The White House

In the span of my life, I have cultivated a deep love for the beautiful city of Nauvoo. I remember when my budding testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was developing, I became more and more fascinated with the early history of the restoration of my church - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I knew Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, but I wanted to know the events of his life more, and loved learning anything about him.

One night I was watching the KBYU channel and a commercial came on about the opportunity for students to spend a semester in Nauvoo taking classes on American literature, Church History, Cultural History, etc. and getting to do a church history tour over the span of the 3 1/2 months. I remember thinking how awesome that would be, but there was no way I could swing it with how much it cost.

A few weeks later, the topic came up somehow in conversation with my dad. The more we talked about it, the more my dad said that I should do it. I was lucky enough to have a full tuition scholarship that would cover all of my books and academic fees, I just needed a couple more thousand to cover the rest. I worked to save some money and my parents helped out with the rest, and all of the sudden, I found myself on a plane headed to Nauvoo for one of the most amazing semesters of my life.

I was there for the bitter months of January until beautiful April in 2004, but the cold didn't take away from everything I gleaned there. The more I learned, the deeper my testimony became of knowing the gospel of Jesus Christ truly has been restored to this earth and that Joseph Smith truly is a prophet of God. I remember feeling that a huge piece of my heart was going to be left there in Nauvoo when I left. Life was so simple there and peaceful. I can totally see why the Saints loved their time there, because in all the hardship and sacrifices they made, Nauvoo was their place of rest and happiness for a time. I think the same spirit still resides there today.

Anyway - after THAT Stacey White Personal History Lesson, back to the present - I had the AMAZING opportunity to go back finally! 11 years later! My wonderful Uncle Joe offered to take anyone in our extended family on a Church History trip if they just paid towards their flight. I was super bummed I couldn't make it to Kirtland, Ohio, or Palmyra, New York (since I guess I'm a mother of small children and can't just gallivant around whenever I like), but Steve's parents were so kind to watch our kids while we went to Nauvoo for four days.

We headed out Monday morning and were a bit lost not having to open a package of fruit snacks in bribery for good behavior...or make up silly games to pass the time, or drag a tantrumming toddler with a runny nose they're wiping on everything through a crowd to be on time. And then, we revelled in it. The only regret I had with having four days with no kids, was that we never got to sleep in - there was too much to do! We can sleep when we're dead though I suppose. That's what I tell myself in the middle of the night when babies won't stay in their beds or sleep without being held.

Once we landed we took a glorious bus with big windows to get lunch in Liberty at a yummy Mexican restaurant and then walked to Liberty Jail to take the tour.

That place is so sacred. The revelations Joseph Smith received while being held prisoner there have brought strength to me and I'm sure thousands of others who have gone through or go through some of the hardest times of their lives. God is always aware of us, and while I'm sure He has a hard time watching His children struggle through hardship, persecution, or sacrifice, He loves us so much, that He gave us this world to experience LIFE in all it's forms as well as agency to choose what course we want to follow. As a parent, I find that hard to do for my children at times, when I know the "best" way to do things. I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father who knows not just the best way, but He knows WHAT'S best for us. It was wonderful to visit that Jail again and be grateful to Joseph Smith for sticking through and staying faithful to the truth.

Good ol' Mexican Food!

This was the entrance for the jail.

While the structure itself is a replica, the stone floor is original.

The stone outer wall was three feet thick, and the conditions were horrendous.

We drove the rest of the way to Nauvoo, stopping for dinner beforehand, and then checking in to our hotel with the PERFECT view of the temple. I found that part of my heart I'd left there so long ago. Steve and I snuck a quick walk around the temple before going to bed that night. I was sad to see the Joseph Smith Academy gone - it was on it's last legs when I was there - but it was still sad to see it gone. The hotel we stayed at is pretty family oriented, so just Steve and my room had THREE beds in it with an insane amount of space. It was quite nice. :)

The view from my room. It was a treat every time I looked out the window!

