187: skyler's 1st temple trip

Day 5:

Skyler's first temple trip! What an amazing experience it was to preform baptisms for the dead in such a historic and beautiful temple. A little piece of information..it has the largest font of any temple. They use to preform several baptisms at a time.

The back view of the temple. I especially loved the star stained glass windows and the sun stones at the top. This temple was built as closely to the original as it could be, even using some of the same building materials. The one main difference: the angel Moroni at the top. On the original, it was made of tin and was sideways as if the angel were flying.

 This statue of Brigham Young and Joseph Smith is located at the end of the Trail of Hope, leading the way to the Rockies. It stands right before the opening to the Mississippi River. It is where the saints loaded their wagons onto barges as they were driven from Nauvoo and heading west to find peace and religious freedom.

These were the names of some of our ancestors who crossed the plains and who are on the pioneer monument. Ann H. Pitchforth was my dad's great-grandmother.

Before the big Nauvoo pageant, they had all sorts of pioneer games and crafts for the kids to do. I don't think my kids would have made great pioneers. I can only imagine the words that would have come out of Ryder's mouth. Maybe with the work ethic they had then, they would have been different children and had different attitudes, but I guess we will never know, so we deal with complaints that it's too hot, I'm starving, why are there so many bugs and I'm bored. {however, they did love catching fireflies}

 Sunset on the Mississippi..

 The Nauvoo Pageant..it was an amazing production and tugged at those heart strings. The sacrifices and trials that these people had to endure is unimaginable, yet they stayed faithful and true knowing the promises that were made to them.

 The entire cast is made up of volunteers. Families come out for 2 weeks at a time, paying their own expenses, to preform and be a cast member of this incredible production. I was so impressed with the children..they had babies and little ones who didn't cry or scream. They were all in good moods despite the large amounts of clothes they were wearing and loved what they were doing. It was a testament to me that they were blessed for their sacrifices and efforts.