Adjusting

     Our life has been in many "temporary" conditions in the past 10 years or so. We feel like full-time visitors. Don't get me wrong. We love our little apartment here in Nauvoo and we couldn't ask for nicer neighbors. I have a couple of family pictures I brought with me so I have them where I can see them. It's just strange to know we will only be here 18 months then we have no idea where we'll be. It is certainly a way to give me an insight into what some of my children feel as they move from place to place to place having a combination of personally selected items that stay with them in places that don't belong to them so they are limited on what they can do with them. That isn't a totally bad thing either. When you're a full-time renter, you don't have to worry about major issues like plumbing or appliances. When you get right down to it, we are all just here temporarily. Even when we claim to "own" property, the day will come when we die and we can't take it with us. It will belong to someone else. We just get to use and abuse it for awhile. The whole earth is that way. We planted a huge garden in NY many years ago and all our efforts just provided was food for woodchucks and deer for awhile until we got a dog. Now the house we struggled, with the help of family and friends, to build belongs to someone else and they are changing it.
     Just as the name of the play by Kaufman and Hart says, "You Can't Take it With You". We spend so much time acquiring, taking care of, and worrying about things that are even more temporary than our mortal lives. Do my shoes match this outfit? Do I need to buy different ones? Does this car have too much rust or is it out of style? Should I change my front door? What tools would I like to have that I don't yet own? I'm sure you get what I mean. Through wars, hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, or floods, there are some things that stay with us: our relationships, our knowledge, our character. Those are the truly long-lasting things of life yet they often receive only snippets of our attention. Rather than reading or watching news about some obscure movie star, we would be better off wondering about our family members. Better yet, we should pick up a phone or pen with paper or log onto the computer and communicate with a family member or even a long-time friend. Watching movies is fine but it's beneficial to study history, science, or even hone a skill. There is a warning in the Bible about worrying about a mote in someone else's eye while ignoring the beam in your own. It really doesn't benefit anyone to gossip or judge. Exchanging information about someone else's needs, even if all you can provide is prayer and encouragement, will do more for your character than simply sharing shocking news and giving opinions about someone else's life.
     Having all of worldly belongings in a faraway storage space for the third time in our married life has definitely influenced our perspective on what's really important. We are grateful to have missed the experiences of destructive losses others have endured, like flood, fire, divorce, or war. We are also grateful that we are gaining some wisdom about "stuff". We can sincerely say we would go on just fine without any of the things we have with us or even without any of the stuff in our storage space in AZ. We can sincerely say we don't have any burning desires to win a shopping spree or in any way add to the "stuff" we currently own. We have been blessed in many ways by many people and have tried to share whatever we have when given the opportunity. God has watched over us as we have been struggling to gain the wisdom to know what to value. He has seen to it that we have always had a roof over our heads, food in our bellies, clothes to cover our nakedness, and a "pot to pee in" (as the old saying goes). Everything else is extraneous, but nice icing on the cake.

Engineer wife

     We have been here for nearly 5 days now and are slowly getting settled. We have cleaned, repaired  or replaced nearly everything we need to for now. Russ will decide what to do about his guitar later. We found out how unique our position is when we were in training in SLC. (There are only 67 out of the 140+ temples in the world that have temple missionaries. All the rest are manned by local members.) Now that we are here, we are discovering even more uniqueness about our position. Since most of the activity in the temple occurs in the summer, when people come here during vacation, most of the temple missionaries here are called for only 6 months. The only ones here for longer are the engineers, of which Russ is one of only 3. He has hit the ground running since arriving here! We arrived Sunday night, spent Monday trying to get at least some of our stuff put away, running the washing machine all day, and returned the U-Haul trailer, then Tuesday morning at 6:30 he was on his way up to the temple where he has spent all day every day since then. He has been replacing safety tread on the steps to the baptismal font, tightened bolts on seats and chairs, replaced light bulbs, worked on major "plant" machinery, and I don't know what else. In the meantime, I have been taking a daily walk trying to orient myself to our new neighborhood, continuing to clean and organize, and spent time on the phone working out insurance claims from our little accident. Today I plan to walk up to the family history center to see if there is any hope for finding information about my great-great-great grandfather's family who came from Ireland during the potato famine.
     Yesterday I had a pleasant day with the other 2 engineers' wives driving to a nearby town, across the Mississippi, to do some shopping. My main goal was to take my broken sewing machine to see if it could be fixed. I haven't gotten word yet as to a prognosis. From what I have learned so far, Russ has the least formal education of all the engineers but is definitely not without a great deal of hands-on training and knowledge which enables him to be a great asset. Since the temple is closed for 2 weeks for cleaning and maintenance, Russ and the other engineers are working full-time. The wives of the engineers are not yet working in the temple because there are no patrons to assist since it's closed. Most of the other temple missionaries have taken the opportunity to go away for visiting people (family mostly) or sightseeing. We will have some local orientation temple training next week and all be involved in that after the 35 or so new temple missionary couples arrive sometime today.
     It feels like a dream to me. I suppose once I have been here longer and have a more regular schedule, it will seems more real. The other missionaries have been warm and helpful, but that's what I would expect knowing these are people who have made covenants with God respecting their behavior and character. I have found local people in stores and such to be very friendly and pleasant. I don't know whether that is just their nature or they are reacting to my missionary name tag. I hope it's a combination of both. I like to think there are good people out there who strive to be kind to others just because. I also like to think that people around here have had dealings enough with Nauvoo missionaries and have found them to be nothing but pleasant. I plan to do my part to be a "light unto the world". I am trying to be Christlike; trying to show a better way than many in the world would show. That's not because I am showing off in any way. I just want everybody to live by the Golden Rule because the whole world would be a much better place if everybody treated everybody the way they would like to be treated themselves. Jesus is a good example to follow.

