Sunday, August 30, 2009

Nauvoo Pageant

As we were getting ready to pack, Ryan came over with the girls to say good-bye and they climbed in the trunk of our new car. We sure hated to leave them! They truly light up our lives.


The beautiful Mississippi River. We were almost there.Nauvoo pageant site. We are back. What a wonderful spirit here!


This is the home we rented for 2 weeks. It was on a bluff just 1 mile out of town. We saw deer, racoons, foxes, skunks rabbits, possoms, and dozens of birds.



This is at one of the afternoon vinettes. This is the person who played Emma in the pageant and at all the vinettes. Here, she and Joseph share letters.




This is the gentelman who plays Joseph in the pageant. He has a wonderful smile and a great testimony you can feel as he speaks Joseph's words.


This is the silk panels the members of the pageant raise to represent the building of the first temple in Nauvoo. It is a joyful scene where couples enter the temple to be sealed. At the end of the pageant the panels drop and the new temple on the bluff of Nauvoo is lighted and the voice of President Hinckley speaks of the Nauvoo temple and the Salt Lake Temple as book-ends and they face each other. The Moroni on the Nauvoo temple faces west. The only one to do so.



The finale scene where every one has changed into light colored costumes and Joseph and Hyrum and all are on the stage representing the resurrection and families being together forever. It brought tears to my eyes every time I had the chance to see it. Their are about 150 people on the stage at various times and most of them have at least 3 costumes. That is what I helped with. There are 2 casts there at all times it is amazing what the costume department does. One cast turns is their costumes on Saturday night they have volunteers who take out all the hems on all the dresses we go the every laundromat within 15 miles at about midnight and wash and dry, bring them back and hang them up to be ready to fit on the next cast who will learn all the dances and songs and be the primary cast the following week. It is quite amazing to see how peaceful and loving they do all the instruction and direction. The spirit touches every life that comes or particiaptes in any way.


Just below the temple they have a lovely garden. This statue represents Joseph and Hyrum as they looked back at Nauvoo as they were on the way to Carthage.



We love going to the temple in Nauvoo. A special feeling is there as we both think of the sacrifice many of our ancestors made in the early days to build the temple and now I feel as though we are fulfilling the promises made to them. Both sessions we had time to attend were led by a relative of Charlie's. We were even chosen to be the witness couple at one session. We love to see the temple!



Costume room filled with different colors and sizes. The color of dresses and style was determined by what district each family was assigned. Men, women, and children are fitted with costumes on Monday and Tuesday. During that time costume department is hemming skirts and pants and little girl dresses and boys pants as fast as we can. Some families may have 100 pieces of clothing to keep track of for two weeks. All the men have hats, shirts, vests, pants in at least 2 colors. Ladies have bodices, skirts, huge slips, pantaloons, hats, and shawls in at least 2 or 3 colors. The costuming is amazing!!!



Charlies favorite past time when he wasn't doing security. We lived on a dirt road and our new Avalon did not like the dust. (Charlie loved cleaning and driving it to Nauvoo.)



We worked backstage at night also to help with the costume changes.

These were 2 very talented ladies, Pennie and Marlene.

Charlie worked with Pennie's husband Denny.


We were taught alot of skills while we were there and made new hats to replace the ones that are getting worn out. The base of this hat is a mum wicker basket that you iron, cut and wire before covering it with fabric and putting an eyelet lining inside.




These were costume helpers from Canada. Everyone comes with such willing and helpful hearts.




Maxine and I helped in "the can" behind this green curtain to help alot of ladies change in a matter of minutes several times each night. She had her son-in-law there also as cast members.


We feel so blessed to participate in this great work. The Lord is bringing to pass promises. The people in the area are softening their hearts and great things come from the pageant and the truth it teaches. Missionaries came to our last cast meeting and told us of some the miracles of conversion as investigators listened to the truths of the gospel taught by the wonderful story and the spirit that testifies of the truthfulness to them. Thanks to our family who took care of things in our absence. We love you all and hope to be faithful forever like our forefathers who were inspired to join the church and endure the persecutions so that we could have the blessings of the gospel and the temple.


3 comments:

Brian said...

Wow! That is one sweet looking car!! I hadn't really seen a good shot of it like that. I'd definitely be out there helping dad wash it.

Thanks for sharing your Nauvoo Pageant adventures with us. You are such great examples of service. Hopefully we can all follow in your footsteps some day. Fun pictures and it was fun to see some of the day to day stuff you guys got to do.

I'm not quite sure why, but when I looked at the large image of dad standing next to the Nauvoo Temple, he kind of reminded me of Napolean Dynamite. LOL! Maybe it's just the way he's squinting his eyes. Made me laugh.

callingallinglets said...

WOw, I am so glad that we got to see you in Nauvoo. We are excited about going to Nauvoo next summer. I love the feeling that you get there. After seeing you the next day, we went to the same Temple session as Joseph, Emma, Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt, and the whole cast. It was so fun to say that we were in the Temple with these people. They didn't have enough seats on the womens side so I got to sit by Clark the entire time. We had a great time and you and Charlie made it so special for us. You are great friends and we love your kids. You have a great family. We pray for Brian and his little family to be protected.
Funny side note: We bought a brand new 2010 Prius for our trip back east. Clark loved to wash his car. We went 8100 miles and did it for about $440. It is a fun car too. Love ya, CALL ME AND WE WILL GO TO LUNCH OR DINNER.

Shanna and Brad said...

What a great experience! I'm glad to hear that you had such a nice time. It was fun to hear about some of the behind the scenes details. Thanks for setting such a good example of service. I'm sure you have blessed many lives because of your willingness to serve at the pageant. Love you!