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I finished a couple of books recently that I thought I would mention to those of you that read this blog.

If you really want to know more about Joseph Smith and his early years in Kirtland, Ohio and the beginnings of the church, this is an excellent book to begin with.  The author, Karl Ricks Anderson, came to Nauvoo and spoke to the missionaries at a fireside when we first got here.  He talked about Joseph and how he started the church.  This book has a lot of the details back with finite details.  There are literally hundreds of citations on the bottom of each page, some taking half a page with lots of interesting details.  One of the wonderful things about being back here is the emphasis on the Prophet since he walked these streets and lived here for several years after the Kirtland years.  I can guarantee that you will come away with a much deeper appreciation for the Prophet once you finish this book.  I know I certainly have.

You can probably order this through the LDS Bookstore near the temple at the  outlet stores.

Another book that is on the top of my list is this one, also by Anderson.  The Savior in Kirtland.  It details the Savior's role in the building of the temple and Joseph Smith's efforts in it also.  It has all of the details of the first book and is a fantastic read.

Arlene and I have just gotten approval to visit Kirtland area the end of September so we are making preparations for that 10 hour drive.  We will be going during Women's Conference weekend.  As an Assistant Engineer, my time is very limited to take any time off so this seemed like a good weekend to do it.  I managed to get everyone to OK it.  Hopefully, we can slide in the new Indiana temple that was just dedicated as we travel past it.

There is a story in the back of this book that I relayed to Kevin this morning in his weekly letter from us.  As you may or may not know, this temple belongs to the Community of Christ (formerly RLDS Church) so we visit, pay the fee and marvel at what used to be ours.  Maybe one day they will sell it back to us, hopefully.  The story goes:

“On November 6, 1993, Elder M. Russell Ballard stood in the elevated Melchizedek Priesthood pulpits of the Kirtland Temple to preside over an exceptional sacrament service.  About 180 Church leaders, including General Authorities, regional representatives, mission presidents, temple presidents, and stake presidents, attended.  These leaders and their wives had come together for an area training meeting.  In addition to Elder Ballard, General Authorities attending the meeting were Elder Cree-L Kofford, president of the North America North East Area; Yoshihiko Kikuchi, counselor to Elder Kofford; and Joe J. Christensen, Marlin K. Jensen, and Rex D. Pinegar.

The Lord poured out His spirit in this sacrament meeting in a never-to-be-forgotten way.  Many present likened it to what it must have been like at the Kirtland Temple dedication in 1836.  This was the first sacrament meeting in possibly 140 years that LDS Church leaders had been allowed to conduct in the Kirtland Temple.  (note: the temple is owned by the Community of Christ or the formerly Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  We don’t own it so this is a really significant meeting).  Elder Ballard and Elder Kofford blessed the sacrament.  Assisted by others, including all General Authorities present, they then passed it to the congregation.  People who were in the meeting have described the meeting as powerful, spiritual, not a dry eye, etc.

Al Walters, the representative of the Community of Christ who was present, said, “It was obvious that everyone was experiencing a great out pouring of the spirit.”  Elder Ballard said, “Deep spiritual feelings were felt by everyone.”  Elder Kofford added,  “It was a tremendous spiritual experience.”  Elder Pinegar stated that they were so strongly affected that “we were almost unable to speak or sing, although that opportunity was afforded us.”  Elder Kukuchi remembered, “We [the General Authorities] sat, possibly, right beneath the spot where the Savior appeared to Joseph and Oliver.”

Al reported his crowning spiritual experience.  Before the meeting, he had strongly objected to LDS Church leaders being given permission to administer and partake of the sacrament in the temple.  His objection was based on the fact that the Community of Christ was a “closed communion” church (meaning that nonmembers were not offered the sacrament during services.)  He told his church leaders, “The LDS have temples of their own.  Let them go to one of their temples to partake of the sacrament.  Why do they come to our temple?”  Community of Christ leaders had given formal permission, so they asked Al to support their decision.  They also assigned him to attend the meeting.

As the meeting progressed, Al felt a dark cloud come over him.  He even became physically ill.  As the meeting progressed, the dark felling intensified.  It reached the point that his head and heart were pounding so hard that he felt he might be having a heart attack.  At that point, Elder Kikuchi stood to speak.

Al felt the Spirit come over him.  An audible voice that only he heard made three statements:  “Alan, this is not your temple; this is mine.  These are also my Saints.  This is an acceptable use of this sacred space!”  Walters called this experience a “spiritual spanking” and felt that the Savior had spoken to him directly.  He then humbled himself and shared with the rest the wonderful spirit of the occasion.  Later Al said the Savior had completely changed his attitude.”