God is good

     Okay- so I'm a wimp. We sat in the motel in Rawlins checking the roads every hour or so and figuring out how to use our time since we couldn't leave. We had decided to go to a 4:00 movie then checked the internet again around 3 before going to the movie and were shocked to see the roads had opened. Within about 5 minutes we had loaded what items we had in the motel, checked out, and were on the road. I was happy to let Russ drive. Driving east from Rawlins we went through the Elk Mountain area. We were one of the very few non-semi vehicles on the road. The snow was heavy at times but the roads were fairly passable as long as you were willing to drive about 25-30 mph. Russ drove several tense hours until we cleared the bad weather. I drove for a few hours until after 9 pm. I was more nervous than I expected I would be. I guess having been pulled off the road with the trailer affected me more than I realized. I had stayed reasonably calm while sliding around and off the road but I was now tensing up every time the trailer swayed a little. We stopped for the night and in the morning it was raining, sometimes pretty hard. Russ took the wheel and, because the weather never cleared, he drove us the rest of the way through Iowa to Nauvoo. If I had tried to drive, it would have taken an extra couple of hours because I would not have been able to maintain the speed he drove. I am grateful he is such an experienced driver and I could depend on him.
     As we approached Nauvoo, I phoned another missionary couple to bring us a key and get us into our apartment. It was after 5 pm and raining still when we arrived. The welcoming couple were standing in front of our new home under an umbrella, smiling as we approached. I had been asking the Lord for 2 things, that it not be raining so it would be miserable to unload and that we not be in the upstairs apartment. This little house has two downstairs apartments and one upstairs. (This picture was taken a day later when it was nicer and earlier.) Well, it was raining and when I asked which apartment was ours we were told it was the upstairs one. So, I figured the Lord didn't think my request was essential for His intervention. The missionaries asked if we wanted help unloading. At first we said we would just wait until morning since it was, after all, the Sabbath, and it was raining. They explained that the temple was closed the next 2 weeks for deep cleaning so most of the other missionaries were going to be going away, leaving in the morning. It seemed that it would probably be a better idea to go ahead and call in the troops and get the car and trailer unloaded. As soon as the decision was made, it stopped raining.

     True to form for a Latter Day Saints moving experience, within moments we had a small crew grabbing items and hauling them up the stairs. We soon found out that these apartments were some of the largest, which was a concern when considering bringing our food storage and digital piano. This house is just about the nearest one to the temple so it will be a convenient "commute"- walking for 10 minutes when the weather is good. I guess the Lord was listening and caring more than I gave Him credit for, and He always knows more than we do. He may not answer us in the way we expect or even think we want at the time, but it will be even better than we planned.

This is the view not far from our house. The people have been totally hospitable. Since the temple is being worked on, Russ (as an engineer) is going to be busy all day every day. He is helping with new safety tread on the steps into the baptismal font and will change lightbulbs, clean chandeliers, and whatever needs to be done. I am staying busy continuing to clean sugar, flour, gravy, mud, and whatever off everything so it can be put away. There is a shower but no tub so I took a shower with our largest suitcase that couldn't go in the washing machine then set it outside to dry. At this point, the only thing left to clean is Russ's tool pouch. Due to all of the outside pockets and the fact that the zipper across the top is never closed, all of his tools will need to be washed individually then dried and oiled so they won't rust. That's going to take quite awhile. Fortunately, he doesn't need any of them right away because the temple has lots of good tools. Oh, and I discovered my sewing machine will need either repair or replacing. I will take it to a larger town tomorrow and find out what a sewing machine repairman would advise. I just found out from a missionary seamstress where the closest repair place is and within a few hours of getting that information, one of the other temple engineer's wives (having no knowledge of my need)offered me a trip to the town. It's about an hour away. Now my solo trip to find my way in an unfamiliar place has turned into a fine outing with a couple of other women, lunch included! God is good and He loves us.

