Sights and sounds

 So, what do these pictures have to do with our being on a mission at the Nauvoo temple? This is just another sample of the views we have when we are outside the temple. It is just lovely here and  reminds us of where we grew up in upstate New York. These oxen pull the oxcart here in historic Nauvoo. I guess I never realized that the oxen used by the pioneers were basically cattle- usually male. When they were desperate, they even yoked up female cows to pull a wagon.

 Two mornings a week, Monday (our P-day) and Thursday (when we work afternoon/evening shift) we get to go for a walk. Sometimes we walk along the Mississippi and sometimes we walk around the areas like this where the barns and equipment for historic Nauvoo are kept. I use the adjective "historic" because above the flats by the river, up on the bluff to the east of the temple is the modern town of Nauvoo, population just over 1,000. It's a small Midwestern  town with a quiet, intimate lifestyle disrupted in the summers by hordes of Mormon tourists who come here to experience something of what the early Church  pioneers might have felt. In addition to visiting the various old-time shops and buildings, they usually want to enter the temple for at least one session of some kind. Teenagers (youth) come in large groups and nearly always do proxy baptisms for their ancestors. Last July there were 2500 baptisms performed in the font in the basement of the temple. We already have several sessions spoken for this summer. In the temple it's very quiet and peaceful. Outside it's quiet and peaceful compared to many of the places we have lived- disturbed mostly by the singing of birds, the hourly chimes of the temple bell, the clip-clop of a horse-drawn wagon, and once in awhile a lawnmower.