Let Me Check My Notes

Written by Uncle George:  May 3, 1907
Decided to go to Carthage with Elders Rassmussen and Ralphs.  Brother Charles took us over in a surrey. Cloudy and cold.  Visited the jail where the Prophet Joseph Smith and Patriarch Hyrum Smith were killed. Saw the hole in the door made by the bullet, the window from which the prophet jumped.  Such a cold, stormy day that we did not remain long.  It was after 9:00 pm when we reached Nauvoo and thankful to get shelter from the cold. Much of the time I had to hold an umbrella in front to keep the snow from our faces. We kept our spirits by singing the songs of Zion.

Val:  May 3, 2013

"He talked fancy to me.  I got confused."
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That, my dear Uncle George, is my answer to everything.

Why I dress bad.

Why I haven't showered in two days.

Why I eat too many dark chocolate truffles.

Why I drive the Mini too fast.

Why I feel snarky about an employee at the KMart.

Why I listen to hip hop, affectionately otherwise known as gangsta, music.

And why I have five cats.

That said, as I continue my "all fun, all the time" stay in Nauvoo, I KNOW that I read some church talks on the fancy new IPOD.  I even wrote it down on what the kids now-a-days call "old school"--paper and pen.
( Speaking of "old school," share random, completely unrelated story here:)

This is a little shout out to the young worker at the Kmart from two years ago.  I went to the store to find a an atlas so The Girl, Carol and I could haul our cookies to the Deep South for a three week girl trip.  We ate snacks.  We saw stuff like plantations and basket weavers on the side of the road.  And of course (insert your jealous eyes here)---attended the Star Wars Convention.

This is not the droid you are looking for

Drats, I hate it when we accidentally wear the same thing to a party

Look at my awesome Sound of Music/Admiral Akbar shirt!

See my little blond girly in the red in the front of the buddies?

In case you wanted to see me in my movie star pose 

(the secret is the crossed legs) as an action figure

Getting a little "ink" at the Celebration

(that is slang for tattoo for my LDS buddies who read this)

SOOO, that snotty KMart girl obviously did not understand the severity for my need for a road atlas because this delicious Star Wars experience was on the other end of the road.  

When I searched through the store with no success, I asked her to show me where they were at.  Her reply went something like this...."Uh, yeah, my IQ is average but my manners and respect to a store customer and my elder is that of about 24....uh, yeah...I am not really sure what an atlas is....I mean, it is soooo old school. Can't you just use your phone?"  

Uh, yeah, I could use my phone.  To call your mother and explain to her that she needs to have a conversation with you when you finish your shift, after you stop at the Hot Topic to pick up your t-shirt with Gumby on it that says something profound like "I don't have manners."  Yeah, I can use my phone.

The moral of that story is that the KMart does not carry atlases.  And that I am obviously "that mom" because I took my kid to a Star Wars Convention.  Yeah, it's how I roll.

Back to the mission.  Shutting down random rambling.

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So, I used my IPOD in Nauvoo to read my scriptures.  I thoroughly enjoyed a talk that I would love to share with you, but I seemed to have had some sort of brain disconnect.  Not only are the scriptures I have written down not correct, neither is the cited author or the name of the talk.  So while it apparently was so great that I took notes, I apparently couldn't be bothered to write down the correct reference.  

I know what you are thinking, Helper.  Look it up, Val.  Yeah, got it. 

What notes I do have include the following phrases:  littleness of soul, the greatest good, pray in heart and vocally, promote His glory, and do the greatest good among our fellow beings.  There was something about a woman named Deborah, the window makers wife.

And that is all I got.  I feel like that Jerry Seinfeld episode where he writes down some sort of joke and spends his day trying to figure it out.  

The bottom line is that the IPOD talked fancy to me.  And I got confused.

In all seriousness, today was a very lovely day.  You don't usually hear that phrase when visiting a jail in a freezing, pouring rainstorm (as you know) but today you do.

There is something to me that has always stood out about the stairs in the jail.  Of all the places I have visited to this point, this is the only building that I know Joseph Smith had been in.  The stairs connect me to him.  Somewhere that we have both been.

And you know, it isn't about him.  It is about the respect that I have for someone who gave everything, even his own life, for the cause he felt to be just.  God had prophets in ancient times.  The scriptures say that He is unchanging.  So it makes sense to me, anyway, that He would have prophets in our day.  Why not?

Back in Nauvoo (in which I did not need an umbrella in the car to keep the snow from my face...and I doubt that I was singing any songs of Zion....I was in my Maroon 5 place at that time) I got to see the Joseph Smith movie at the visitor's center.  And according to my notes, I went to the temple.  And that the paintings of a garden were "most amazing, with Calla lilies."  

Apparently my note taking for the entire day was pretty jacked up (hello broken Sea Horse) because I can't tell you where I heard it, but I liked the phrase someone somewhere said "While we were building the building, we were building us."  I am pretty sure it is in reference to the building of the Nauvoo Temple....yeah, that's the ticket.

The bottom line is that it was a great day.  To be in sacred places is always so good for the soul.  Typing it even now makes my heart feel full of peace.  

One more thing:

It is good thing I found an atlas at a gas station before I came to Illinois because given my epic note-taking fail today, I might not have even remembered where I was.  

And because uh, yeah...I had no cell service in Nauvoo, KMart girl.