Continuing adventure

When we got up this morning, we looked out the motel window hoping the weather had cleared. Not so. We got dressed and had some breakfast then went over to the U-Haul place to assess the damage. This first picture is what we saw when we unlocked and opened the door to the trailer.

      Emptying the trailer was quite an ordeal. It was like a doing a puzzle only backwards. To add to the ordeal, it was still snowing and the ground was very muddy. I tried to capture the mud caked heavily on my sneakers but it didn't show up well so I didn't bother posting the photo. Since we had to sort through stuff to determine what needed to be discarded, we couldn't merely move everything from one trailer to the replacement trailer. Plus, we always try to put the light stuff close to the tongue and heavier items near the door which meant that we had to get to the back of the trailer to get what we wanted to load first. The U-Haul people were kind enough to let us temporarily borrow a larger trailer as an intermediary sorting space up out of the mud. We slowly and carefully started removing items that looked like they had been through a huge food processor. There was pasta, herbs and spices, spaghetti sauce, flour, sugar, and chicken gravy as well as Comet cleanser and dish soap splattered over various things. Just before leaving Arizona, Russ had purchased a new toaster because he had coveted the one Victoria had. It was one of the items tossed because it got bent up pretty badly. Our biggest concern was our digital piano (Clavinova) which was our primary reason for taking a trailer and also our most expensive belonging with us. It was only slightly damaged. We haven't plugged it in to be sure it works but other than a tear on the bench and the broken pieces where you insert discs, it looked okay. It had obviously been tossed around pretty hard because there were items underneath it which we had not loaded that way. The saddest loss was Russ's guitar, for mostly sentimental reasons. He has had it a long time and loves playing it. It got smashed. It had been on the top of the pile which at one point ended up the bottom of the pile before getting righted again. We don't plan to claim any of the food or smaller items that filled U-Haul's dumpster after 3 hours of sorting but we'll see if our auto insurance will cover the guitar and toaster. We'll have a LOT of laundry to do when we finally get to Nauvoo. I tried to wipe off some things with rags as I went but it soon became impossible. I got to laughing when I tried to get out of the back of the trailer because my shoes were so caked with mud and the bottom of the trailer was coated with chicken gravy, mud, and flour. I had to take off running to get to the door or my feet simply slid backward!

     So this second picture shows the original trailer with the broken wheel on the left, the larger "sorting" trailer in the middle and the newly loaded trailer on the right.
What struck me the most today was how grateful I am to live in this age. When the pioneers crossed the plains in wagons or pulling handcarts, they didn't have a nice, warm motel to shower and sleep in. If they broke a wagon or spilled things in the mud, they couldn't look forward to an apartment with a washer and dryer to clean up their clothes and dirty items when they arrived at their destination. We have a pretty cushy life.
     Maybe tomorrow the roads will be open and we can continue our journey east.

