Friends from Blanding

Tuesday- January 28, 2014
We were so surprised when Cory and Crystal Raisor and his brother, sister, and mom walked into the Carthage Visitor Center and Jail.  They have rented a home in Hamilton, Illinois and he will be working here in Carthage.  Grandma Kay Jones has been telling me that they were coming.  It was so neat to give them the tour of the Jail.
                                                    Here are some picture of us together.

Elder & Sister Harris, Crystal & Cory Raisor

            This is Cory's mother and Sister Harris showing the Parlor Room in the Carthage Jail.

In the evening we went to Susan Durrant's talk and she talked about the Twelve Apostles in Joseph Smith time and that only three Apostles stayed true to the Apostleship. It was so amazing how much she knows about Joseph Smith's life.  We just love going to her lectures just like we love to hear La Grand Black give lectures. They certainly touch our souls..

Wednesday- Jan. 29, 2014
The Raisor's came to the Rendezvous this night to watch Elder & Sister Harris do their Jed & Annie part.  It was so fun to hear them laugh and laugh.  The whole program is so much fun to watch and be in.  The spirit is so strong when we are performing in any of the program whether singing or saying a small part or whatever we do.  We just love it.

This is a picture after Rendezvous, Elder & Sister Maughan, Cory's brother's wife is a niece to the sister Maughan and they are by her husband, Sister & Elder Harris, Cory & Crystal wearing our Rendezvous hats.

                                            These are the Rendezvous pictures they sent me.

Here is Sister Harris in the right in Relief Society  and
to the left I was in the Streets song.  Right side Elder and Sister Harris doing Jed & Annie at the starting of it.  The left picture we were just singing.

                                                                                   
Here is Jed asking Annie to Marry him.

Here is where at the end I say to Jed,"O Jed, you'll never change."

Thursday- Jan. 30, 2014
 Today is our preparation day so off we go to Quincy to Elder Harris's appointment at 8:30 am.  The doctor said since he is improving that he doesn't have to have another MRI.  They called and said they wanted to do another one because of some artifacts but he is doing well.  He has no more headaches and his eyes have come back to seeing only one thing instead of two.  I call this a Nauvoo Miracle.  He is going to have some other tests, Ultrasound to check out his arteries in his neck and check out his heart to make sure he doesn't have mini strokes.  This is good to make sure everything is good.

Friday- Jan 31, 2014
The Winklers came to serve at the Carthage Jail and Visitor Center today so we invited them to stay and eat supper with us.  They are such a fun couple to get to know.

    Elder Winkler on the left and Sister Winkler on the right.  They went to see the Abe Lincoln Museum.

The end of the Month February

Thursday- Feb. 27, 2014
This was our Preparation Day so we try to go to the Nauvoo Temple and go shopping for food.  This is the day we clean the house but the day is over so quickly that sometimes I don't get all the washing done before we go to bed.  So you can see I am really behind in my blog but I'm trying to catch up.
    We also did our Rendezvous tonight.  I just did small parts because we had done Jed & Annie Monday night.

Friday- Feb. 28, 2014
I served at the John Taylor's Home with Sister Thurston.  She is new to me since I've been back in the sites.  She was so much fun and we really enjoyed doing tours in John Taylor's Home.  When we weren't busy we practiced our Clarinet Polka Dance.  It was fun and I learned it better.  We are doing this dance this summer in the Sunset program.
 

New Experiences!!

January 22, 2014

Elder and Sister Harris are called to be the Zone Leaders which means we have to do a training meeting on Wednesday mornings once a month. We will serve with two other couples that are also called assistant Zone Leaders.  So yes we are going to move back to Navuoo in about two weeks.  we have loved serving here in Carthage and will miss the wonderful time we have felt here in the Carthage Visitor Center and Jail.  We also have to be responsible for Sacrament and the Elders that pass it, or I should say Elder Harris has that responsibility.  We also conduct Relief Society and Elder Harris will do Priesthood Meetings.  I don't know how many Districts we are over yet but it might be 6 to 8 Districts.  We are certainly going to meet a lot of  New Elders and Sisters and I hope I can remember all their names.

