about 3 or 4 people that draw all the faces on the 500 pumpkins that we started to do on Thursday.  On Saturday night, Oct. 26, 2013 all the pumpkins are lined up and down the Mulhuland street where all the stores are.  The pumpkins are lit up and then their is a parade of town people dressed up in their Halloween costumes and they walk down the street.  I guess a few years back the missionaries started this tradition and it is still going on.  It is called "The Halloween Walk". The Mission buys all the pumpkins and do most the work in preparing the pumpkins but some town people came and helped.  We the missionaries donate all the candy and put into bags, we had about 500 bags of candy to hand out.  We had about 700 bags of kettle corn, which people loved but we did run out of the kettle corn.  They have a big pot that they cook it right their by the road.  People walk all over the streets and look at all the pumpkins. I have never seen anything like this in my life.   All the pumpkins have candles and are lit up.  At the end of the parade the Mission horses are pulling a wagon which have missionaries on it playing funny instruments and singing.  The wagon is decorated and had lights all over it.  They are all dressed up and Elder Harris was with them and he played a noise maker like a horn, but he left the camera in Elder Ballards truck.  No pictures of this night.   I knew I should have brought my phone. Sister Harris and Sister Ballard wore our fancy hates and capes over our coats and past out Christmas fliers.  We are having a Christmas tree lighting and live Nativity and Caroling and inviting the town people to join us. When we ran out of fliers we gave bags of candy to everyone.  It was a fun night.
                     
  Here is Sister Broadbent and Sister Harris carving their pumpkins.

Here is Sister Harris's pumpkin she carved.

                  Sister Brockbank and Sister Petersen and behind or Elder & Sister Scott. Look at the detail on these pumpkins.  I have never seen such fancy pumpkins in my life.

                 Here are some more people working on the pumpkins.  It was so fun!!!!

Elder Harris showing the finished pumpkins.

These pumpkins are awesome!!

                            All the pumpkins are done with different paintings, it is unreal.

 I just love this one.  I wanted all our grandchildren to see that may be they could copy some of these faces when they carve their pumpkins.  

This one has so much detail. We also have FM workers that aren't missionaries working on this project also.

Sorry these are blurry.  The pumpkins in the wagon are ready to take to the Mulhuland Street, to line the streets. 

           It is amazing of this project!!!! and to think they do this ever year close to Halloween.
Sister Ballard and I went to the Messiah practice at 7:00 pm until 9:00 pm then with our husbands we drove to Carthage.  Tired-  Night all!!!

Autumn Times

Tuesday- Oct. 22, 2013
We had Sister Duncan and Sister Sanders come from Nauvoo to serve with us at Carthage Visitor Center & Jail.  They were a great help because it didn't take them long to do the tours.  I think they both had been here before.  I think we also had a tour bus today.  It is fun to meet so many people visiting these days.  There is such a great spirit here all the time giving tours. In the evening we drove to Nauvoo to do Rendezvous and the Paystrups did the Noah and Sophia tonight for the first time.   They did a really good job.  We only had one show tonight.

Wednesday- Oct. 23, 2013
Today is Elder and Sister Ballard's preparation day.  We had Sister Bowen, Sister Harper, and Elder & Sister Fuellenbach come from Nauvoo to serve with us today.  Sister Harper is the sister to Stephanie Jack, my hair dresser in Blanding.   She is a new missionary that just arrived here weeks ago.  It was fun to get to know her better.   I took some pictures of the Autumn leaves.  Here they are.   We were driving around Carthage since the leaves have started changing so you could see the Autumn leaves here in Illinois.

         These pictures are driving around the lake and golf course.  The leaves are pretty well done here.

These are leaves as we drive around the roads.

A close up of this tree.

This red brush is my house we live in.  It is right by the grounds by the Carthage Jail and Visitor Center.

 

            These to autumn leaves are so beautiful.  The Carthage Jail is behind the orange/red tree.

              This is the fence that goes all around the land of the Carthage Jail and Visitor Center.

These beautiful red trees are behind the Church where we go attend our Sacrament Meetings in Nauvoo.

Meet the Cousins

Monday- Oct. 21, 2013
Today was a fun day.  I was walking outside to get a couple and her daughter to come in and join a group in the film.  She looked at me and said, "Is you name Beverly?" I said, "yes".  It was Marilyn Chipman's daughter, Kristi Chipman Anderson.  I haven't seen her since she was about 18 years old.  What a surprise because she didn't know I was on a mission and here I was at Carthage Jail and Visitor Center.   It was someone else's turn to do the tour so I didn't get too.  After the tour they came in and visited with me.  It was so fun.  Here is a picture of them.

Here is Courtney Anderson, Kristi's daughter and she is going on a mission to California. Kristi Chipman Anderson is in the middle and Sister Harris. Kristi's mother Marilyn Chipman is my first cousin.  Kristi's husband was there also but not in the picture his name is Justin Anderson. They were so thrilled to see me it made it a special day, Thanks Kristi.

The week of Oct. 15 to 20, 2013

Tuesday- Oct. 15, 2013
We served at the Carthage Visitor Center and Jail today.  In the evening we did two shows of Rendezvous.  Elder & Sister Harris did Noah and Sophia Packer and we have done 33 times tonight of Noah and Sophia.  We also have done 69 shows of Rendezvous since we have been here in Nauvoo.  I can't believe how times flies when your having fun.