Excitement on the road

     The spring storm that unloaded several inches of snow in Utah was headed east and we managed to catch up with it in Wyoming. Russ drove the car past Evanston and over the worst of the mountains then we stopped for gas and I took the wheel, which is the way we usually travel- each of us driving about half the time. Winds picked up after awhile with signs over the road warning of gusts up to 35-40 mph and warnings that Route 80 was closed over 100 miles ahead. We kept going because although there was snow in the air it wasn't building up on the road. I slowed down and didn't use the cruise control.  The road conditions slowly worsened with some icy slush building up. About 3:00 and an hour west of Rawlins I drove onto a bridge (bridges freeze before road surfaces, right?) and the car wheels swerved a bit. If I had not been towing a trailer, I could probably have managed to correct. But the trailer started swaying violently then the wind caught it. I took my foot off the gas and kept trying to correct the swerving wheels but the trailer swung us over to the side of the road and down a steep embankment. One of the trailer wheels broke off, the trailer broke loose from the car, and the trailer flipped all the way over. We ended up with the car undamaged, we were unhurt, the trailer righted itself but had a wheel broken off, in the bottom of the ditch between the highway and an on-ramp. We got out of the car to assess the damage and Russ offered to try to drive the car out of the ditch which I gladly let him do. By backing up a bit and getting it parallel to the slope, he was able to get up on the ramp. Then with flashers on, he slowly backed down the shoulder of the on-ramp and we ended up at a nearby gas station. After calls to U-Haul, our auto insurance company, a towing company and the police, we were back on the road headed to Rawlins. By this time it was after 5 and the U-Haul place was closed for the day. The tow truck later delivered the damaged trailer to the U-Haul place and we had gotten a room in a motel for the night. We opted to wait until morning to open the trailer, knowing that the items inside might be leaning up against the door and might fall out once we opened it. The insurance company seems willing to cover the cost of the trailer as well as any goods inside that might be damaged, which include our Clavinova (electric piano), Russ's guitar, and various items including some spaghetti sauce which may have broken and be all over everything. In the morning we will have to inventory any damaged goods.
     In summary, I'm glad we got a smaller trailer than we had brought from AZ because the wind would have ripped us all over the road sooner than it did. I'm grateful that our car is fine, we are fine, and our insurance company is so pleasant about it. I'm grateful that we have the funds to stay in a warm room (it's 30 degrees out on this April day) with comfortable beds to sleep on. I'm grateful that it all happened right next to an on-ramp rather than far out in the wilderness of Wyoming somewhere. I'm grateful that through all my swerving, we didn't hit anyone else and no one hit us. We haven't had opportunities the past couple of weeks to have our usual Sunday popcorn and ice cream but we happen to have a couple of bags of microwave popcorn with us. We just went up the road a ways and bought a pint of ice cream and some plastic spoons. I'm grateful the motel room has a microwave (and free wi-fi) and some cups to put our ice cream in which we ate while enjoying Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune on tv. The trip to Nauvoo will take a little longer than we planned but that's okay. We are safe, well-fed, and still glowing from our incredible 3 days in the Salt Lake Temple. God is good. He loves us.

The last training day

     Today is the middle of April but it sure hasn't looked like it here in Utah. Fortunately for us (unlike the missionary couple headed to Hawaii) we are prepared for winter so we had coats and, thanks to friends in Sun City, a nice big umbrella. Russ and I were actually delighted to see and walk in snow! We haven't done that very much in the past 4+ years we have lived in Sun City, Arizona! We much prefer snow to 120 degrees. My only disappointment was that I didn't have my gloves with me because I really had the urge to build a snowman- or something akin to it.

Early this morning, we trudged on over to the Salt Lake temple from our hotel and had a heavenly day.
     Have you ever lingered someplace when you didn't want "the moment" to end? That happened for 16 temple missionaries today. This was our 3rd and final day of training before we all go our separate ways. We are all headed to temples, which will certainly be wonderful, but the sweet, peaceful feeling we had in the Salt Lake temple was about to fade with each step out into the world. I mentioned yesterday that there were temple missionaries in about half of the LDS temples in the world. Today the significance of that deepened for me. I guess the ultimate goal for the Church is for each temple (about 144 so far) to be fully supported by "local" people, staff and patrons. But for now there are areas where the population is insufficient (like Palmyra NY and Nauvoo IL- both historical site temples in sparsely populated towns), or the Church membership is small and lacking experience (Kiev Ukraine) or poor (Cebu Phillipines) enough that the Church sends older couples for support to keep the temples available. We were all dressed in nearly identical white clothing. There was no way to determine where people were from or how much money they make or what they do for a living or how big their families are. We were just a quiet, humble army preparing to serve. Our trainers were formerly president and matron of this temple and have served there for many years as well as serving as mission president and matron in England. Among our group there were two children of President Hinckley, the prophet who died not long ago and is/was beloved by millions of people, including Russ and me. Aside from the family physical resemblance of the son, you would not have known who they are. They are both humble, simple people who don't expect any special treatment or act superior in any way. They are every bit as likable as their father. Our little group of missionaries was treated like we are important. We were taught, counseled, given a tour of the temple from top to bottom (Russ's eyes lit up when we went down to the basement to see the real workings of the building- all spotlessly clean) and loved like family by everyone around us. I imagine it will be similar when we enter the presence of our Savior and His Father, whenever that happens.

