Nauvoo

We had a great weekend vising

Nauvoo,

and

Chicago, Illinois.

(First I'm posting about Nauvoo)

Joseph Smith chose the name for the city "Nauvoo" because it means "beautiful" in Hebrew.

"In April, 1839, Joseph Smith, surveying from a hill the wild prospect around Commerce, imagining what he could do with it, thought, "It is a beautiful site, and it shall be called Nauvoo, which means in Hebrew a beautiful plantation." B. H. Roberts comments: "The word Nauvoo comes from the Hebrew, and signified beautiful location: ‘carrying with it also,' says Joseph Smith, ‘the idea of rest.'"

Indeed it is.

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The weather was perfect.

The sites were beautiful.

The spirit was overwhelming.

The atmosphere was exciting.

The activities were fun!

The temple was beautiful.

The pageant was awesome.

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Nauvoo is such a special place. I love visiting the temple, seeing Joseph Smith's home and burial site, and exploring while learning about many more prophets and the families that faithfully followed them. When I stop to think about all the stalwart Saints endured back then, it makes me cry.

I think about the trials I have in my life and they seem insignificant to what they went through.

Can you imagine

your husband's death and doing this all as a widow,

burying your child/children,

living with disease,

utter exhaustion in every degree...

it's overwhelming to think of how the Pioneers perservered.

I am so grateful.

Nauvoo temple

Learning inside the visitors center and then playing with all the

fun "toys" the pioneer children use to enjoy! one stinkin' cute pioneer kid The beautiful Mississippi River Taking a wagon ride tour through town!

Joseph Smith's Red Brick store has so much fabulous history...

in this top room where I'm sitting with Tanner, is where the

Relief Society was organized.

Prophet Brigham Young decided at this table, in this house, that they would take the journey West...and ultimately find UTAH!!

After all the touring and sites, they had more evening events before the pageant.

We had tons of fun playing "pioneer pasttimes!"

"We who take part in Nauvoo believe that Joseph Smith's accounts of his visions and revelations are objectively true; that the Book of Mormon is a genuine history written by the prophets identified as the authors within the text and translated with divine aid by Joseph Smith; that the living prophet has the authority to declare the mind and will of the Lord pertaining to the Saints and the world today."

I LOVE NAUVOO.