What a sight for sore eyes. All is well. All is well.

The moon was especially bright.

The next morning we grabbed breakfast at Grandpa John's Cafe and then headed on our tour...

I could totally get used to this being what I wake up to every morning.

BREATHTAKING

We stopped at the Visitor's Center first and toured the Women's gardens. Sis. Smith here actually posed for the sculptor as he created this piece. :)

In the Women's Gardens with one of the best influential women I know. :)

Sis. Smith posed for this piece too. :)

Joseph and his sweetheart Emma and me with my sweetheart. :)

Also there was a praying mantis on top of Joseph's head.

Gary Smith in our group actually painted this beautiful painting among many others. It was a treat listening to him share the process in painting this as well as his experience as Nauvoo was being rebuilt.

One of the original Sun stones left from the original temple.

A first and a third edition of The Book of Mormon, and the Holy Bible 1668 Edition

They had some gorgeous flowers everywhere you went in Nauvoo. I loved it!

We then went to tour the sites of Joseph Smith - owned by the RLDS church. We got a special tour from Lachlan McKay - a descendant of Alexander Smith (Joseph Smith's son) who is actually in line to be one of the apostles. He was incredibly knowledgeable on so many details of Joseph and Emma's lives. Here is a stone where they would hide the manuscripts when persecutors would come trying to destroy them. The Nauvoo House was where they would house boarders and ended up being where Emma stayed for the remainder of her life. She actually died in the room third window from the right.

Lachlan Mackay giving us the tour.

When Joseph and Hyrum were martyred they actually buried them secretly so persecutors wouldn't come and try to steal the bodies. Later they were reburied here. They actually had put the bodies in the wrong places due to not being able to recognize them after decay and didn't realize what they thought was the bullet wound that was in Hyrum's face was actually in the wrong place. There were some pretty crazy people back then too with crazy ideas in what they wanted to try to do with the bodies of the Prophet.

The Joseph Smith Homestead where he first lived when they started building Nauvoo. They sometimes housed so many people there, Joseph's family wouldn't get anything to eat and would have to sleep on the floor in a side room. Joseph was always so generous to his visitors.

The Mansion House where they also housed boarders.

At the Red Brick Store where the Relief Society was organized. It was also where they did the first endowment sessions before the Temple was finished.

Dan and Debbie Peterson were our tour guides. They were a plethora of knowledge and great guides!

Joseph's office in the Red Brick Store

We were blessed with the company of the amazing Susan Easton Black Durrant (Steve always made fun of me for saying her whole name, but I felt like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory and couldn't just leave it at "Susan", so Susan Easton Black Durrant she was. She gave us an hour and a half tour of some parts of Nauvoo that you don't normally notice. It was terrific.

So many people died in Nauvoo - mainly from disease or childbirth since they were building up the city from swampland. Every family was effected there. They truly sacrificed. The Pioneer Cemetery, we learned, was received by the Church in exchange for some of the land it owned in Independence Missouri (which is a big deal giving that up!) Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated many of the church history sites there in Nauvoo and it became a very dear place to his heart (not surprising it was during his prophetic time that a temple was constructed there). He felt that next to the sacredness of The Sacred Grove, the Nauvoo Temple, and a couple others, this cemetery held another deep sacred feeling. So many children died here, my heart ached at the thought of being the mother of any of them. I'm so grateful for my own children.

Proof I was there!

Susan Easton Black Durrant also did a fireside on Emma Smith which was wonderful. She was great!

The Pioneer Cemetary - they found over half the people buried here hadn't had their temple work done.

These red bricks here were the actual bricks from the red brick store, taken after the saints left and used to build this mercantile store - the cement slab was also taken from the store.

The stones for the Nauvoo jail were actually taken from the original Nauvoo temple after the saints left and a tornado destroyed what was left of the temple.

