We must be having lots of fun because so much has happened since our last blog post! Our Christmas Eve Mission Party was a sweet experience. We met in the Arrival Center and enjoyed a wonderful meal together. All the centerpieces included nativities provided by the missionaries. The darling knitted nativity in these pictures was made for us by our granddaughter, Rachel. We will always treasure it and everyone admired it! The dinner was followed by the reading of Luke 2 by President Smith of the Nauvoo Temple Presidency and it was laced with Christmas Carols sung by all of our missionaries. It truly brought the spirit to all. At the conclusion of our social, our next door neighbors, Elder and Sister Cordova, went with us to see Christmas lights across the Mississippi in Fort Madison, Iowa and Keokuk, Iowa. We were actually very surprised at how beautiful and grand these displays were, especially the ones in Keokuk. They were spectacular! The LIGHTS of Christmas are magical, and these were no exception! It wouldn't be Christmas without the lights, for our Savior is THE LIGHT of the World!
Nauvoo Temple Missionary Christmas Eve Party
Sister Emang, Sister Mabey, Sister Bartschi, Sister Peterson
Sister Peterson and Sister Cordova, our next door neighbor
Elder and Sister Peterson
Christmas Eve Devotional with Temple Missionaries
Singing Christmas Carols amidst reading Luke 2
Christmas Lights at Fort Madison, Iowa
Christmas Lights at Keokuk, Iowa
Christmas Day was extra beautiful because it fell on Sunday this year. This was such a blessing for us! We attended church in the Nauvoo First Ward and enjoyed a wonderful program of music and scriptures honoring our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The organist played chimes and bells in the prelude music which accentuated the hymns in a heavenly way. The Primary children sang some sweet Christmas songs which brought tears to my eyes. It is very different not having your little grandchildren around for Christmas Day. I delighted watching a mother and her 2 teenage daughters singing together in their ward choir, reminding me of our daughters from years gone by. They truly reflected the sights and sounds of the angel choirs that sang on that Holy Night of All Nights when Baby Jesus was born. This was a perfect Christmas morning for our missionary Christmas. We wanted it to last longer!
The rest of our Christmas Day was spent talking to all of our 6 children and their families around the country. We are very grateful for modern communication that allows us to be connected and to share our love with them on this sweet special Christmas while we are on our mission here in Nauvoo. Our treasured Christmas gift was our annual "The Life and Times of the Peterson Family, 2016" book which our 6 children make together for us each year for Christmas. This year's book got lost in the mail from Utah and took a side trip to New York City's post office and was declared undeliverable in the mail system. Thanks to the persistent tracking and endless prayers of our oldest daughter who orchestrates this treasured project each year, on Christmas Eve morning the long awaited package containing our special book arrived in Nauvoo's post office. The only problem was that when the notification came saying that our package was in Nauvoo, the post office here had closed for the day. We quickly drove up to the post office anyway and pounded on the locked door. The postal worker kindly located the beloved package and handed it to us. When I called to report to our daughter that we had the package sitting safely in our apartment, it was declared a Christmas Miracle!!! We do believe in miracles and also in having prayers answered even in regards to situations like this one! We know that the Lord is in even the tiniest details of our lives. This may seem like a small thing to others, but this one little book represents our family history for 2016 and the pages of this book are filled with memories and love from all 43 members of our immediate family. Sitting here in our little apartment and reading that sweet book together on Christmas was like having our whole family together with us once again as we savored every picture and memory of a truly remarkable year.
