Historical Nauvoo

       

No trip to Nauvoo would be complete without a trip down to see the historical sites. Or I should say no trip in my family is complete without a trip to see the historical sites. With two degree holding historians we are a little bit obsessed with our history. And of course we were excited to see some of the sites. Now I will admit that the pictures are not in order so You'll just have to forgive me. Blogspot is not being my friend today. We took the tour that was offered in the gift shop that belongs to the RLDS church (I'm sorry I don't recall their new name) and it was quite interesting to see some of these buildings. All save the one of the tabernacle are not owned by the church. Unfortunately, we were short on time and ended up having to leave without seeing much of the other end of the sites, which is okay since they were the "shopping" sites and I was already short on money and didn't need to spend anymore!

      

Overall, the trip here was amazing. I've had the great fortune of seeing the Sacred Grove and a few other church sites, but never Nauvoo before this time. I can see why the Saints were so reluctant to leave. Their hard work was only finally paying off in their building of this city. After their struggling to adapt to the changing climate and finally feeling like they had found a place of refuge, they were then being turned out of their homes again. Thankfully it was a peaceful morning so we all ended up lost in our own individual thoughts of the place. And as this is our family we ended up talking about them the entire ride home. Seriously we would drift back to our thoughts of this place during the next 9 hours in our tiny little car.

                           

The two pictures above are some of the different homes in which Joseph  and Emma lived during the time in Nauvoo. I am consistently in awe of Emma. She suffered so much during their short time together and yet in her heart she remained true and faithful. There is a song on the Nashville Tribute to Joseph Smith that is all about Emma. It is an achingly beautiful song about her faith and perseverance in the face of great trial. She is referred to in the song as having endure her trials with a "queen's grace" and truly this is the perfect description of her endurance. I can scarcely imagine the pain and anguish she felt throughout her time with Joseph and can only imagine the joy she felt upon their return to one another. 

  

After wandering through town we eventually had to bid Nauvoo farewell. It was in slightly less dramatic fashion as this depicts, but it did leave within us all a desire to return. Unfortunately that wasn't in the cards for this summer, but soon. Very soon.