Nauvoo continued.......

Few realized precisely where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were buried. In those days of the early 1840's there were many, especially from Missouri, who despised Joseph and because there was a bounty on his head, close family members feared that his body would not be safe.
Thus, after Joseph and Hyrum's bodies had finished lying in state in the dining room of the hotel wing of the Smith's Mansion House, their coffins were filled with sand and rocks and buried near the temple. For protection, Joseph and Hyrum were buried behind the foundation of the unfinished Nauvoo House, and remained there until 1845. Then, at Emma's instruction because construction work was resuming at the site, their bodies were buried under the old springhouse, in the corner of what today is the Smith family cemetery.
There the bodies laid, in unmarked graves, marked only by a spring house, until, with time, the wooden structure itself collapsed-and then the spot was forgotten. In 1913, a dam was built on the Mississippi at Keokuk, Iowa, just 12 miles downriver from Nauvoo. By 1928, since the river had risen, President Frederick Madison Smith of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hired a surveyor to locate the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum. They searched the area, finally found the former location of the spring house and moved the bodies only a few feet and marked them with a stone.
Recently and gladly stone markers have also been placed on the graves of the prophet's parents, Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith.

Sitting outside the Smith home, and the grave site of the Prophet Joesph Smith. Deldon and I took turns visiting the grave markers whilst the girls were napping in the car. It was lovely just to stop and think about all Joesph did and gave in restoring the Gospel to the earth.

Deldon outside the Mansion Home of Brigham Young, pretty nice for the 1800's.

This was a cool little stop, where you get to learn about how they made bricks in Nauvoo. Each family receives a brick to take home as a souvenir. We also visited the Blacksmiths where they give you each a prairie ring (a horse shoe nail bent into the shape of a ring - very cool)


In the concluding dedicatory session of the Nauvoo Temple, President Hinckley made a special request of all those who were then in Nauvoo. He asked everyone to take a few minutes to "walk down Parley Street to the waterfront," to the landing on the Mississippi River from which the Saints departed Nauvoo and crossed into Iowa on their westward trek. He asked members to leave behind the comfort of their air-conditioned cars, to walk along this sacred path and take time to read the plaques along the Trail of Hope. We did this, but I'm afraid we stayed in our air conditioned car, I've never felt heat like I felt it there. Here's just one of the 30 plaques we read.

I loved walking around the Women's Garden at the Visitor's center. It portrays the life of a women from a little girl, to a fulfilled mature women at the end of her life and all the milestones in between.




Me hoping for my boy

Daddy and his girls


The Sunday evening before we left for Missouri a family testimony meeting was held and it was lovely to hear every one's favourite moments of the trip so far,and to be reminded of what binds us eternally as a family.

Some of Deldon's family outside the Nauvoo Temple