Nauvoo Trip - Prologue

I've been able to visit Nauvoo a number of times, and I've had beautiful spiritual experiences there.  I felt very strongly that we should make a trip as a family before Cat graduated from high school.  At first, I hoped to avoid visiting in the heat of the summer, but we decided to try to turn it into a reunion for Ben's family, and summer is the easiest time to coordinate different family school schedules.  We decided on the end of July/beginning of August so that we could see both pageants, and stay for a couple of days afterward.  It turned out that only one of Ben's brothers was able to come with us, but we loved having time with John and Sarah and their two younger daughters, Cassy and Iris.  (And - BONUS - we were blessed with unusually mild weather!)  It was a wonderful trip.

A few days before our trip, I pulled out old photos, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous periphernalia to show the kids.  I gathered everyone together and tried to tell them about my connection with Nauvoo and why it is so special to me.  I don't think I did a very good job of communicating what was in my heart, but at least I tried.  I don't remember exactly what I said, but it was probably something along these lines...

The first time I visited Nauvoo was during Spring Break in 1999, while Andy was in college in Hawaii and Megan was busy adulting.  Mom, Suz, and I took a road trip and spent a few chilly days in Nauvoo, visiting historic sites including the original temple site.  We went to the local chapel to watch General Conference and couldn't believe it when we heard President Hinckley announce that the Nauvoo Temple would be rebuilt.  There was crying and joyful exclamation in the chapel and I knew I was so happy to be there at that time.

Standing in the frigid water of the Mississippi River

The site of the Nauvoo Temple.

This is what the site looked like in 1999 - some of the walls were outlined,
the stones in the top corners outlined the spiral staircases, and the round shape
in the center is where the baptistry was.

During that trip we also checked the historic records and found the land where the first member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in our family, Andrew Hiram Whitlock, lived.  We're standing across the street from the Mansion House.  The building in the background on the right is the Homestead and on the left is the Nauvoo House.

We also found Andrew Hiram Whitlock's name on a list of men and women who made sacred covenants in the Nauvoo Temple.  Like thousands of other Saints, he received his endowment before leaving Nauvoo to head west.

In June 2002, when Ben and I had just started dating, all of my Mom's side of the family met in Nauvoo for a family reunion.  Many of us attended the Temple Dedication, another very special experience.  We had seats in the Celestial Room, and it was the first time we'd been in the presence of the Prophet, and the first time we'd heard the Tabernacle Choir perform.  At the conclusion, we walked down Mulholland Street to the Mississippi River, as President Hinckley asked all in attendance to do.  Hundreds of us took that short walk down the hill toward the water, retracing the steps the Saints took during their exodus from Nauvoo.

Nauvoo Temple Dedication, June 2022

When I returned to college after the dedication, I was asked to share my experiences during our Institute's weekly "Friday Forum."  I asked my Mom to send me some materials in preparation for my presentation and she included this letter:

The next time I was in Nauvoo was for a cousin's sealing, shortly after Ben and I had gotten married. 

At Stacie & Michael's Sealing, 2003

A few years later when we were living in Clayton, Ben and I returned to Nauvoo and did some work for the dead in the temple (trading babysitting with my good friend Janean, who was living in Wisconsin and met us in Nauvoo).

Ben and Cat, January 2006

It's striking to me how a place so far from my day-to-day life had become such a constant.  It felt like the Nauvoo Temple was becoming more and more significant for my family, and everything was coming full circle.