What a remarkable experience!  After 140 years, a sacrament meeting in our first completed temple.  It must have been a remarkable experience for all of those present.  

This last book is one we got at a small group Family Home Evening a couple of weeks ago.  Brother Craig R. Dunn is a local Chiropractor (and a good one at that) and a historian.  He specializes in Joseph Smith and a lot of other church history.  He is really good at what he does.  Exceptional is more like it.  He is amazing to listen to.  This book is out of print and hard to come by and the printer is out of business also.  Tough to find and hard to come by.  However, the info is pretty accurate and details the end of times.  In the book he lists what must happen before the end of times.  It includes the following:

(1) The Elders/Missionaries will all be called home from teaching the Gentiles in preparation to teaching the Jews (the Lord gives up on teaching the Gentiles, I guess)

(2) All of the world governments fail

(3) Build the City of Zion in Independence, Missouri 

(4) Return of the Lost Tribes

(5) The Council at Adam-ondi-Ahman, in Missouri

He said they could happen in pretty rapid succession.  I guess it's something to look forward to.  I'm hoping we get home from our mission before these things start to unfold anyway.  Probably won't happen in the next couple of years but looking at the field of choices for the next presidential elections, I'm not so sure.

Here's the book:

Quite a read with a lot of interesting information.  You might find it a bit scary.  No idea when this will be unfolding but some serious food for thought.  You won't hear this stuff in 3rd hour meetings on Sunday...

I'm working on a new book about the way the Book of Mormon was translated.  It's an offshoot of the Joseph Smith Papers project.  If you are not currently looking at that site, you are missing a lot of spectacular information.  We just got the first book.  It's pretty pricey but the 1st 50 pages is the introduction for the series.  Just the intro is the 1st 50 pages!  It's all online at http://josephsmithpapers.org.  You really need to be looking at this site if you are even remotely interested in church history.  Go for it...

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Walking through the thriving metropolis of Nauvoo, looking for a particular book on Adam-ondi-Ahman at the local bookstores, and I look up and see this:

Look closely.  That guy up there is an HVAC service tech.  He is replacing the condensing unit that is on the ground behind the Peters truck in front.  Note the yellow and gray refrigerant container on the roof.  He doesn't even have enough room for the container on that itty-bitty ledge he's perched on up there installing that unit.  I mean, really, seriously?  What a gosh awful place to work!  You can see how high that thing is up off the ground.  I used to do service work so I can really appreciate this but man oh man, what a place to hafta do service work?  Argh!  That really sucks!

Ok, moving on.  The other day we stopped at Culvers for lunch when we went for our dental appointment.  Thought this was interesting.

The burger is just a burger and not bad at that.  But, those little balls to the left?  Those are "curds" or deep fried cheese balls.  Kinda like mozzarella sticks but balls of mozzarella.  What will they think of next?

So, here is a project I am working on at the temple.  It is an electronic Honeywell combined modutrol/actuator for a variable air volume controller (VAV) for the stairwell outside one of the rooms in the stairwells.  It's got issues with the flow sensor and the indication on the PC screen.  It's kind of hard to get to and is even harder to work on.

The shaft is on the bottom, has the little two way arrows on it.

This is what I look at to see if something is functioning correctly then make adjustments to keep people comfortable.  

This particular one shows no airflow although we know it has plenty of airflow so I am trying to figure out why.  It's been a long serious of test and phone calls to the tech in Salt Lake to see what they can do to adjust the parameters.  We don't have the ability to make changes to some of the parameters.  We can change some of them but some of the input comes from the master schedule and that's set elsewhere.  It's kind of a learning curve here.  But, I am learning a lot.  I used to work on pneumatic controls so this is still controls, I just need to learn how to deal with electronic controls.  Same sort of thing different type of control format.  I hafta put on a different hat to make my poor head work right.  

Just one of the many things I do on a regular basis.  Last night I was refilling the glycol systems for the hot water, chilled water, and the heated walkways around the temple so we can nice, clear walkways come this winter.  Needs to have glycol in them so they don't freeze when the temp starts to plummet.  That's a few weeks away but coming, none the less.  Next week the forecast is for 90s.  So much for the good weather!

