Tidbits across the midwest

 Now that I've done all the documenting of the places, (except for Winter Quarters, which I'll post on Sunday. because it's nice and long. and i mean Loooooooong.) here are some of the people and tiny things that made this trip great:

 Two professors came on this trip. Brother Baggot and Brother Black. Brother Baggot brought his fifteen year old son, Jacob, and Jacob's best friend, Braxton. Brother black brought his 11 year old son, Joseph.

I creepily took pictures of them. This is Braxton:

This is Braxton and Jacob, we were pals: 

And this is Joseph. He hated me.

There were two married couples on our tour. The first couple was awesome. super funny, really kind. Then there was these two:

DEVILS.

they were rude, stand offish, and constantly having weird PDAs. For example, when our tour walked down the trail of hope to the mississippi, we had a nice devotional and afterward we sang a few hymns. the spirit was there was very tender and peaceful. Until i turned around at a weird sound and saw these two makin out hardcore behind me, and i was disgusted. I threw some shade their way and tried to forget about it. several other similar events happened over the course of the trip and it was really annoying.

So the this is brother Baggot, my favorite, for reasons explained in the Winter Quarters post:

He is very kind and soft-spoken. He loves to laugh and joke around. And every morning, he'd say "RISE AND SHINE COUGARS, IT'S GONNA BE A GREAT DAY!" as he was walking down the aisle of the bus or the hall of the hotel to wake us all up. annoying, but i couldn't hate him for it becuase he's just so nice. He's also emotional, like me. So I didn't feel silly when my eyes got watery during certain devotionals or spots on the tour, because his were watery, too.

This is brother Black (also an amazing person) and his son playing football, like they did at every stop:

Brother black was the no-nonsense guide. Still very spiritual and fun and extremely smart, but strict. He knew SO MUCH about church history, and he answered every question i had. 

The missionaries at every stop were all kind and gracious but my favorite were the senior missionaries in nauvoo because they were old. hehe. i love oldies.

Some other Nauvoo tidbits:

 MY PRAIRIE RING!

got it at the blacksmith shop, fell in love with it, wore it non-stop for three weeks. lost it the other day after my Children's literature class. I cried.

THERE WERE SO MANY BUGS.

seriously, gnats just looooove the midwest apparently. and the humidity was KILLER.

Here is my roommate Jaylene saying, "I HATE BUGS, MELISSA". hahaha

Also, while we were waiting for the bus to take us to dinner in Nauvoo, a bird pooped on my skirt. :(
not cool, robert frost. not cool.

 Also, there were two boys that sat behind me and Jaylene. Their names were Chris and DJ. they were HILARIOUS. honestly, i laughed at them so much. just eavsdroppin. and they definitely noticed because one time Chris said, "man, dude DJ these girls in front of us must think we're ugly. Cause they laugh at everything we say but they will not turn around and look at us."

Jaylene and i DIED laughing at that comment

"SEE!" he said.

i still didn't turn around. haha.

eventually we became friends. and i laughed out loud at their jokes instead of snickering quietly. 

I took this creepy picture of Chris in Nebraska. I never did get a picture of DJ. oh well.

In Nebraska, we stopped for dinner. I was hard core craving a famous bowl from KFC. SO good. so we go up to the doors and they're locked. so we checked the lobby hours and it said 8:00am-9:00 pm. it was only 7:45 in the evening so....i was upset. I JUST WANTED A FAMOUS BOWL, ALRIGHT?!

So i Avada Kedavra'd them from the corner. convenient that the street name was potter and the light was green when i took this...

At like 3:00 am monday morning we were stopped in Iowa? i think. or nebraska. I don't even know, doe. and I was delirious. Me, Jacob and Braxton had a dance party. no music, but that made it even better.

about three hours outside of Rexburg, we were all going crazy. we'd been on the bus for more than 24 hours and so Jacob and i played "Black Magic" It's one of those stupid games that you play in like third grade on rainy days. and it took him 73 MINUTES to get the game. haha in the time he got it, every around him for like 3 rows had figured it out and we were all like, "come ON, dude!" haha that was fun. 

