My sweet parents treated Emily and I to a trip to Nauvoo to see Jane. Chase was sweet enough to take a few days off work and watch the kids for me. Each sister missionary is allowed one family visit if she is serving in Nauvoo, probably because it's a visitor's center. I've never been to Nauvoo and have only ever heard how spectacular it is from other members of the church and of course Jane. I'm not much of a church history buff but I thought it would be exciting to see Jane in her element and learn more about the early saints of the church.
The flight there was great. Flying without kids and a small carry on is always a treat! Just me and fetus number 4. I actually flew into SLC and stayed the night in my old bedroom before we hit an early flight the next day as a family. It was a pretty grueling day of travel actually. We had the three hour flight to St.Louis Missouri and then had to rent a car and drive another three hours to Nauvoo, Illinois. It was all worth it when we were finally able to see our sweet Jane!! She was in the visitor's center and of course burst into tears when she opened the door for us. We all got a little chocked up.
Jane still had to abide by the missionary rules, so we had to say goodbye for the evening and we were on our own until the next day where we would see Jane at church. I'm not sure what we were expecting from Nauvoo, but we were at least hoping to find a decent restaurant or two. No such luck for this pregnant lady. I couldn't believe how beautiful Nauvoo was, but also how destitute! There's pretty much one street with shops on it and half of them are closed. Everything else is either a temple (gorgeous by the way), visitor's center, or other homes of early saints that they have turned into museum tours.
We had to drive 20 minutes just to find a restaurant that was open. Food was definitely my main concern on this trip. I get REALLY sick when I don't eat, but I'm also VERY picky when I'm pregnant so the combination of little choices and crappy food was NOT good. We ended up going to Walmart (30 minutes in another direction) and buying some food to eat in our "Woodruff" suite. Our hotel was hilarious. They checked us in, and then the employees checked out!! We never saw a single person in our "hotel" the entire three days we were there. Never mind if we needed more towels, or if something happened to break. There were ZERO hotel employees. After a while we started noticing that there were pictures of Brigham Young all over our bedrooms and main sitting area. We thought it a bit odd, seeing Nauvoo was kind of Joseph Smith's gig. It wasn't until we discovered upon checkout that we were actually staying in the "Brigham" room. Lucky us! I think we were driving my mom half crazy with our irreverent remarks. There's no way Dad was going to keep his mouth shut with pictures of Brigham Young on every wall.
Church in Nauvoo is another interesting experience. First of all, it starts EARLY!! Em and I giggled in bed until about 1 a.m. every night or until Mom and Dad started pounding on the wall we shared to be quiet. Sacrament meeting was interesting to say the least. The whole chapel was filled with senior missionary couples and about 2 dozen younger sister missionary couples. A missionary sacrament meeting!! It also happened to be the week of transfers and a lot of seniors were going home. So the entire meeting ended up being these old people getting up to say goodbye and share their testimonies. After church Jane had her zone conference where there was yet another testimony meeting for those who didn't get the change to say goodbye during sacrament meeting. Lots and lots of testimonies. I was able to bear mine as well and talked about how much I loved the church mission program. I spoke of Jane and her decision to go on a mission and how much we have all seen her grow spiritually because of her decision to serve. After zone conference we said goodbye to Jane for a while and went out in search of food, again.
Best part of the day was that the normally closed restaurant down the street was open for Sunday brunch!! Hip hip hooray!! It was like having a thanksgiving feast after our few days of food deprivation. Keeping the Sabbath day holy wasn't an option.
That afternoon we drove to Carthage to see the jail where Joseph Smith was shot and died. Jane gives tours of the jail and was able to give us our tour. It was great seeing her in her element!
Love my sweet little Jane. Can't wait for her to come home in December!!
I thought the Cannons would get a kick out of me going to Heber C. Kimball's home. They're related somehow. Lets be honest, with polygamy, it's pretty easy to be related to someone famous is Mormon history.
Our last day we went to the Nauvoo temple. It was beautiful inside. At this point, my lack of adequate food and midnight chats with Emily had started taking their toll. This pregnant lady fell asleep several times during the session and at one point was so deep in sleep that I actually had a short dream. I was not being "alert and attentive." It's cool being pregnant in the temple, but also exhausting!! Thankfully I woke up when I needed to:-)
The next morning we had to say goodbye to Jane and head back to the airport. Dad wanted to see the famous arch in St. Louis so we headed out pretty early. After a few hours of eating Fritos and enduring Mom's "creative" driving skills, I was more than pleased when we FINALLY made it to the airport four hours later. Now I just had to endure a three hour flight to Utah and another three hour flight to Texas. My flight to Utah just about did me in. All that sitting in the car and on the plane was KILLING my tailbone. I ended up finding a row to sleep on because the flight wasn't full, but woke up with chills and my whole backside absolutely throbbing! I was at breaking point!
And I broke.
I got off the flight and walked threw the SLC airport with my sunglasses on, just in case I ran into someone that might notice me. I was a wreck! I couldn't stop crying. Mom, Dad and Emily kept asking me what was wrong, but I seriously didn't know! There was nothing wrong besides the fact that I was exhausted and bawling my eyes out. Mom was insistent about me going to their house to sleep instead of getting on another plane to Texas. I was "not in a state to get on another plane!" I was however determined to get on that plane. I knew all I needed was my Chase and my bed!! Mom forced me to eat some Cafe Rio which sadly tasted disgusting to me (even after all the horrible food in Nauvoo!). I obeyed, ate and then forced them to leave me so I could compose myself. I eventually made it onto my plane and sat next to a very nice woman who asked me if I was feeling ok (I was still wearing my glasses and pretty congested from all the crying). I didn't want to start crying again, so I lied and told her I had just had Lasik eye surgery and had to wear the glasses until the sun went down.
I finally made it to Austin and into the arms of my Chase. I went to bed the second I went home. Jane and my parents want me to come back to SLC for Jane's homecoming in December but I've decided after my hysterical airport episode, I won't be traveling again for a very long time, at least not while I'm pregnant. No mas! My tailbone can't handle it!
Nauvoo made an impression on me for sure, especially after reading an article when I got home from a non-mormon magazine that wrote about how great it is to have Mormons living in your community. The writer summed it up by saying that most communities would be better off with a healthy group of LDS living within the limits because they educate their children, work hard, are involved many aspects, and are very friendly. Who wouldn't want to have us around? Coming from Nauvoo, where exactly the opposite sentiment was experienced in the late 1800s I was overwhelmed with the progress our church has made in becoming better known and overall appreciated in our nation. I am so grateful for the sacrifices of the early saints and that I was able to learn more about them in Nauvoo. I officially place my stamp of approval, but would caution anyone planning a trip there to bring an extra suitcase of food!