Wednesday- Oct. 16, 2013
Today we had a tour of 49 adults of the Community of Christ come to the Carthage Jail and visitor center.  It was great to talk with them.  They believe everything about Joseph Smith except the Temple work and for the died. Elder Harris gave them the tour but they wouldn't take a guest card and have the missionaries come and teach them about the gospel, of course.

Thursday- Oct. 17, 2013
This week we have had busy days with bus tours.  In the evening we drove to Nauvoo so I can practice the songs in the Messiah.  The community is putting on the Messiah this Christmas.  They haven't done for a few years.  It is a mixture of many different religions but the leader is LDS and is a recorder in the temple. Boy, he can really sing.  He sings high or low whatever fits and is going to play in the orchestra.  I am excited but we are only singing five songs out of the Messiah book. I can practice in Oct. and Nov. but when it gets to Dec. I will probably miss some practices because I have to do Rendezvous some of those practice nights.

Friday- Oct. 18, 2013
Today we had three bus tours.  We had about 358 people visit us at Carthage Jail and Visitor Center today.  It was fun to talk with so many people but sometimes you wonder have those people been through the jail or waiting to see the jail.  We show a film about 18 minutes then show the jail which is about 20 minutes.  It was a very spiritual and up lifting day.

Saturday- Oct. 19, 2013
We had two bus tours today but I had a very special experience happen to me.  One of the tours had about 60 people in their tour.  One man was a non-member but his wife was a member of our church.  They have been on a history tour so they had been to Palmyra, New York.  Every where this man had been he asked people what the ghost story was in that place.  Well, he was asking me outside what is the ghost story of the jail.  I told him, " their were not ghost stories."  He said don't lie to me I know you know some ghost stories.  So I took him into the Carthage Visitor Center and showed him Joseph's reflection in the kitchen area in the jail from the window of the visitor center.  When it is a cloudy day you can see Joseph in the window of the jail and in the summer kitchen that was built on in 1850 you can see Hyrum standing in the door.  Their are pictures in the visitor center that go through the windows and somehow shows in the jail window.  It gives you chills and so I showed him how the pictures reflects into the jail and he was thrilled to see them.  After a while the man over the tour group or bus driver came in and gave me a hug because I was the answer to 60 peoples prays.  They were thrilled that I solved the ghost story that the man had been hunting for. Little did I even realize that I was solving a problem they were having with that man.  I hope he won't be asking anymore questions about the ghost story.  It was great that I was the instrument to answering so many prayers.  Here is a picture of what you see. It's not real clear but it is so cool to walk from the office room and their Joseph is in the window in the jail, you have to love it.

Sunday- Oct. 20, 2013
We left early because Elder Harris had to bless the sacrament.  We had a great Sacrament meeting and Sunday School Class and Relief Society.  And then we had to hurry to Carthage to open the Jail and Visitor Center by 12:30 pm.  We had Elder and Sister Ballard with us today.  They have been called to serve with us for the winter.  The Taye's have moved to Nauvoo to serve in the sites there.  We also had District meetings this evening at the Ballards home. A full day we had today and I'm tired.

Moving day again!!

Monday- Oct. 14, 2013
We had this day as a preparation day because on Thursday which is our normal day off we had two bus tour groups.  We don't have anyone that knows the tours really well to help us so we had to work on Thursday.  Since we had Monday off we moved into our small home.  In the afternoon about 5:30 pm we went on a walk.

                                              These pictures are the front room.

 This one is from the front door.  The kitchen you can see slightly.  We had to move the table in the front room because when you open the back door you have to move the table over and when you get in the frig you have to move the table toward the door. We had a small table but our neighbors, Sister Ballard, traded tables because she felt guilty because she moved into the house I wanted and it has four bedrooms and a washer and dryer in its own room. She also has a conference room with a grand piano in it.  She plays the piano so that is really a good home for her.   My washer and dryer are in the basement again.  She really does have the nicer home.  The president wanted us in this house because if the security system goes off.   Salt Lake will call us at this home and we have to go check out the jail or visitor center at any time day or night.

This is at one end of the front room.  It is nice for me to put things on it and inside this cabinet.

                                      Elder Harris's lap top is in the front room.

Here is the picture of the kitchen from the front room door. The table was below the window. It is not too bad of a room but I have a hard time, where to put all the food we have because I had a pantry and now I don't.  Here are some more pictures of the kitchen.

  This is a cardboard that is by the back door. This is wear we put a lot of our food and medicines.

                                   This is our bathroom, you can see it is very small.

 Our bedroom but Elder Harris has to use the other bed rooms closet because this one is so small.

           My cloths and stuff.  Elder Harris is nice to let me have the closet in the bedroom.

                                    This is our bed, the room is small but it is nice.

 This is where I do my face and hair because the bathroom isn't big enough for two people.

 This is the second bedroom that Elder Harris uses the closet but if we have visitors we have an extra bed.

                 You can see this is my computer desk and my sewing desk, tiny room.  I miss my BIG apartment in the Bushnell Manson.