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The Sister Missionaries had a "Sociable" last night and invited the site and temple missionaries to attend.  We got to go to the second session, since our hall is relatively small, we hafta split the sessions for all of us to see it.  We can't meet all at once.  At any rate, they centered on song and their testimonies/stories of experiences they have had since they have been on their missions.  It was pretty well done and lots of tears were shed by a lot of the missionaries.  These sisters do such a good job.

This is the whole group.

This is a short video of a harpist they had play.  She was pretty good.  I only got part of it as the videos I shoot are so dense and huge I can't upload them.  need to fix that on my camera one of these days.

The tall "ginger" in the middle put the whole thing together for the mission in Nauvoo and has an incredible voice.

So, I'm thinking fall is approaching pretty quickly with the following weather forecast:

Hard to beat that kind of weather back here, anyway.  Went for my morning "flog" and it was really nice.  55 degrees at 7:30 AM.  Gotta love that even if there are zero mountains.  The days are getting much shorter.  The sun was down way before our 8:15 PM show time last night.  The sun is setting at least 2 minutes earlier each day now and coming up a couple of minutes later.  Soon to be Fall back here.  Not going to be a hot September like back in Kalifornia, for sure, but that's OK.  We're here for other reasons.

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We decided we had been cooped up in Nauvoo long enough so we took off for Costco in Coralville, Iowa.  It's about 100 miles away near Iowa City.  Not that it's very exciting but it's somewhere to go on our P-Day and it's a nice drive in Iowa farm country...and lots of it.   

Note the stainless steel chopsticks.  Kapok in Coralville, Iowa.  Good stuff. 

So, we picked up our goodies for the month and headed home.  A few miles down the road the skies let loose and I had to slow down as it was getting really hard to see.  It let up a bit.  A few miles farther, it let loose again but this time I could no longer see the white line on either side of the road.  I looked in my rearview mirror and saw people pulling off the road so I figured I had better do the same, especially since the guy behind me was coming up on me pretty rapidly.  I did and pulled way over to the right as he went flying past me at 75 MPH.  Could not even see a foot in front of him/her! So, did the semi-right behind him.  It let up a bit and I got back on the road.  4 minutes down the road it was as dry as Kalifornia.  Go figure.

We got to Fort Madison and were greeted by this:

The bridge is sideways and were being "barged".  A temporary condition where we sit and wait for the barge to pass so the bridge will closed and we can be on our way.

...and there's the lead tugboat pulling the first barge through the area.

...and there's the whole barge with both tugs.  The one in back is quite a bit bigger than the one in front.

...and there it goes.  Now the bridge closes and we are on our way...

And the bridge isn't moving...so, looking upstream, quite a ways, I see, are you kidding me, another barge!  Holy cow, we got double barged!  Rats!

...and here comes the second barge, it's a big one, much bigger than the last one.

Finally, we see the whole second barge:

That is a long barge!

Looking back up the railroad tracks, I hear a train horn and realize that there is a train coming.  Hmmmm, does that mean that the bridge better get put back in place soon.  However, the train continued on the other track and not towards the bridge.

So, finally, the bridge starts to close:

A shot straight down the gullet...

...and done...

Wow, that's a long coal train...Hi, Mom!  She's taking a video of the bridge closing.

Yeah, we can go now!  An hour and a half later!  Double barged...hope that doesn't happen anytime soon again!  Gads!

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We did a couple of stops this last week.  I had to have my yearly blood work from the doctors, which I was supposed to have done when we first showed up here but since we were changing medical plans and it took forever to get the cards, it has taken me this long to find a doctor and get the ball rolling.  Last Tuesday I was finally able to see a local "Doc" and have a brief check up.  He reviewed my drugs that I take and had some questions about some of them, especially my diabetes medications.  He had me go over to the local hospital for the blood draw.  Gotta remember, this isn't Folsom Kaiser out here.

The local Keokuk Medical Center.

Interestingly enough, I was ushered into a single room, all by myself, with no one else.  Weird, not like Kaiser and 40 other people standing in line.  Other than filling out the Medicare, Blue Shield/Blue Cross paperwork, there was no wait.  Maybe next time!

So, the results came back that night but I was working and it took me a couple of days to get in touch with the doctor.  Basically, he said to continue on with the way things were going and the way I was taking my prescriptions.  No change in frequency or amounts.  My A1c was 5.7!  I haven't had one of those in years!  Last one I had last year was nearly 8 so this mission thing must be doing me some good, huh?  That's almost normal...well, for abnormal me it's normal, I guess....

