Miracles & Milestones

We are starting to get the rhythm of Nauvoo just as the Pageants are starting to increase our activity!  Tomorrow night we have dress rehearsal for the British Pageant finale'.  The number of visitors are increasing daily filling our days with excitement!  How we love the visitors and the missionaries!

Four powerful events have occurred this month:  1. New Great-Granddaughter  2. A Miracle Healing  3. A Love Affair with Erik Hogan!  4.  175 yr Commemoration of Joseph & Hyrum Martyrdom

1.

Christiana Neva Perkins

Tisha & Danny's daughter Aubreauna gave birth to our 5th Great Grandchild, Christiauna Neva Perkins!  Her Daddy Garrett & big brother Garrick are so in LOVE!!  So are WE!  The whole Crandell Clan came for the 4th of July to see her!


2.
Three days ago as Mike Kidby was finishing his wonderful July 4th,talk at the Flag Raising by the Visitors Center pain hit me and increased so rapidly that Kent had to take me home.  I wasn't sure I would make it before I passed out.  I had broken into a cold sweat from the pain.  Just as we got into the house and I felt myself blacking out, Kent's hands were on my head and he commanded to pain to ease in the name of Jesus Christ.  Immediately the pain ceased escalating.  Elder Stokes soon arrived and these two worthy Priesthood holders anointed me with oil and commanded my body to heal.  I've had these attacks many times and knew I would be 2-3 weeks recovering and was certain Kent and I would not be able to fill our assigned missionary posts that day.  To my amazement my pain began to subside and within 20 minutes Kent had me tucked into bed and I had no pain.  I sent him on his way to serve the Lord!  The next morning I felt well enough to serve at the Visitors Center and dance & sing at our performance of Sunset on the Mississippi.  The next day I rode Shotgun with Kent.  God Lives!  Our God is a God of Miracles!!

3.

Sugar Creek, Iowa

We had such fun two weeks ago on our Prep Day! We went to the Keokuk Library looking for clues about Kent's ancestor Erik Gaute Mitboen Haugen who immigrated to Iowa from Norway.  The Library has an amazing Genealogy Collection!  Books were marked: Pioneers, Mormons, Early Founders, etc.  along 2 walls.  A wonderfully knowledgable Librarian assisted us and within a few minutes we'd

found  Erik & his family in a Scandinavian settlement at Sugar Creek, the old Scandinavian Cemetery and a newspaper article with a letter from Erik's son Goudy Hogan.  We also found in FamilySearch the Journal of Goudy in which he tells "In the winter of 1843 a Norwegian missionary.. came and preached Mormonism in our native tongue.  My father was convinced of the truth of the Everlasting Gospel and was the first in that part of the country to embrace it."

He tells about walking with his father Erik 8 miles from his home to

Erik Hogan

Nauvoo & back again across the Mississippi River to attend April 1844 General Conference in the Grove below the Nauvoo Temple.  He said he sat with some other boys on the stand behind the prophet, "..so close that I could nearly touch his clothes...I remember he had on a light colored linen coat with a small hole in each elbow of his coat sleeve... I thought he was not a proud man and his very noble experience inspired me with great confidence and faith that he was a Great Prophet of the Lord."

"In the winter of 1845 I walked 2 miles to school.  I was the only Mormon boy there.  I was frequently called "Ole' Joe Smith" and when the boys would choose up for a game of ball I was frequently left out because I was a 'Mormon Boy', but I had that feeling that I was hated for Righteousness Sake and I endured it patiently."

"June 27, 1844 some boys and I were out in the woods gathering wild strawberries.  Some neighbor boys brought very sorrowful news that Joseph Smith was martyred, which report I had frequently heard several times before, but this time I had an impression on my mind that it was too true, and I was overcome with grief and sorrow to the degree that I went out to one side and wept like a child."

"When the first wagons left Nauvoo they camped at Sugar Creek several weeks "..about two miles from where we lived.  I went several times to see the Saints of Israel in their camps. My father offered to sell his place that had cost over $1000 labor and could only get one pair of cattle and one old wagon for it... April 17, 1846 we commenced our journey into the wilderness."

4.
 Jun 27, 2019 found us in Carthage for the 175th Commemoration of the Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum.  Mark Taylor, one of John Taylor's direct descendants spoke to us about it.  His extensive research and family connection enriched our understanding and love for this experience.  He told about his grandfather being asked by the prophet to sing "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" (which was a new hymn) and then we were thrilled to hear John Taylor's Grandson sing that powerful song to us!  Wow!