Also, on the bus we "slept"  a lot. meaning, we'd close our eyes for twenty minutes or so. there was no comfortable way to sleep on that thing. ha.

and our feet were very swollen. this is me in Nauvoo, but they were TINY here compared to when we got home. but mine were not bad at all, really.

Jaylene, on the other hand, just had elephantitus

and i made this map to brag to Jenae about how many states I've been to. muhaha. So now I've been to 12. TWELVE, jenae! muhahaha. California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. Booyah.

Goodbye, Illinois

So if you have the time, you should definitely read this and listen to the sings too, because even though some of them are cheesy, they explain so much better than i can.

The first three pictures I took Saturday around noon and the rest of the pictures were taken by my roommate Jaylene that evening while after we went inside.

The Nauvoo miiiiight just have squeaked it's way into my "favorite temple" slot.

sorry Idaho Falls, you've been there since 7th grade, buuut, Nauvoo is incredible.

Seriously, though. so gorgeous. and It's a recreation of the original Nauvoo temple built in 1846. How did the pioneers build this temple without cranes or lifts or machines in general? it just blows my mind. and oh my goodness, the inside of the temple is GORGEOUS. the most beautiful I've ever been inside. spiral staircases, dark wooden furnishings, incredible incredible details.

The early church members lived in Nauvoo from 1839- 1846. They came to Nauvoo to escape persecution in Missouri and Ohio. for about six years they lived in peace. finally, after nine previous years of being pushed from state to state, they had a place to rest. They believed this would be their permanent home. A Safe Haven. And for the most part, it was. Until 1844 when Joseph Smith was murdered, and then the non-mormon occupants of Nauvoo got more and more uncomfortable with their mormon neighbors. The persecution was growing severe, houses were burned, many hate crimes were committed. Finally in 1846 local authorities told the members of the church to leave Nauvoo before they were forcibly removed. So within a year, almost all of the saints crossed the Mississippi one last time and began the trek west to Salt Lake City. 

I am amazed at the faith of these people. This was their home! their beautiful home, and they had hoped to live here for a long time peacefully. I can't imagine how heartbreaking it would have been to leave this place, headed for an unknown destination. ugh, i seriously do not know how they did it. How could they just pick up and leave Nauvoo? their city, their temple, how did they just leave? I know it was mostly because they had to. They were forced out. but still, i can't imagine that.

you can skip the cheesy intro and go to like 1:04 for the actual song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02K0dFDgjvw&list=PL822664912D592F28

my favorite part of that song? "blacksmith on Parley street" and "Brigham waves 'em on as he straightens his hat". man, i love that song.

And then one evening, when the Mississippi was frozen over, they crossed. and they left. Emma Smith and her family stayed behind. So did a few others, and I don't know exactly why. I'm in no place to judge them. I've said before that i admire Emma and all that she did for the church while Joseph was alive.

But she didn't cross. 

Some saints, while crossing, changed their minds, and they turned and went back to Nauvoo. They didn't go west. Eventually, those families fell away from the church because there were no other members around.

Figuratively, I want to cross the river. I want to show God that i am willing to do His will, even when it seems impossibly difficult. I want to stay true to Him, always. 

 (Me in front of the temple)

Cross the River

Illinois pt. 3

This part was us touring the Joseph Smith places in old Nauvoo. I'll leave you mostly with pictures. sorry not sorry for the 1,000 pictures of the Mississippi river.

This was actually cool. The graves of Joseph, Hyrum and Emma Smith.

and oh my gosh an actual inch worm! I've never seen one before! It was so cute! it inched around just like in the cartoons! I was laughing like a mad man because it was literally like folding in half and then unfolding and that's how it moved. hahahahaha

I love Lilac bushes. 

I love windows made to look like old windows, so the glass is all warped and bubbly. 

This was above the old Red Brick Store in the room where the Relief Society was created! So that was special. a lot of other special thing happened there. Our awesome professors gave a really good lesson about temples and nauvoo in general.

Nauvoo was just an absolute dream. old dirt roads and red brick buildings. Green green green trees. 

so gorgeous.