On our way back from Keokuk, we drove up the "Great River Road", Highway 96.  The Mississippi is quite wide and very shallow except on the Western side where the barges travel.  On the East/Nauvoo side it's very shallow and the lily pads proliferate for a long stretch.  Arlene had me stop to take a few picts where the lily pads are in bloom.

No idea what the purple stuff is but it's pretty and there's a lot of it.  Only grows on the "dry" land.

Wider shot.

The "structure" out there is a duck blind that will be utilized when duck season starts in the fall.  The locals tell me they hear a lot of banging first thing in the morning till the season is over.  

A little further down the road, entering Nauvoo, is the "Old Granite Bridge".  There is a sign pointing to it and a walkway but nothing else.  Like a lot of things in this area, it's just there.  No history, just there.  I suppose it was a bridge entering town at one time or another.  There's so much history here that some of the lesser stuff gets ignored.

Classic bridge architecture.  Front side.

Back side.  Not so accessible.

Oddly enough, there is a sign posted on the bridge saying "private property" so you can't use the bridge.  The house there is part of the "Community of Christ" (RLDS) area of Nauvoo.  They have their own set of rules here that we need to be respectful of.

Also there is a Veteran's memorial not too far from the bridge.  No need to explain that.  Not sure about the placing of it there but it's an Eagle Scout project.  A nice one, too.  The local police car likes to sit here in the shade and use his radar to get speeders entering/leaving the town.  Nice....

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Well, got some good news tonight that Michael and Nicole are the proud parents of a new baby boy named Henry James Seger this evening!  He weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces.  Don't have any length yet. Baby and Mom are doing fine as far as I know.  Haven't heard a lot nor do I have any pictures but there will be more to come, I'm sure....

Went into Keokuk today to do a little shopping and get Mom a haircut.  Stopped by a waterfall on the way back that is the subject of a painting in the temple.  It is a pretty site.

This is the way the pioneers drained the water that ran into the flats that swamped the area below the temple.  They ran canals and diverted the water from flowing into the flats and making it into a swamp.  This is one of the canals that they use for the diversions.  Here are some shots from the park area.  Highway 96 is just below the park.  Nauvoo is a mile or so to the right.

Oh, and we got our 2015 sweatshirts for our mission.  Sweet!  Mine is maroon and Arlene's is forest green.  Cool, huh?  You don't see these just everywhere.

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So, I wake up this morning and get ready to go for my morning "flog" (flailing while jogging, my attempt at getting some exercise while here in Nauvoo).  But, first, I need to check the weather to make sure a monsoon hasn't settled in over the area or isn't about to break in the next 30 minutes as I flog my way around "The Flats" where we live.  I see this on AccuWeather:

I've seen these before on several occasions this summer, but this is a particularly dire prediction of "dense fog" in the area.  This, however, is what passes as "dense fog" in the Nauvoo area:

Across the street from our apartment, the open field to highway 96 leaving Nauvoo.

Apparently, the Mid-West definition and the Kalifornia foothills or, certainly, the San Francisco definition of "dense fog" is somewhat different.  

Of course, jogging in 100% humidity at 74 degrees is always a "treat" surpassed only by jogging in Flagstaff, Arizona in the middle of the day in mid-July.  Ugh.  There's no such thing as a "cool down" outdoors...

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Well, it's been a week since the Nauvoo and the British pageant completed their run for 2015.  What a spectacular run it was, too!  We got to see them and enjoyed them both very much.  As summer slowly comes to an end, although there are still some long, hot days left, the end of the activity here in Nauvoo seems to be winding down.  We did a session at the temple earlier this week and it had few people.  Last week it was almost completely filled.  Yep, things are winding down a bit.  But, the laundry is sure appreciative of that fact!

The stage lights are gone, the chairs and props are put away.  The pageant is in storage for another year.  The temple stands at a distance overlooking the vacant stage.  All is waiting for next year when it all springs to life again.

  Tonight we had a small get together at the Allred's apartment celebrating the birthday of Sister Bender.  She is a really nice sister missionary that we go to the Burlington Ward with on Sundays.

Brother and Sister Bender.

Arlene, Bro/Sis Collyer, the Benders, Sis/Bro Salden, Sis Allred, and Sis Larson.  Had a great meal of goodies to pass around.  Nice people to talk to and listen to.  