Consecration

     Yesterday when Russ and I went to the church's huge conference center to see if we could get up to the roof, we had a young man offer to be our guide. We never got his exact age but I would guess he is in his 30's. We know he is married and has children, the oldest of which is 8. He says he "retired" recently, which shocked us. He apparently started a really successful business of some sort then decided to sell it, making him a rich young man. He now uses his time to mostly serve. He works in the temple a couple of days a week and serves as a church tour guide a couple of days a week, then spends time with his family. He doesn't seem to be interested in just acquiring and playing with all the "toys" you might expect a male of his age to be fascinated with.
     There are lots of people that choose to have faith to the extent that they want to "give their life to the Lord." In the Old Testament, you can read the story of Hannah who gave her son Samuel to the Lord. Most people have heard of Mother Teresa, a humble woman who spent her life serving poor people and never having an interest in accumulating worldly goods. In the temple, I (and many other people) have  chosen to make a covenant with the Lord that I would do all I could to serve Him and His children. We call it "consecration." Some could see it as fanatical and conjure up visions of drinking poisonous kool-aid or beheading people who believe differently or separating self from the world in general to live a life akin to the description of John the Baptist in the New Testament. There are lots of people who believe in God, in one form or another, but not so many who choose to offer their lives to Him. It's a little scary actually. I remember years ago talking to a "born-again" Christian and asking how to just let someone else make major life decisions for you. What if you don't like what He chooses? What if you have your own preferences?
     As we toured the huge Conference Center, I was awed by the building. But as I looked over at the smaller, older Salt Lake Temple, I was even more awed. It was built over a period of 40 years without the aid of any of the special equipment used to build the Conference Center. It incorporates countless hours of labor for countless people, some more skilled than others, but all consecrated volunteers. (For the picky historians who might read this, I admit there may have been some people who worked on the structure that maybe weren't even LDS, but most certainly were.) The precise carving in the stone on the outside along with the massive weight of the stones that were piled (NO MORTAR!) to form the famous structure, and the stunning wooden doors and beautiful stained glass windows- all in perfect symmetry and accuracy. But then when you go inside- WOW! Having done some plaster work myself (you can see work we did restoring a 100-year old brick Victorian house if you go back far enough in old posts on this blog spot) and knowing a little about the fine work my daughter Angela has done with stained glass, I just couldn't stop staring at the intricate handwork all through this old treasure. Okay, it's not as old as some of the cathedrals in Europe, but it was built with the same kind of tools used in cathedrals built many hundreds of years ago. The delicate many-colored painting (I'm sure there's an official term for it) on the formed and carved plaster decorations is breathtaking. There is none of the ostentatious gaudiness found in old cathedrals. It is just painstaking, intricate work done over long hours by consecrated hands. Money cannot buy the beauty seen in the Salt Lake Temple.
     After doing some temple work today, we went to the family history center. Here there is evidence of other consecrated work. Millions of people have spent countless hours searching through, photographing, recording, and deciphering old civil records to find connections to family members- sometimes not even their own family but somebody's family. There are genealogists who earn money doing what they do, but most of the people who have accumulated the records now available are simply good people- some old, some young- who gave of their time and energy to do what they could to gather information so families through the generations could be linked.
     Every time a new temple is dedicated, the youth of the region participate in a "cultural celebration". Again, nobody is paid. Hundreds of teenagers sing and dance in costumes made by volunteers in a program written by volunteers with lighting and staging done by volunteers. The youth celebrate the culture and history of their country or region thus being educated about their history. There is a greater appreciation for those who lived before them and suffered living conditions they only read about in history books.
     The Tabernacle Choir is well known and accompanied these days by the Orchestra at Temple Square- all consecrated, unpaid volunteers who spend hours and hours perfecting their skills to produce lovely music. During the 2002 Winter Olympics, it was widely reported by amazed media that nearly ALL the hundreds of participants in the extravagant musical productions here in Salt Lake City were local volunteers. They didn't have to go outside the area or hire professionals, even for the complex skating demonstrations. Also, rumor has it that there are more pianos per household in Utah than any other state and more harps than any other state. Children in the LDS Church starting at age 3 speak in public giving short "talks" then grow up to give longer talks in front of larger groups.
Talents, all talents in general, are gifts from the Lord. We can choose to use them, improve them, and share them- or not. In the LDS Church, they are encouraged and it shows. I have long ago lost the singing voice I once thought might offer me a career of fame and fortune. I have long ago lost the supple physique that I loved to use to dance. Over the years, I have gained some skill playing the piano(not nearly a Vladimir Horowitz!) and am more confident at public speaking and organizing and managing groups of people. I will never be a name on everyone's lips or recorded in any books, but I am grateful for what talents the Lord has given me and I have consecrated all I have or will have to Him. I am not looking for applause- only a smile and a "Well done my good and faithful servant" from my Savior when I meet Him.