JUNE
i finished my classes. they're finally done, and it feels good. here's a picture of my last religion class at byu (it's actually one more than i needed, but i needed 2 credits to have my scholarship, so i took an extra one).
juju is getting SO BIG!!! here's a picture of her before i left for nauvoo. but isn't she a cutie???
i left for tour with living legends to nauvoo, illinois. here are some of the highlights (though not in chronological order):
we were able to go to see the sights of old nauvoo. they couple missionaries there were also performing missionaries. they dressed like the early saints did and they were all so cute. this is in the site called "pioneer past times."
among some of the places that we were able to tour was of the property of joseph smith. here i am in front of the tombs of joseph, hyrum, and emma.
another site that i was able to go to is called the "trail of hope." it's the road that the saints would have walked to head west and there are plaques of their stories along the road. this is me and the last view of the temple they would have had.
the commemoration of joseph and hyrum's martyrdom happened while we were there. we were able to go to carthage jail and meet with the people there to remember the prophet and what he has done for the church and for us.
we were able to make some new friends as well. some of them were the young performing missionaries. these missionaries were the brass band, and they were really nice, and the best audience that we had on the outdoor stage! :)
we were actually called to be missionaries in the nauvoo, il mission. this is president and sister gilliland. they were wonderful and they gave us some firesides. it was such a good experience to be in there mission and to be representing the church along with them and their missionaries.
this is elder and sister doman. they were our public affairs missionaries, and they took us to all of our outreaches. they became like grandparents to most of us, and they were the ones who were the hardest to say goodbye to. but they definitely took good care of us.
the place that we stayed at. it was SUPER nice to not have to live out of our suitcases for the 2 weeks that we were there. we were able to unpack, they had food there for us, we had our own (very comfortable) beds, tvs, AIR CONDITIONING... it was great.
thesy are dallyn and rachel bayless. he played hyrum in the joseph smith movie, he has his own album, and they've been joseph and emma in nauvoo during the pageant. they gave us a fireside before we left and it was sooooo amazing to hear them sing and hear their testimonies. this started off my tour in a good way.
when the director of the byu dance department (marilyn barrett) came to see us on tour, she was so impressed with us that she treated us to a frozen custard place called Annies. it was definitely a welcomed treat after all of our performances.
the plane rides were tiring, but i spent both of them next to chris ah sue, here. he's in the poly section with me, and he's super funny. it was also the first time that i ever flew out of provo airport (which was really convenient... just sayin').
one of the tours took us into the red brick store, where the first endowment was done and where the relief society was organized. here's a picture of most of the girls in our group for our relief society picture in the red brick store where it started. hehe.
i think this is one of my favorite pictures of the group. i just think that we look great, and that the temple is beautiful behind us. don't you think so? funny story... the kid standing next to me was straddling the 2 benches and fell back twice before we were able to take this picture.
this is us at carthage jail, when we were able to take a tour of the jail and hear the stories about the martyrdom. this was definitely one of the biggest spiritual highlights of the tour for me.
one of the sites that you can visit is the cultural hall. on the third floor is the original dance floor that was there when the prophet joseph was there. we were able to dance on it, and it was a cool "aha" moment where i was able to relate on a more personal level with the prophet.
we were able to go to the temple twice while we were in nauvoo. this is the second time that we went. here's a picture of all the girls who were able to do baptisms outside of the temple.
another one of the sites is the blacksmith shop. you learn about how they did the horseshoes and the wagons, and then you get a diamond ring! there's a cute story about it, if you wanna hear it you can ask me. but here we are with our diamond rings. :)
on the handcart trek was the only time that we were allowed to wear jeans and our own tshirts (ones that we didn't mind getting muddy... hence the brown). that is brintton (he's our stage manager), and we pulled our handcart through the most rocky and challenging parts of the trek.
this my friends, is the poly section. hahahaha! aren't we just lovely? we're actually at a monument in quincy (where the 1500 quincy residents took in the 5000 mormons who were escaping from missour).
here's what our outdoor stage looked like! on our first day we were able to practice and space a little bit. this is the maori section. *by the way... doing this in 100% humidity, 100 degree heat, and long tour clothes = not fun*
we did a lot of outreaches. some of them were outside. some were in care homes. all of them i did a new auana dance and a couples hula with one of the other poly boys. these were always fun because you get to meet new people and hear funny stories (especially from the old people in the care homes). haha!
the friends that we made with the young performing missionaries were so great. they were always so happy to see us, and they left us nice things for us like this note in our dressing room!
as part of our tour we went on wagon and carriage rides. this is me and sharona on the wagon ride, where we got to see all the places that we would be going later on in the week. it was fun, and the horses were HUGE!
here's the first van that i was in. we were fun and crazy, and it was kinda sad when we had to switch. but one of the reasons why this tour felt different than the other tours was because we were separated into vans when we traveled instead of all of us on a bus. that had its advantages and disadvantages.
of course we did our full show every night. we did all 90 minutes the first week. and then the second week (because we started at 830 and because we had a lot of families with young children) we shortened our show to just one hour. but it was still so much fun. and samoa was definitely one of my favorites to do!
among the heat and the humidity, the hardest thing to get used to was the bugs. there were so many bugs, and big ones too. i'm not sure if you can see it well, but here's the outdoor stage that we performed on every night is covered. and that's how it was every night. so much so where i was dreading the slower numbers that i usually look forward to for the break they bring. not this time... ick!
overall, it was such a good learning and growing experience. it was a lot more emotional and a lot more significant to me than the other tours that i participated in. i was able to learn more about myself and try to become better, and it has made me a better person.