  The Heritage Choir from Heritage School in Highland sang several amazing numbers for us!  Kidby's saved seats for us in the shade.  They've loved their time at Carthage and have now traded places with Julander's and are living in Julander's little home across from the Visitors Center.  Julander's come on Tuesday night to dance with us "Sunset on the Mississippi" and stay overnight with us for Mission Training on Wednesday morning.  It's such fun! Wish you were here!

Family & Flooding

Into the Visitors Center strode our wonderful grandson Dallin
Crandell totally unannounced!  He wanted to surprise us and indeed he DID!  After hugging him and crying Sis Thurgood rushed with him out to the Carriage Ride to astonish Elder Thurgood.  Dallin jumped on the carriage and listened to his Grandpa's stories on the ride through the old Nauvoo countryside.  He said goodbye as he was expected at his new job in Maryland the next day.  We urged him to take short nap at our house & eat whatever he could find...since he'd just driven 23 hrs straight from AZ.  He was still there when we got home and when he learned we would be dancing and singing on stage within the hour, he stayed to watch Sunset on the Mississippi. 
Afterwards we hugged him goodbye and so did 2 girls in the cast whom he'd known in AZ.  He drove towards MD and we went home to bed.  Less than an hour later our doorbell rang and it was DALLIN!  He'd felt impressed to return to get a full nights sleep before proceeding!  What a spiritually-in-tune man!  What a Joy to have our first FAMILY here!  It feels more like home now.

Two more Crandells surprise us!

Dallin's sister Jerrica who just graduated HS Valedictorian, bound next for BYU and their beautiful mother (our daughter) Tisha!  We went to Ft Madison to pick them up at the train station and this is what we FOUND!   What a fun

3 days we had with them! Their return train was flooded out so they flew home from Peoria, IL.  Tisha had felt impressed to buy trip insurance (which she rarely does), so their flight home, rental car and gas were FREE! Crandell's do follow the Spirit! 

By the time we got home this is what we found on our road!   The Mississippi came up 24" on our road for 100 yards so we couldn't even drive the Explorer through it...for 5 days and had to go around the other direction 12 miles to get to and from Old Nauvoo each day! So happy it's subsided!

Sister Thurgood became a full fledged Teamster.  Twice a week for 3 weeks now she has driven the team and rode shotgun for her Elder.  She's also joined him with the Ox Wagon ride telling the story.  What a blast!  She was given the script to learn a vignette of

Lucy Mack Smith and was a site guide in Lucy's home when our missionary actress Sis Wadley performed it... look who came by for a visit along with our mission president and his wife...Elder & Sis S. Gifford Nielsen (of the Seventy... He is in the NFL hall of Fame) They toured Nauvoo and spoke to us 4 times.  Such an outpouring of the Spirit!  (which is already so profound here).  He told us that in meeting with the Prophet and the Twelve each week they have all marveled at the change that came upon Pres. Nelson when he was ordained the Prophet. He said, "For him the veil has parted and revelation is pouring through him daily.  It's NOT GOING TO STOP!"   He urged us to follow the Prophet's warning:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6iINV_p-8E

Bread & Hoofbeats

Sunset by the Mississippi will be
opening this Saturday and we've

been practicing our dancing and singing!  Yup!  It's true... Kent will be dancing and singing on stage with Trudy and missionaries!  He'll also perform rope tricks!  Our Young Performing Missionaries arrived and have really given us all a shot of energy!  We get to perform with them the first two performances (Saturday and Monday).  Come see us if you want a good laugh!

This week Elder Thurgood enjoyed telling Pioneer stories driving oxen and horses.   He also got to watch SisThurgood drive a team of Percheron's.  Out of the 19 teamsters only 10 of them thought their wives might be interested in driving horses, but when the leaders asked how many of us would trust our wives to drive, only 6 of us raised their hand.  All six Sisters passed the driving test, but

Grandma did the best! 

The Sisters areneeded in case an Elder is unable to work.  We have just enough teamsters to fill our needs.

Last week Sister Thurgood served at the Family Living Center and was taught to make Nauvoo Bread in a brick Beehive Oven and because it was her first experience she got to take home one of the loaves for Elder Thurgood to eat.  A fire was made inside the oven & burned for 2 hours, then the coals were removed and freshly made bread put inside on an inverted cookie sheet.  It was beautiful!  All visitors to the FLC get to taste the bread.

The next night we were honored to share it with Elder & Sister Hinton (Randy's parents) who had just arrived to serve their Nauvoo Temple Mission.  We sure enjoyed having them over for dinner!  They brought us a bottle of their homemade peaches & applesauce.

When our next batch of missionaries arrive we will have 270 missionaries here... we will be 25% of the residents of Nauvoo!

