Our Nauvoo Adventure Begins

Boy, with several missions under our belt, you'd think it would be a piece of cake to get ready for another one. We've got lots going for us--previous and longer missions to help us know what to do, leaving our condo now instead of a house so we don't have to find someone to move in and keep things going, our family trip was early this year (in January), and we got called to the mission we were hoping for the first time we turned in our papers almost 15 years ago. All we can say is it's a good thing we had all of those experiences to help us gear up.

This time the preparation has been harder in several ways: we're older and have slowed down quite a bit, the application process took longer for some reason with lots more hoops to jump through, and the last few months have been full of challenges, mostly health issues. Fortunately, most of those have been resolved. Unfortunately, Arline got sick and missed speaking in church--the lengths some people will go to in order to get out of speaking! Thank you, granddaughter Emily, for giving the talk Arline had prepared. The energy-zapping, mind-numbing bug has lasted 4 weeks, and most of that time she's had little or no voice and it doesn't show signs of returning yet. Dave has done the heavy lifting in planning, packing, getting things ready, and loading up while she recuperated. 

However, she's not letting that get her down. She's been assured there's a purpose in this, so patience is required. Besides, you mostly whisper in the temple, right? And if she doesn't get her voice back, she won't be asked to speak in church (good, because Emily won't be there to cover for her). That's a win! 

Lately family gatherings have been few and far between, with the kids teasing Mom about her silence. Friday night we got together with most of the family in Utah for root beer floats and Flexi Flyer rides, providing memories that will last us the whole summer. The trees in Jeff and Becca's front year provided a beautiful setting for the picture.

Sunday morning we went to church with Jeff and his family in our old ward because they have the early schedule and we wanted to get on the road as soon as possible. It was fun to see old friends again and get one last round of hugs and kisses from the grandkids.

We're going to do a little traveling before ending up in Nauvoo. Details next week.

Please let us know if you've had any experiences in and around Nauvoo that you think we should make sure to do!