     We are moving into a really nice apartment but it only has one bedroom but we do have a hideaway bed and a lot of floor space for grandchildren to sleep on.  We have a very large kitchen and a washer and dryer in the kitchen,  ya ya no more down stairs to do my washing.  No more stairs to climb, Yes!!
I guess the mission field doesn't want you to feel comfortable because they really are putting us out of our comfort zone being Zone Leaders.   I know the Lord wants us to be more spiritual and helping other missionaries improve will also help us to be better missionaries.   I'm sure someday I will be grateful for this calling.  We also have to speak in Sacrament Meeting in two weeks on repentance. I guess the Lord wants me to be more humble and learn to live by the spirit.   We both know with the Lords help we can do this calling and the talks. Last Sunday I conducted the music in Sacrament Meeting and really enjoyed it.   When it gets in the summer they say we will have more missionaries than last summer.   That means we will be training about 300 missionaries, boy! that's scary.
Here are a few pictures of our new apartment in Nauvoo.

 The Christmas picture to the right I just love so I keep it up all the time.
Left is the front room.  It comes furnished.

 Here is another view of the front room.  The front room is long and at the other end is our two lap tops.

To the left you can see one door to the kitchen, and the other door to the bathroom and bedroom.











Kitchen-- This is above the
cupboards.








The name "Nauvoo" is between the picture of the Mississippi River and the Heber C. Kimball home to the right. The picture below is above the frig.

 The Temple Plate and Bakery is above the washer & Dryer.

   

This is the kitchen sink before I decorated on the top of the cupboards.

                          We had a wonderful view out the two kitchen windows every time we ate.

Thursday Jan. 23, 2014

    Here is what we did at the rest of the day.    We had a fun Preparation Day.  We went with another couple to Burlington and shopped and went out to eat and laughed and had so much fun with Elder & Sister Scott.  We went to a store that is called Stage Two and she helped me choice a black purse and a red spring coat.  We ate at a Mexican Place and it was really good.  When we got home we needed a r-e-s-t.

Friday- Jan. 24,2014

We did our Jed and Annie tonight and my husband decided he needed to spice it up so he changed a few wording to make people laugh but their was only 2 elders in the audience except for our cast that was watching the program when they could.  I'm sure Sister Kermer wasn't very happy what my husband did but she didn't say anything about it.  I think she is hoping we won't do that again.  I kept telling my husband don't do it then Sister Scott said, "Go For It".  So he changed some of the words and said, "You old Missionary Geezers" instead of saying, "You old Geezers" and that got him mixed up and in the middle he ask me to marry him instead, "Why are you leaving me Annie, why are you leaving me." Boy,  I was so surprised I didn't know what to say, then he finally came out with the right question and we went on. He said he will never do that again, I was so embarrassed, I hope he doesn't.....
            Here we are with a lot of snow still and I want to show some of the winter pictures I have.

                                                              The Nauvoo Temple

                                 Isn't this a beautiful Christmas picture of the NauvooTemple.

 This is the sleigh ride that visitors that come to visit would get to ride on when they do the carriage ride.  The horses pull the sleigh instead of the wagon when it snows, of course we haven't got to go on the sleigh ride yet,I hope it snows again so we can go on it. This picture is showing the snow.

 Here the horses are going home.  If it gets too cold they don't do the sleigh ride or the carriage ride not because it's hard on the horses but it is too cold for the driver and the Sister that is the Narrator.

                                                                                                                    This is a real bird, isn't that a beautiful pictures.  

 Elder Ballard trying to help Elder Harris keep the tractor from tipping over.  He puts his weight on the back and the tractor pushes the snow better and keeps the back tires down on the side walk.

Hello everybody!!!! I am trying to clear some of the snow in the parking lot at Carthage.

One of the home's in Hamilton  had their whole house lit up for Christmas, it was the most awesome decorations around their house.  Hear are some pictures of the front of the home. I never took any pictures of the back of the home.  

                                 Look at all the plow ups they had in the front part of the home.

On this one corner of their home they made an ice rink with the lights in the ice.

 It was the cutest thing ever.

Look at the cute bear and penguins coming down the slide.    They won the award for the most Christmas lights around their home and on top of their home at least I give them an award!!!

Carthage Visitor Center & Jail- Jan. 21,14

Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2014
We served at the Carthage Visitor Center and Jail and the Jail was still only about 50 degrees.  They still don't have both furnaces working.  They keep saying the next day they will both be working we're still waiting.  I am to learn patience I'm sure.  We have been having a few tours which is great because we love to share our Testimonies with them in the jail.  We are learning how to make baby hats and children hats.  It is really fun to do humanitarian.

                        Here is a picture at the Autumn time at the Carthage Visitor Center and Jail.