We start the fall schedule this week.  We work from 2 until 10 PM Tuesday through Friday nights and from 1 until 9 PM on Saturday night.  We rarely get off on time.  Once in a while we get off early but that means we get out on time.  We will be working this schedule until the winter shutdown November 9th.  Not sure what will happen after that for the winter schedule, though.  We will know more when we get closer to November.  Talking to some of the missionaries that have been here for a while, the winter months are pretty boring and not a lot goes on.  I suppose we'll find out in a few months, won't we?

We have several missionaries that will be leaving over the next couple of months.  We went out to dinner last night with the Wilson's.  They will be finishing up their mission the middle of September so they are starting to pack and get ready to leave for home.  Sad to see them leave but they have served well while they were here for the last year or so.  More missionaries will be coming over the next few months as they trickle in a few at a time.  More will be leaving from now until January.  We have a constant change now and then.

We have been approved to move to another apartment.  This will be a single unit on the ground floor.  Won't be until October unless another one becomes available sooner.  We're next in line.  Arlene needs to get away from the steps she climbs all the time.  Not doing her knees any good.  Looking forward to that.  Seems like the stairs get longer/harder to climb every day.  

Had 1 to 2 inches of rain last night.  Need to send that to Kalifornia somehow....

Waiting on Henry James Seger (Michael/Nicole's new little boy to make his entrance into the world).  Come on Henry!  Just do it!  Nicole wants it to be over!

Matt/Donae in a new (for them) home.  Congrats kids.  Way to go.

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Catching up a bit...

Last week was a full moon.  We were driving past the temple on our way back to our apartment and took a couple of shots:

Now if I can only get a telephoto lens for Christmas or my birthday or....

Last Saturday night we went to Wal-Mart in Keokuk.  We needed some last minute items for Break the Fast for Sunday afternoon.  As we approached the store, a fellow approached me and started talking to me, obviously I was dressed in my missionary attire so it was pretty obvious what I represented.  Arlene was with me.  After a minute he asked me for a favor, and that was a blessing of comfort.  He explained he was having a hard time at home, his wife was ill, he had no job and he needed a blessing to help him get through his situation.  I recognized him as an ordinance worker from the Nauvoo temple that I had seen a couple of times but he didn't really recognize me.  We went to his truck and I gave him a blessing while Arlene kind of watched for people around us.  He was pretty distraught and the tears flowed easily for him.  He was a bit better but I advised him to seek help from his Elder's Quorum and Bishop.  Gotta admit, that was an interesting way to give a blessing and under interesting circumstances but he needed that so badly at the moment.  It is good to be of service.  One must be available at any given moment to provide service.  You just never know when it is going to be needed...even in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

At our Break the Fast with our group yesterday we had a one other couple at the Roundy's, the Abbott's.  It's always interesting to listen to the couple's that are here on missions.  They have such varied and interesting backgrounds and have served in such positions of prominence and great experience.  Most of them have served in stake presidencies or temple presidencies.  There seem to be few of us clerk types.

Left to right, Sister Roundy, Arlene, Brother Roundy, Sister and Brother Abbott.  This is  the Roundy's apartment in the living room.

 Last night was the last night of the Young Performing Missionaries (YPM).  They will be leaving Tuesday morning to go back to wherever they came from.  Some will be going on missions, others back to school, still others to go on with their lives.  They gave a great testimony of Jesus Christ through song.  It was very well done.  It's great to be here in Nauvoo.

Last Saturday was the last night of the pageant.  It's been a great run for them.  They did such a great job.  The 2,000 chairs are gone, the props are starting to come down, the stage is starting to be disassembled.  In a few days, it will all be back to pre-pageant set up and shut down for the winter.  Then it will sit there till next summer for Pageant 2016.  The cycle starts once again.  It was a wild ride these last few weeks and we're at the end of it all.  Things should settle down quite a bit now with less of a hectic schedule and a lot less people hitting the temple every day.  The pressure will be declining every day, especially after school starts back up in a week or so.

I just found out that the Stake YM Presidency in the El dorado Stake has been replaced.  the one I served with.  Best wishes to Patrick Smith, Ken Wallace, and Jason Seymour on your new endeavors, whatever the Lord has in store for you.  Good luck to Art Hunter and his counselors, the new president.  Art replaced me as the secretary.  He will do well.  Quite an undertaking.  Good luck El Dorado.

And good luck to President Bitnoff.  Stay off those mountain bikes for a while.  I hear they are a bit problematic for your ribs.  Get well soon!

bTW,  Elder Kevin Seger has been out for almost 9 months.  Can you believe that?  Time flies...