Susan Easton Black Durrant ;) pointed out how you could tell which stone carver did which brick because they all had a certain style in their cutting and carving.

This was the room where the Relief Society - the largest women's organization in the world - began.

Sarah's cup

Sarah was pretty sneaky. Since her husband wouldn't let her use their money to donate to the temple building (he wasn't a member of the Church), she would make shirts and clothes of the workers instead.

The Quarry

An original Nauvoo Temple plate made in commemoration of the dedication in 1846. We bought a replica souvenir :)

These quilts were AMAZING. I can't believe the stitchwork.

LOVE that you could see the Nauvoo temple wherever you were in Nauvoo.

The Gunsmith Shop. Steve loved this place. Jonathan Browning joined the church and brought his business here.

Blacksmith shop where we got our classic Prairie diamond rings.

We dragged Garrett with us (he liked it) after he'd seen his share of Pioneer houses. ;)

Schoolhouse! Where they had pretty interesting ways of spelling things like utensils. ;)

We had dinner here in the Hotel Nauvoo. DELISH.

Our hotel. We had the top right room with the view of the Temple which is kiddie corner to the right. Garrett photobombed. NERDO!

My beautiful Nauvoo Temple. Oh my heart finds such peace here.

View from the Temple steps. That's a statue of Joseph and Hyrum on their horses on their way to Carthage.

The Nauvoo Star

Oh how gorgeous the sunsets were here!

That night we went to the musical put on by the senior missionary couples - Rendezvous - which gives a fun little history of Nauvoo.

The next day we got to do a session at the Temple there - which I wasn't able to do when I was there for the semester since I hadn't gone through the Temple yet. It was wonderful to be in there with Stephen and remembering all the covenants we have made and appreciating the history and all the saints had done in building the original of the Nauvoo Temple. It was a wonderful, peaceful morning. Afterwards we headed to Carthage Jail which also has some special memories.

We walked the Trail of Hope to the Mississippi where the saints crossed on February 4th, 1846. I cannot imagine leaving your cosy, warm, comfortable home for the unsettled west. What faith these people had.

Garrett representing the Staheli's ;)

Steve representing the White's :)

Still can see the Nauvoo Temple :)

Red Brick Store - rebuilt

Joseph Smith Jr.'s parents in the Smith Family Cemetery.

Joseph, Hyrum, and Emma buried here.

The boot shop :)

Reminds me a bit of the areas around Lamar :)

Carthage

Another Gary Smith painting

This is where Willard Richards hid John Taylor after he was shot four times by the mob.

This is the room Joseph, Hyrum, John Taylor, and Willard Richards were in when the mob came and Joseph and Hyrum were martyred June 27th, 1844.

You can feel the Spirit here and know Joseph Smith Jr. gave everything - even his life to seal his testimony that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ did in fact appear to him, that the original Church of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth once again through him as he was called to be a prophet. Oh how I thank my Heavenly Father for true prophets today.

The bullet hole from the mob coming.

This one killed Hyrum.

The window above us is the one Joseph fell from as he was martyred.

My sweet parents and brother. LOVED going on this trip with them.

My sweet dad is where my testimony of Joseph Smith began, when he shared an experience from his mission coming here (He served in the Illinois mission) and having a strong feeling that Joseph really was a prophet. It stuck with me all my life after he told me that, and I'm so grateful I was able to come here and experience that myself.

EVEN from a young age Garrett has NEVER smiled normally for the camera. ;)

Gary Smith - the artist in our group telling us more of the inspiration, and history of his paintings.

We went to Montrose to eat dinner and get a beautiful view of the Temple from across the river.

We had some yummy Italian food, and I had to get a picture with my wonderful Uncle Joe (and my Aunt Celia MIA in this picture) who made this trip possible. What a life memorable experience!

Can't get over the view from my room.

And just like that - our trip came to an end. It was such a wonderful time and reminded me of the deep history of my faith. I love Nauvoo, and always will!