It was a thrill for us to be in the Women's Garden with all the tulips!  Sis Thurgood helped build it.  Years ago when the idea for this garden was formulated in honor of Relief Society, the Sisters were invited to donate to build it.  They suggested 25 cents, which was the amount it cost to join the first Relief Society.  We sat together in this beautiful garden and remembered the first Relief Society which came from a couple of friends wanting to help with the Nauvoo Temple.  Margaret and Sarah decided to invite a few neighbors over to form a sewing club to make shirts for the men working on the temple.  They asked Eliza to write a constitution which she presented to Brother Joseph who was shown that the women of Christ's ancient church were organized and that the women of the Church in our day also needed to be organized as part of the Restoration of all things.  He did that for them (and us) in the top of the Red Brick Store here in Nauvoo.  Relief Society members were suffragists for women's rights and invited to speak all over the world to win the right of the vote for women.  Because of their efforts Utah and Wyoming became the first states to allow women to vote.  During the Great Depression "Singing Mothers" groups in white blouses and black skirts sang all over the world and on KSL radio to give hope and cheer.  In the late 1800's R.S. sent women to medical schools in the East.  Deseret Hospital was run by the first all-female board of directors in the USA.  RS women in Primary became concerned about the care of children and started Primary Children's Hospital. Sisters started the "Wheat Project" and it was used to help feed the survivors of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake as well as feed victims of WW I and WW II.  The sisters raised money, bought and sold on the stock market and started church programs like the medical, social and welfare services.  They had one of the first women's magazines in the world published for 50 years.  Women pioneered the genealogy movement to gather family names, traveling back East for that purpose, writing articles for newspapers and magazines and lessons and organizing the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.  At the Worlds Fair in San Francisco in 1915, hundreds of RS Sisters saved money to attend just to visit the International Congress of Genealogy exhibit and see Sis. Wells (the RS Pres) receive a bronze medal for efforts  made by the RS in Genealogy work. Women were sent to New York, Chicago and Denver for training in social work and a social services lesson was given every month in RS.  The women started a 50-year Deseret Silk Association Industry in Utah.  The women raised the silk worms, fed them mulberry leaves, spun the silk and weaved the cloth.  I am so honored to belong to the Worlds largest and longest standing Women's Organization!!!

Tug boats are starting to push barges up and down the Mississippi outside our window.  This is 870 semi-truck loads of grain.  3 barges wide and 5 barges long pushed by a 6,000 hp tugboat! FUN!

  

Spring Has Sprung

Kent spoiled me this week.  He bought planting soil and flowers and a tomato plant to beautiful our porch!  He washed & vacuumed the car and bought a 12' wand to wash our 2 story high windows that have been caked with bugs & spider webs!  My Hero!!

The flowers are blooming, the trees are leafing and blooming.  We discovered that one of the trees in our back yard is a Red Maple!  We've only seen one other one here in Nauvoo.  The Red Buds remind me of our home in Veyo!  They're blossoming everywhere!

We saw the first big barge go down the Mississippi.  On the wagon ride the Teamsters tell the story of the Mississippi.  These barges are cabled together 3 wide and 5 long which is 100 feet wide and 1,000 feet long!  They carry as much grain as 870 semi trucks which if properly spaced on the freeway would be 35 miles long!  They literally carry 60% of the grain that is exported from the USA.

This week Elder "T" gave Ox rides one day, Carriage rides 2 days, and wagon rides 2 days. At the end of one carriage ride a 50 yr old man came up to Elder "T" and said, with tears in his eyes, "While you were telling these stories I kept looking at you and seeing my Grandpa telling the stories."  The next day he came to the John Taylor home, noticed Sis. "T"'s badge and again with tears in his eyes told her  the same story.  He couldn't say enough about the impact Elder "T" and the Holy Ghost had on him connecting him to his Grandfather.  He said it had changed him.

On Friday morning we took the Nauvoo pre-kindergarten children and then their kindergarteners on wagon rides around town.  We tell all the historical stories, but mention nothing about the Church for the School Tours.

Pres Lusvardi, Pres Irion (Temple Pres.)
Bishop Waddell

Bishop Waddell, of the Presiding Bishopric, spoke to us.  He said while he was at the Joseph Smith Historic sites owned by the Community of Christ (with whom we have a great working relationship) he was intrigued with the difference in the growth of the two churches.  He said that suddenly it came to him crystal clear that it is "The Keys".  He taught us things about the Priesthood Key's that some of us (at least Sis "T") had never known; such as that when a member of the 70 organizes a new Stake Presidency he carries the Key's from the Prophet to the new Stake President.  He never holds the Keys and doesn't take them back with him.

We love what we are doing here... we often feel like the Lord's voice to his beloved children!!  Cherished memories!  Love you ALL!!

A Delicious Week of Dining Out!

