nauvoo: day 4 (pre-shows)

(Sorry it has taken me so long to get these days posted. It is serving as my own journal entry of the trip, which always involves an unusual amount of writing. I either run out of time, or I get distracted by, oh, SOMETHING SHINY! Eventually, you will know each and every lovely detail of this summer's trip!)

Monday was our last day spent completely in Nauvoo. We dedicated most of the day to watching the performances of the Young Performing Missionaries. I gotta say- watching them sing and dance made me want to learn how to dance so that I could possibly do this next summer. I think I have the singing part down, but I can always improve. One day, I will be as cool as my friend Fermata.

Still, we started our day early with a trip to the temple! The Nauvoo Temple is one of the most beautiful temples I have ever seen!

(This picture was taken by my friend Matt. He is an amazing photographer. One day, I will be as cool as he is too.)

Since half of the group is endowed and half has yet to be, we left the hotel in two groups. Tamra, Laura, Whitney, and Justin left around 7 am or something while the rest of us, Maggie, Matt, Jon, and me, all left a little after 8 or so. I don't remember really when they left. I was still asleep. Maggie and I got up and got dressed but filled my big bag with everything we could, including a straightener, perhaps a hair dryer, make-up, and a few more things. The bag was bulging but we couldn't have baptism hair for a day full of pictures!

We met the boys downstairs and grabbed a quick (and I mean quick) breakfast from the poor continental breakfast selection. Then, finally, we were off. I can't explain the excitement in the car. We had been walking around the temple a little bit every day since we arrived in Nauvoo. It is such a central point to everything, and now we finally had our reservation to go inside! I felt close to my ancestors as we traveled where the pioneers sacrificed so much. Driving along, Maggie suggested that we sing hymns. Actually, she suggested that I sing hymns. Early in the morning and a'cappella. I sang some as a solo but finally convinced Maggie to sing with me. Probably because I needed the help. At one point during "Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief," I ran out of air, gasped, and started back in all the same note. I wasn't trying to be funny, but we laughed. As we pulled into the parking lot, Maggie and I were singing "The Spirit of God" and I got chills. The parking lot was across the street and down aways from the temple, so we had an awesome view as we walked in.

L to R: Jon, me, Maggie, and Matt

We walked around the back, thinking that it would be like the Draper Temple and have its own entrance off to the side. Nope. We started up the stairs and the baptistry was separated by a door on the left, but the door is still in the front. We walked in and then turn over to the right. The recommend desk is the same for the baptistry and the rest of the building but the baptistry is escorted over to the left and down a staircase while the others are escorted to the right. Even with modern conveniences, the temple has the look and feel of the pioneers. It is beautiful! The font is separated from the rest of the area by a massive window with individually blown panes of glass. On the wall was a large painting of the saints leaving Nauvoo and traveling across the frozen Mississippi with Brigham Young in the front, looking back towards the temple, his face the picture of hope and despair. To get to the girls locker room, we had to walk through the chapel where a group of youth were having a meeting. I felt out of place as they were all in white and I was still in my skirt but it made sense that the largest part of the baptistry would be the font. All the confirmation rooms are off of the large room for the font. 

The font itself is the biggest I have ever seen, and quite possibly the biggest ever if I remember right. After we finished, one of the temple matrons gave us a quick tour and said that the font has the same dimensions as the first did back in the 1840s. Its grandeur allowed for three baptisms to be performed at one time. The other thing distinction between the Nauvoo temple and others is the status of the oxen around the font. When the first font was erected, it was made out of wood. The wood would expand and contract due to the amount of water and as such, the font would leak, making the ground underneath it soft. As time went on, the oxen supporting the font began to sink into the ground. President Hinckley wanted the restored temple to be as accurate to the first temple as possible, therefore the oxen are built sunken into the floor. The brick floor around meets them just below the knee.

Another interesting fact that we learned during our "tour" was that Temple Square in Salt Lake is not officially the first. As the temple was being built, the pioneers built a smaller, temporary roof around the baptistry so that they could continue the work while still finishing the temple. The small roof provided a square building around the font, so saints would say, "I'm off to Temple Square!" 

Since Justin was the only endowed priesthood holder in our group and he was in a session, the four of us tagged along with a small family that came from the east coast. While we sat waiting with the two young girls, the Temple President walked through and asked, "Are you ladies waiting to do baptisms, or is this a beauty contest?" haha.... funny President. 