During 2016 in our family, the following events occurred along with many others too numerous to mention:
"Marty", his work name, retired after 41 years of working at Price Realty, a granddaughter graduated from UVU, aother granddaughter received her endowment in the Portland Temple, another granddaughter graduated from Oregon State, another granddaughter in Oregon graduated from high school, a granddaughter in Connecticut was baptized, a grandson in Oregon returned from his full time LDS mission to Sweden, another grandson from Oregon got married in the Portland Oregon Temple (Grandpa Pete was blessed to perform their marriage), the family of those 2 grandsons moved to Utah from Oregon, another grandson from Utah was ordained a Deacon, and another grandson in Utah was baptized. Along with all of these benchmark events, we received our call to serve as full time missionaries in the Nauvoo Illinois Temple for 12 months. Because of that, most all of our family gathered in our South Jordan, Utah home the week prior to our departure. Yes, 2016 was indeed a very big year for us! Our hearts are filled with gratitude and love for what we have experienced and for what we have been entrusted with.
While reading the Doctrine and Covenants at one of my sitting assignments in the temple recently, I came across a scripture that struck a chord in my heart. It is found in D&C 100:1-"...your families are well; they are in mine hands, and I will do with them as seemeth me good; for in me there is all power." Watching our family from afar through the holiday season this year's testifies to the truthfulness of this scripture! We pray each morning and night that our children and their families will be blessed and protected and guided. We are grateful to know that this is exactly what is happening for each of them and for us, also, as we are apart. The Lord knows where you are and He knows what you need and when you need it. We place our full trust in Him each new day.
Christmas Morning with the Christmas Miracle Package
Christmas Stockings brought from home-
My Mom made the stockings for us about 35 years ago!
Our Treasured 2016 Family Book featuring our Family
Our Missionary Christmas Gifts!
New Year's Eve was another cause for celebration with our Nauvoo Temple Missionary Family. We were on the committee that hosted this fun party, along with Elder and Sister Vinton, Elder and Sister Thompson, and Elder and Sister Mabey. We chose to set the time of our gathering from 6-9 pm at the Arrival Center across the street from the beautiful Nauvoo Temple. Our theme was focused on getting to know one another better and unifying in preparation for our New Year of service together. Our Temple President gave us the gift of dressing in Nice Casual attire with our missionary badges which made it enjoyable and relaxed. For our food, which is always a necessity, we had everyone bring finger food. You will notice that one missionary couple took their assignment very literally! We ate, visited, made a time capsule, ate some more, and played mixer games. The highlight was the final game when we sat in a huge circle and each companionship chose an item that began with the 1st letter of their last name to load into a wagon for our make believe trek to Salt Lake City. I will not repeat what people took, but I will say it was hysterical and everyone laughed until there were tears! After you stated your item, you had to repeat what everyone else around the circle was bringing, too. It was a very, very fun way to end our party and welcome in the New Year. We were finished by 8:30 pm and said that it was midnight somewhere! When you celebrate with a bunch of Senior Missionaries, midnight cannot come too soon!
A New Year's Eve view of the Nauvoo Temple
Our New Year's Eve Party Committee
Yep! Finger Food for sure! Shortbread Cookies!
Circle Games! Sister Irion, our Temple Matron
President and Sister Irion, our fun fearless leaders
One thing which is so enjoyable is taking an early morning walk around our historic neighborhood. With the chilly weather this Winter and the later sunrise, our walks aren't as frequent as we would like. One cold morning last week we went on a walk in spite of the fog. It looks very different in Old Nauvoo now than it did in the vibrant Fall when we first arrived. The Mississippi River also has gone through many different transitions according to the varying temperatures which we experience from day to day. On our walk that foggy day we went down Parley Street, the street where we live, to the river and I took pictures in the exact same place that we showed you in our last blog. On this particular day, the temperatures had risen above freezing and the ice sheets had bunched up along the side of the river. However, just a few days later, the freezing temperatures returned, and literally overnight the Mississippi was iced over again. This big fickle river is most entertaining! Be sure to look at the pictures included below and you will understand what we are trying to explain. We also saw 5 big, brawny oxen out roaming around their pasture in the fog that morning. My 2 favorite ones actually turned and posed, resulting in a perfectly awesome photo which you are sure to enjoy. Our sturdy red brick home stands firm during the coldest of days and nights. Each day we give thanks for having such a warm and welcoming place to call home and to be our refuge from the storms.
