November has arrived and so has
Ole Jack Frost is a funny old man .... He
has been busy painting the trees ....
Red & ....
Orange & Tan
Wednesday 11/2
Another evening performing Rendezvous.
It was the final performance for
our friends, the Porters,
who are heading home on Friday.
Just for fun, at the beginning of the Relief Society
vignette, Sister Porter surprises
the Editor (Elder Porter)
with a "charity never faileth" plate of cookies....
rendering the Editor speechless !
The audience didn't get it,
but everyone in the cast had a good laugh.
Friday 11/4
One last Farewell Breakfast
Saying goodbye to these three couples
The ....
Porter's, Needham's & Nagel's
After entertaining us with an audience
participation musical number ....
The Great Portoni (Elder Porter)
demonstrated his mystical, magical,
mind reading ability ....
Always a fun time anticipating his next
prediction .....
There is actually one more couple to go home
the first week of December and that
is the Blair's .... they are
trying to sneak out of here without having
any attention drawn to them ....
we'll see about that !
Our mission has a D.I. and
each day when we pick up our mail
we go into the little room in the back of the
mail room and check things out.
Today Linda found this funny little hat and
thought that it may come in handy
for some special occasion.
Sunday 11/6
Today was our very first time to serve at
Carthage Jail
It was a little bit intimidating at first
but after doing a couple of tours
we were able to relax ....
a little bit and feel the amazing spirit
that exists at this sacred site.
We served with Elder & Sister Stroud.
They have been assigned to
Carthage for the remainder of their mission.
They are wonderful missionaries
and are in our Cast so we will miss them
when they leave for home in February.
Monday 11/7
Today we have been on our mission
for 8 months .... nearly 1/2 way.
Also today,
President Pursel
(our brand new 2nd Counselor)
met with us and called us to be the new
District Leaders for the Martin Harris District.
Sunday 11/13
We continue to have beautiful
sunsets over the Mississippi River.
Of course the camera will never
capture the colors as well as the eye sees them,
yet .... this picture is still amazing.
Ole Jack Frost is still busy around Nauvoo ....
but how could that be ....
We've yet to have our first frost !
The Autumn colors just keep hanging on, and ....
aren't they beautiful.
Thursday 11/17
This week Nauvoo has started putting up
their Christmas decorations.
All the sites are filled with beautiful greenery,
candles & nativities.
This is the tree in the Visitor's Center ....
If you look closely at the decorations you
will see that they represent
each of the sites here in Nauvoo.
We will be Lighting the Tree on December 2nd
with all the missionaries & the community.
Now, with the Spirit of Christmas all around us,
We will try to resist the temptation to
put up our tree until after
Thanksgiving ... hahaha
This week there has been much
excitement over the
HUGE
Super Moon that has appeared.
Tonight is the 4th night and it is not as big
as it was the first of the week, but
it is still a beautiful sight !
This is a picture Elder Johnson took of the
super moon earlier this week !
Sunday 11/20
This morning we woke up to freezing temperatures ....
Say good-bye to our beautiful flowers but
we have been able to enjoy them
for much longer than we anticipated.
It's hard to believe our first frost didn't come
until now .... we've been told by the
locals that this is VERY unusual
This evening we had an
MTC Class social at
President & Sister Trythall's new home
We had lots of delicious desserts and ....
plenty of good company.
We visited and told Rendezvous stories.
The 15 couples in our group were divided up
equally between the 3 casts so
we had lots of fun stories to tell, mostly
about all our mess-ups ....
funny stuff !
Nearly everyone attended.
One couple, the Taylor's, had to go home early
due to medical issues and Elder Van Horn
was not feeling well.
Just so we don't forget ... In our MTC Class
there was:
Aina's, Barker's, Brown's, Cook's, Gross's,
Hunter's, Hutchinson's, Moench's,
Norman's, Rober's, Taylor's, Trythall's
Van Horn's, Waite's, & Winegar's
Thursday 11/24
THANKSGIVING DAY
All the stars lined up perfectly today ....
no early morning meeting,
no Rendezvous show tonight
and it is our P-Day.
It was the perfect time to go
"somewhere"
Sooo, off we went to Davenport, Iowa
to spend the day with the
Lansford Family.
Look at all this delicious food and ....
all these happy people !
It was a good day and we loved spending
it with some of our family.
Friday 11-25
Today Linda had a new assignment ....
one that she has never done before.
Every year we hand out thousands of
little Gingerbread Cookies
at the Scovil Bakery .....
about 50,000 to be exact !
Today Sisters Smith, Simmons, Stoker & Waite
made about 1,000 cookies.
After rolling out the refrigerated dough
we were ready to
cut out the
Gingerbread boys & girls
with the 5 in 1 cookie cutters.
There are 88 cookies on a tray ....
2 trays in the oven at a time ....
bake for 6 minutes ....
set out to cool on this rack and ....
pile about 125 of them into each bucket !
The buckets go into the freezer where each
little gingerbread boy or girl wait for
a Nauvoo Visitor to come to the bakery
and receive them as a yummy little treat!
Later today we went to a little shop here
in town that was having a
black Friday special and purchased
three new Nativities
These cute little Eskimos ....
Latino and ....
Amish
We love collecting new Nativities .... There are
so many cute ones now days.
While we were at it we bought a
souvenir Linda has had her eye on since we
first arrived in Nauvoo ....
This pewter handcart set.
with the black Friday discount it was a
little more affordable.
Monday 11/28
Today was the first time, for us, that
there weren't any tourists in
Historic Nauvoo.
We didn't have any tours at the
Family Living Center
where we served today and ....
no one came to our Rendezvous show tonight
so it was cancelled.
Instead of performing on the stage we
came home and ....
set up
our Christmas Tree !
(and played Christmas Music)
Wednesday 11/30
This month Linda began working on
a Nauvoo Fancy Bonnet ... just for fun &
to have as a Rendezvous souvenir.
After purchasing all the necessary supplies she ....
cut out the form and ....
sewed heavy wire around all the edges and
covered the wire with white seam binding.
Next she covered all the pieces with
white felt and stitched, by hand,
all the pieces together to form a shell.
the hardest part yet .... pleating the satin
and fitting it on the inside.
Once the inside was all hand stitched in place
she trimmed off all the excess satin and
sewed, by hand, piping all around the brim.
Now she was ready to fit the outside shell ....
easier said than done!
The first shell she made didn't fit .... too small
so she made all new patterns and gave it
another try.
This time it fit well enough to make it work.
(sure glad she didn't have to test out the
3rd times a charm theory)
Once the shell was attached she spent two evenings
hand sewing the gold braid all around the
edges and finally putting the satin fabric
inside to cover the very back.
Now the only thing left is to go shopping !
She will need ribbon and flowers
and, of course, a feather.
Here it is the last day of November and
Linda is on the home stretch
for finishing her
Fancy Nauvoo Bonnet.
Today we went shopping for all the
bonnet trim
Both sewing and hot gluing were
involved ....
as she added the trim pieces ....
one at a time until .....
It was DONE !
Feather side ....
butterfly side
Turned out pretty nice ....
"don't ya think?"
(a frequently quoted line from Rendezvous)
We had no idea how much work this Bonnet
would be. An asking price of $200+
would not be excessive.
The only thing that is not hand sewn are
the two seams on the outer shell.
There were many hours, poked and bleeding
finger tips, redoing, stepping back
and lots of frustrations involved in the making
of what ended up being a
Beautiful Nauvoo Fancy Bonnet !
Ahhh.....the memories !
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