Nauvoo

Yesterday Ben and I went to Nauvoo to visit the sites. We went with a bunch of other people that are here for the summer also. It was such a great experience.
We woke up at 5:30 a.m. so that we could make it to the 10 o'clock church, so of course there was sleeping on the way!
We ended up getting to Nauvoo earlier than expected so we went and took pictures of the Nauvoo temple. What a beautiful temple it is. I really wish we could have gone inside, but maybe one day that dream will come true.After church we went over to the visitors center and changed out of our church attire and had lunch on the lawn. This is a picture of us in front of one of the original sunbeams out of the Nauvoo temple.After lunch we hit Nauvoo up. We started out at the school. It was a little tiny house with a school room built onto the back of it, of course I had to get a picture of the school!After the school house and learning about arithmatic, we headed over to the brickyard where we all received our own Nauvoo bricks.
We then visited the Printing press. I could have never lived in this time period and been a pioneer because everything was so tedious and time consuming. I definitely could never have had anything to do with the printing press....it was way to tedious of a job for me.
We of course had to take a picture of the post office for my mom.We then went to the gunsmith's home. This man was someone who invented guns, don't ask me what his name was...I am not a gun person, but Ben took a lot of pictures of the guns so enjoy a few of them.After the gunsmith's home we went to the Living Center where they showed you a bunch of things that the pioneers made. It was really interesting to watch and see how resourceful the pioneers were. We watched how they made bread, rugs, candles, rope, etc.
This is Ben showing off his battle wounds from helping to make a rope. Poor little boy got two whole blisters!!
After the living center we headed to our last stop the blacksmith. Someone had told me that they give you diamond rings there, so I wanted to go there all day long. Come to find out they aren't really diamond rings but horseshoe nail rings. I guess they were still cool. Here is a picture of us waiting outside. What 20 year old guys will do for entertainment!!
Inside the blacksmith shop they showed us how they made horseshoes and how they repaired wagon wheels and things like that. It was really all quite interesting.
After the Blacksmith shop we headed to Carthage. I loved spending a day in Nauvoo. I wish we could have been there for many days to see the plays and pageants that they put on. I have heard that it is neater during a week day because there is a lot more going on, but for now I will be satisfied with just a Sunday. It was a wonderful experience to be there and have people bear witness of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How grateful I am for the pioneers and all that they sacrified for us to be able to worship the way we do. I love and appreciate them so much!