The Mississippi thawing and piling up ice sheets
Freezing temperatures bring back a frozen river
The Posing Oxen in Old Nauvoo
Looking up Parley Street to our apartment building
We live in the right single unit of this building
The Nauvoo Temple through the fog
In our previous blog, we mentioned that we attend church each Sunday, weather permitting, in the Mt Pleasant Iowa Branch. It is about a 1 hour and 10 minutes drive from our home in Nauvoo to that church each way. The church building is very small, but very nice. We pass miles of farm country and rolling fields with an occasional farm house along the way. On our drive home this week we drove into a little community called St Paul in Iowa. We had been seeing their beautiful church steeple in the distance each week and decided to go find that church. It was worth the detour and there was a lovely well kept cemetery in the church yard. Right across from the church is a huge commercial silo complex. Behind the church was an old deserted barn. The entire little 3 block place was very picturesque.
Our Branch Building, Mt Pleasant Iowa
Sister Peterson and Martha Bell, friends in the Mt Pleasant Branch
Sister Bell is the age of our oldest daughter, Shelley.
I loved her from the moment we first met!
Pictures from our drive home from church 1-8-17
St James Church
Old barn in St Paul
Our next stop on our drive home from church on January 8th was at the park in Fort Madison, Iowa just before you cross the bridge back into Illinois. There were Canadian Geese everywhere! We see these same type of geese by Oquirrh Lake across the street from our home back in South Jordan, Utah. Their flock today had hundreds of them huddled together along side the frozen Mississippi River! We cross over this bridge often. It is free to cross from Illinois to Iowa, but you pay a $2 toll to cross from Iowa back into Illinois. We are doing our part to pay for the upkeep of this bridge.
Geese by the Mississippi at Fort Madison, Iowa
Old Fort Madison
Bridge between Iowa and Illinois across the Mississippi
Frozen Mississippi at mid day, January 8th
We live here! Welcome from us to you!
Near Nauvoo...Iowa and Illinois=Farm Country!
Today was Fast Sunday throughout our Church. It is the Sunday designated for people to Fast and Pray for those in need and for the special desires of their hearts. The monies which we would generally spend on food, we give to our church units to use for the poor and the needy. These are called Fast Offerings. It is a great blessing to be able to focus on spiritual matters with pure purpose of heart and to share with those in need. In our mission, on each Fast Sunday, we have what is called "Break the Fast Dinners". There are 4 couples, different ones each month, who are assigned to have their meals at the host couple's home. Everyone contributes to the meal. We were a host couple last month. This month, we were assigned to attend at our Temple President and Matron's home, The Irions. Elder and Sister Mabey and Elder and Sister Lawson also were in our group this month. Some shared their conversion stories and we all shared how we met as couples, getting to know one another better. Afterward, we gathered in the Irions' family room and watched the Young Single Adult Devotional which was being broadcast live from the Marriott Center at BYU in Provo, Utah. It was fun to think that some of our college age grandchildren were watching this same presentation and some of them were actually in the audience. The featured speakers were President Russell M. Nelson, President of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, and his dear wife, Sister Wendy W. Nelson. What made this even more special for all of us is that Sister Irion is the daughter of President Nelson. Watching her react to seeing and hearing President Nelson, her father, speak was very tender. We felt very blessed to be there and to hear their inspired words.
This has been a long blog, but hopefully one which will help connect you with our life here in Nauvoo and help keep our heartstrings tied together in love wherever you may be. We thank the Lord everyday for the blessing of serving a mission in Nauvoo. We are having a wonderful time each new day! Be sure you do, too, because "Time flies when you are having fun", and we are!!!
Sunset over the Mississippi, 5 pm, January 8th
Sunset over The Mississippi, 5;15 pm, January 8th
Joseph and Hyrum are on the far left bottom of this picture!
Viewed from President and Sister Irion's home