I was the first of our small group in the font. The place to wait is separated into two different benches, one for boys and one for girls, located almost even with the oxen. To enter the font, you walk up a small staircase similar to the format of the Salt Lake Temple's font. It was incredible to walk into the font for three reasons. First- I realized truly how HUGE the font is. Just me and the ordinance worker in a space that triples the size of other fonts. Second- The only thing that I could see as I was walking in was the stained glass window on the opposite wall that depicts the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist. Third- It was one of those moments when I realized completely what I was doing, why, and for whom. It was another moment that left me breathless, beaming, and covered with goosebumps. 

We finished and started the process of becoming presentable after wet hair. Turned out that the locker room was filled to the brim of hair dryers and straighteners so we really didn't need to load the bag up with an entire bathroom. Maggie even used the dryer attached to the wall that resembled a vacuum hose. It was a little odd, and kept us laughing. Even with the straighteners, the humidity was no help to the hair, so I french braided her hair. Funny story- I grew up with no idea how to french braid. Then I became a counselor at Brighton and every girl wanted their hair braided after they showered. So in 2007, I took what little I knew from watching my mother and started braiding campers' hair. They had no idea that I had no clue what I was doing. With practice from those three summers of my life, I now can braid hair in record speed! (Another thing I learned after having units of 13+ girls and each one of them wanting a braid.)

When we finally finished, it turned out we had been in the locker room for awhile. Poor guys had been waiting long enough to hear the "tour" three times. Whoops... It all worked out okay though because Jon and Matt were very excited to share the tour with us. In our self-tour, we walked over to look up the spiral staircase. Maggie was told that we couldn't leave without seeing it. It was amazing how high we could see. The entire staircase was white with a dark stained wood railing. If I didn't think that the temple was beautiful already, this staircase really took my breath away. Then, amazingly, as we started to look up, we saw familiar faces! Our friends had finished their session and were on their way down this magnificent staircase to see the baptistry. And there we were at the same time! Coincidence? I think not! Friends came down and we had an official tour by one of the sisters. When she was done, she guided us back up the staircase to exit while the others went back to their locker rooms to change.

The three of us had about fifteen minutes to spare walking around the temple grounds. Of course, I pulled out my camera.

Standing here made me think of the part in Legacy when she accepts the proposal :)

The temple is on Well's Street. This is the intersection to turn into the parking lot. I tried not to get the stop sign... Darn these modern conveniences

When everyone was reunited, we took group shots on Tamra and Matt's camera and then headed out to change clothes and grab lunch before our first show of the day. Fluffy Bunny parked in the small parking lot right next to the temple so they got a head start. As we walked back to Black Diamond, we passed by a General Store on Main Street in modern Nauvoo and had to step in. It was an awesome store, but we were in and out since we had places to go and people to see. But I loved this on the doorstep as you walk in:

I love country stuff like that! And what is more country than a milk pail?

We caught up to the rest of the group at the Visitor's Center. We went there a lot! For the first time in my life, the girls were changed faster than the guys. Shock of my life. Although, they did have full on suits from the temple. I'm so proud of them that they went the extra mile to wear a suit at the temple. It is like my rule of never wearing a denim skirt to the temple. Sunday best doesn't include denim in my opinion....(rambling) 

Then we went to Ziggy's Pizza Place, a reference given to us by one of our new Elder friends. I think that more people from Utah visit the place than people from anywhere else. My proof?

Go UTES!

Each table at the restaurant had napkins under a large table cloth of clear plastic. Don't worry, we added two or three ourselves.

We love pizza! We ordered a pepperoni and a hawaiian but just in case you will be traveling to this wonderful place anytime soon, you should know they also have gluten free pizzas. It would have been a great thing to know before we ordered, since Laura was then forced to eat a simple green salad while we chowed down our weight in carbs. Don't worry, it was totally worth it!

While we were eating, Matt realized that he had dropped the keys in the trunk. We were locked out of Black Diamond. As stressful as the situation could have been, we laughed. Laura kept joking that it would be something she would do, and Matt is so responsible. And really, it wasn't that stressful because there was a locksmith just up the street. Matt and Laura drove in Fluffy Bunny up to his house while we were eating. He came and fixed everything and was only going to charge Matt $5! How crazy! Matt gave him a hefty tip and we didn't even lose any time or sleep over it.

This was one of my favorite napkin artworks. So I took a picture...

I love this! In the middle of lunch, the Nauvoo Bagpipe Band starting playing up the street and walked right past our window. They didn't play "Praise to the Man" but it was still unbelievable cool!  The guy at the end with the really big drum just loved his life. I don't think his smile could have been any bigger. I used to hate bagpipes. Now I can't remember why.

We couldn't eat all the pizza even with seven of us all eating multiple slices, so we got a box. I don't know how Black Diamond lucked out, but the pizza came with us. For the rest of the day, every time we got in the car, someone cried out, "PIZZA!" It was truly delightful! (The pizza and the fun times that followed)