Annie Richardson & one of her
30 children She wrote her story
in the book "The Gathering"

This week has been full of fun!
We made a salad for our District  Dinner on Wednesday and kept adding to it as we went to a Teamsters dinner on Friday with the 18 teamsters & spouses,  a birthday Dinner with Julanders, Stokes and our new friends Quirls on Saturday (Kidby's are assigned to    Carthage and were too tired to come) but they came to lunch at our house after church today where we ate the same salad, and then added to it again for our dinner tonight with the Mechams & Hayhursts. (Sis Mecham is Bob Thurgood's cousin).  We're learning to economize our efforts here.  ha!ha!   (At this rate we'll come home husky)

This week Elder "T" has taken people on
Oxen rides one day, Carriage rides another
day, and Wagon Rides for 2 days.  The 5th day he spent helping build a wagon which will
be used as a float for different parades in Nauvoo including the whole town of Nauvoo on
"Bootiful Nauvoo Days" (a gala Halloween Celebration).  On each of these rides there are 2 teamsters and we take turns between  being the Narrator and driving the team.  Sister "T" likes to step to the door where she's serving to wave and blow kisses to Elder "T" as he drives by.

This week Sister "T" has given tours at the
Print Shop, Visitors Center, The Seventy's Hall,
The Wilford Woodruff Home, The John Taylor
Home and today with Elder "T" at the Lyon Drug

Spring in Nauvoo!

Store.  At the Seventy's Hall a couple came who had just returned from the World Wide Conference of the Community of Christ Church.  He said they were instructed at the Conference to "never again refer to (us) as 'Mormons' or 'LDS' because that's not what they are."  He said they instructed them
to call us "the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints"  His wife is a member of our church.  He said "We've lasted for 42 years!" and they looked very much in love.  They were headed on a vacation along the pioneer trail west visiting sites to Salt Lake City.  We feel a friendship between the two religions  as we share tours at this sacred Historic Site.


It's been very enlightening to see how many members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter day Saints visit here.  This whole week we had a group of 20 touring (2 adult couples with 16 girls ages 9-16) they had just moved to Oklahoma from the Colorado City area about 8 months ago.  We have come to realize that this is their history too.  Those little girls were absolutely enamored with the horses,  Elder "T" himself took them on one oxen ride, one carriage ride and 3 wagon rides.  Each morning they were at the barn to watch the horses be fed and groomed and harnessed.  They said they were a school group & next week they will bring the boys.

How we love this work!  The Restored Gospel is True.
Come see us!

This week we had a surprise visit from Eric & Christine Andrews (Judy Andrew's son).  What a delight to see them having fun here!

 We lost a dear friend from Veyo, Liz Jeppson.  Our hearts go out to her family! 
This is the drive we take to get home each day after working for the Lord.  We are 2 miles up the Mississippi River north of Nauvoo and our house is literally 20 feet from the River!  Elder T leaves for the barn each morning at 7:45 AM and Sister T Leaves at 9:45 AM for the sites,  We had to get another vehicle.  It  was a miracle to find this little jewel nearby.   We love it here!  Giving wagon rides, Ox wagon rides and carriage rides, being site guides to the beautiful pioneer homes have been wonderful... but meeting so many delightful people and sharing the story of the Savior's protecting hand has been the BEST!

This historic place just amazes us.  The feeling that comes from telling the stories of sacrifice, Faith and Hope in the Lord brings us Joy each day! 


We can't wait for the start of our 4th week here!  We have to show you this wonderful picture we took of the Sunset over the Mississippi.   We will send more next week if we can figure out how to do this blog thing.


    

We MADE IT!  But we didn’t come by covered wagon.. whew!  Left the MTC 2 days early racing ahead of a history making bomb cyclone blizzard with Kidbys and Julanders.  We spent the first hour 10 days in training and learning how to teach people in each site.  Now we are working, but rarely together.  Elder T Starts his day with the horses feeding & grooming & harnessing at 7:45 am and has given wagon rides, carriage rides, ox wagon rides, has moved wagons out of storage to be displayed at the historic sites, scooped poop, cleaned the barn and given tours with Sister T in the Brigham Young home two Sundays. Most nights he’s finished by 4 pm and Sister T has been at the homes of Brigham Young, Heber C Kimball, Wilford Woodruff, John Taylor, the Post Office, Boot Shop and Lyon Drug Store sharing stories and inviting guests to enjoy the blessings of the Savior in their lives from 9:45 am to 5 pm.

 Oh..Sunsets on the Mississippi!!

A Relief Society Birthday reenactment at the Red Brick Store with Sis Kidby & Julander.
Elder T drove us there in the wagon with the big black Percheron horses!