Tonight we did Rendezvous and Sister Kermer has called us to be stage managers some of the time.  We still do Jed and Annie once a week.  Doing Stage Manager is Elder Harris pulling the curtains and and being a prompter and Sister Harris is the other prompter.  You have to set up the stage for the different vignettes during the program.  Be ready to help someone if they forget their lines.  We do enjoy this new calling. We are constantly learning new things to do and new challenges.  This next Friday we will be doing something in every song and also doing Jed and Annie.  I hope I can remember all my lines because it has been almost two weeks since we have done it.  The Cultural Hall was closed all last week for painting and fixing up.  We love our Mission.

                 Here is Elder Harris ready to pull the curtain at the opening of the program.

Wednesday- Jan. 22, 2014
After serving at the Carthage Visitor Center and Jail we were about to leave because we have to be in Navuoo by 6:00 pm and the center stays opened until 5:00 pm.  Elder Harris noticed that a pipe was frozen outside the jail which lets the water drip out from the furnaces.  So he called the Elder that was working on the furnaces and had both of them going and the jail was feeling pretty good.  So Elder Harris had to go back to the jail and turn the furnaces off so the pipes wouldn't freeze and break again tonight.    We were a little late to our meeting at 6:00 pm.   We are to talk about, the program we do in the summer.
 We are starting to review our songs that we sing in the "Sunset by the Mississippi" program.  We also are learning some new songs.  Last summer Elder Harris said he would learn the Clarinet Polka and this summer we could dance in it.  So we started to learn the Clarinet Polka tonight.  It really isn't hard we just have to get our feet in the right spot.   This keeps us really busy with everything we have to do.


Thursday Jan. 23, 2014
Today is our preparation day and we went to Nauvoo to the FM where we got new keys made to open the summer kitchen and jail better.  While I was at the Nauvoo Visitor Center President Chynoweth said he wanted to talk with Elder Harris and I.  So I went back to FM and picked up Elder Harris since he was waiting for the keys to be finished and we went back to the Nauvoo Visitor Center to see President Chynoweth.  Will tell you later what he has called us to do.

Cold Jail- Furnace broke

Sunday- Jan. 19, 2014
We went to our regular meetings in Nauvoo on Sunday and then we had to hurry back to Carthage to open the Visitor Center & Jail.  We have had cold days and the furnace broke in the jail so FM people came a week or two back and pulled it out the top window which they took out and had a machine that lifted the furnace out side the jail.  We got two small furnaces now but only one is working at the moment.  We also had a leak in the attic from the new gas furnace which we hope is fixed now.  We had to put a garbage can under the leak and towels around the floor to try to stop the wood floor from getting wet in the Dungeon Cell.  They have had electric heaters in the jail when their was no furnace but the heat only got up to 33 or 40 degrees.  We would give tours in our coats.  It was really cold. The one heater is heating the bottom floor at the moment but I think it is heating better since we got up to 55 degrees, heat wave.

    Sister Ballard and Sister Harris cold in the Martyrdom Room. We tell the stories in this room around the heater.

 Here is the original door in the Martyrdom Room. It gets so cold in the Jail. The window behind is the window Joseph Smith fell out off.

Monday- Jan. 20, 2014
The other furnace which I hope they get going tomorrow since it was Martin Luther King Day today of course they were off.  This one man is hired by the church and is working with another Elder that works on furnaces and air conditioning.   It has been a really hard time to get the jail warmed up since the lime stone rock is about 3 feet thick all around the bottom of the jail.  The second furnace should heat up the up stairs rooms which one of them is the Martyrdom Room. We like it to be warm since we spend most the time telling stories and listening to a tape.  The spirit is so strong in this room whether their is heat or not but it is nice when you feel warmth. We had about 5 tours today which is good because we have had no tours for 3 or 4 days in a row in the winter months.  We went for a walk at noon today because it felt warmer but tomorrow they say it is going to get colder again.  We do love the warmer days. Here are some pictures we took today in the jail.

      This was taken through the bullet hole in the door with the window that Joseph Smith fell out off.
Their is not much heat up in the Martyrdom Room. This is Elder and Sister Harris. This isn't as clear as some pictures I take for people.  You have to take off the flash so we don't have the hole looking like it is on fire.

                            This is Elder Ballard showing the table set in the dining room.
                                 
   Here is  Elder Ballard showing the Debtor Cell in the jail.  Also showing the original door in the Martyrdom Room.