Nauvoo Family Trip 2016

After the Pack family reunion, we drove up to Nauvoo, Illinois to visit some of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints historical sites. Our first stops included the covered wagon ride with oxen and then another wagon ride around old Nauvoo pulled by horses. Abby was nervous since the oxen were so large! She enjoyed the horse wagon ride more. at one point they stopped and asked everyone to sing "The Wheels on the Wagon" to encourage the horses to go. Abby's favorite song lately has been "The Wheels on the Bus," so she was pretty excited about that. Ever since we have been home, she wants to since "The Wheels on the Wagon" instead of the original version now. It is super cute because she cannot say the word 'Nauvoo' right for 'all around Nauvoo.' Instead Abby says either 'Naboo or the boo.' 

Wynn's favorite place to visit was the blacksmith shop where they made a real horseshoe for us and he got to watch all the steps. I got to sign the Seventies book in the Seventies Hall since I am direct descendant of one of the original seventies, John Pack. If you go to Nauvoo, they have a land records building where they will help you find your ancestry and link you to pioneers who lived in Nauvoo and give you a certificate showing your kinship. The spirit was so strong at the Smith family cemetery where Joseph, Emma, Hyrum, Joseph Sr, and Lucy Mack Smith were buried. As soon as we approached the cemetery I could feel the Spirit come over and feel that this truly was hallowed ground and a great prophet of the Lord's body rested there.

We took one afternoon and drove to Carthage, Illinois to visit Carthage Jail where the Prophet Joseph Smith was martyred. Sydney and Andy both enjoyed this place the most. I was not aware of the different rooms in the jail and that it was run by a family who treated the prisoners very well and even invited Joseph and his friends to join them for dinner at their table because they were so kind and well mannered. We visited all the different rooms of the jail including the dungeon room pictured below. I can't imagine all those men crowded into that tiny cell and laying chained to the hard floor. I was not aware that four other men volunteered to go to Carthage Jail with Joseph and the others so they would not be alone. Up until the night before the martyrdom there were eight men including the prophet in the cell at Carthage. The spirit in the room where the prophet was murdered was very peaceful and calm. The significance of the place was obvious due to the solemn and calm feeling there. The original bullet holes are still in the door and the room has been restored to the way it was when the prophet was there. Seeing the whole town of Nauvoo and then making the journey to Carthage really tied it all together and painted such a beautiful picture of the sacrifice and faith these early pioneers had. I gained such a stronger appreciation and love for them as I learned about them and followed their story. Their sacrifice and love for Heavenly Father and His gospel was evident in every part of their lives and in all their stories. I am truly grateful to them and inspired by their examples.

To culminate our visit, I was able to attend a session in the fully restored Nauvoo temple. This temple has been restored as accurately as possible to the descriptions of the original Nauvoo temple and was beautiful and unique. The decor is true to the time frame when it was built and again was awe inspiring that these pioneers from such humble circumstances sacrificed so much to build this perfect, royal house to the Lord. That night we attended the Nauvoo Old Town Fair and Pageant. Again, the over 1,000 volunteers that give two months of their time to come to Nauvoo with their entire families, practice, learn, and then act and serve was incredible. Whole families stayed in character, were dressed for the time, and assisted with each of the booths at the country fair and then performed in the pageant. Their love and passion for the Nauvoo pioneers story and the gospel showed as they showed people around, answered questions, and made sure everyone was having a good time. 

With the Nauvoo temple in the background and the Mississippi river behind us, they told the story of coming to Nauvoo, building a town, building their temple, losing their prophet, and then eventually being forced to leave their temple and their homes. I still cannot get over how perfect a place Nauvoo is for the analogy of looking to the Lord. The Nauvoo temple sits atop a hill overlooking the Mississippi River. It can be seen from all the homes in old Nauvoo; it can be seen from the riverside. Our hotel was actually across the river in Iowa and on the drive to Nauvoo, each time the trees cleared you could see the temple up on the hill as a beacon of hope and light. At night this effect was especially awe inspiring and so beautiful, I hope I never forget. The picture below of the statue of Joseph and Hyrum on their horses depicts the morning they left for Carthage Jail, 'like a lamb to the slaughter,' said Joseph. He knew they would never return and one last time they paused on the bluff near the partially completed temple and looked out over the city of Nauvoo and the Mississippi River. Joseph commented on how perfect a place Nauvoo was and how much he had loved it and the people there. Standing on the same bluff, my love and testimony of this prophet and the work he sealed with his death grew immensely. I was reminded of the scripture in D&C 135:3, "Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it." 

I truly felt the Spirit testify of this truth that day and want to add my testimony to the truth of this scripture and all that the prophet Joseph Smith restored to the earth. As D&C 135 continues, "In the short space of twenty years, he... brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and [was] the means of publishing it on two continents;... sent the fullness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth;... brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!

 4 When Joseph went to Carthage to deliver himself up to the pretended requirements of the law, two or three days previous to his assassination, he said: “I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer’s morning; I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me—he was murdered in cold blood.”—The same morning, after Hyrum had made ready to go—shall it be said to the slaughter? yes, for so it was—he read the following paragraph, near the close of the twelfth chapter of Ether, in the Book of Mormon, and turned down the leaf upon it:

5 And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that he would give unto the Gentiles grace, that they might have charity. And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: If they have not charity it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness, thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father. And now I … bid farewell unto the Gentiles; yea, and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood. The testators are now dead, and their testament is in force.

 6 Hyrum Smith was forty-four years old in February, 1844, and Joseph Smith was thirty-eight in December, 1843; and henceforward their names will be classed among the martyrs of religion; and the reader in every nation will be reminded that the Book of Mormon, and this book of Doctrine and Covenants of the church, cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation of a ruined world; and that if the fire can scathe a green tree for the glory of God, how easy it will burn up the dry trees to purify the vineyard of corruption. They lived for glory; they died for glory; and glory is their eternal reward. From age to age shall their names go down to posterity as gems for the sanctified.

 7 They were innocent of any crime, as they had often been proved before, and were only confined in jail by the conspiracy of traitors and wicked men; and their innocent blood on the floor of Carthage jail is a broad seal affixed to “Mormonism” that cannot be rejected by any court on earth, and their innocent blood on the escutcheon of the State of Illinois, with the broken faith of the State as pledged by the governor, is a witness to the truth of the everlasting gospel that all the world cannot impeach; and their innocent blood on the banner of liberty, and on the magna charta of the United States, is an ambassador for the religion of Jesus Christ, that will touch the hearts of honest men among all nations; and their innocent blood, with the innocent blood of all the martyrs under the altar that John saw, will cry unto the Lord of Hosts till he avenges that blood on the earth. Amen."

I add my testimony to theirs of this truth in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.