This is a picture of the couple playing the part of Joseph Smith, Jr. and his wife Emma Hale Smith.

In my blog, I haven't often expressed some of my deeper feelings about how this Nauvoo experience is affecting me. But for some reason my heart has been drawn out more than usual today for the early members of my faith and my ancestors that lived here in Nauvoo. Maybe this is in part because I was asked to share a story of one of my ancestors with the mission presidency and I have been rereading their stories trying to decide which one I wanted to tell. You see every one of my lines of ancestry on both my mothers and fathers lines (except one that I am not sure about) lived here in Nauvoo and walked the same streets that I now walk. And when I tell the stories of those who lived here in the sites, it is as if I am telling my people's stories. The spirit of love and sacrifice just permeates every part of old historic Nauvoo. There is one black and white photograph in the Seventies Hall of Nauvoo in the 1840s. I wish we had a copy of it in every site to remind us and our visitors that Nauvoo was a heavily populated, thriving city of over 12,000 people. It was the 2nd largest city in Illinois. There were no unused spaces in this city like we see now. 

There is a 20 minute film we show in our Visitor's Center called "Remembering Nauvoo" that I think everyone who comes to Nauvoo should see. I have seen it several times, but after my shift ended at 6pm tonight I went and watched it again and cried most of the way through. I am feeling such intense love right now for those early saints who lived in this beautiful place. I can hardly bear to think of the trials they experienced and the persecution and suffering they endured by those who were not of our faith. Religious persecution is just another example of man's inhumanity to man. I have no patience for it on any level. 

At the end of the film there is a quote by one of the early church leaders, Wilford Woodruff, that talks about the prayer in his heart as he is being forced to leave his beloved Nauvoo and gazing back at the Temple. He asks Father in Heaven to allow their sacrifices to be remembered. My prayer is that I will always remember and be as grateful for their sacrifices as I am right now! What a wonderful blessing in my life to be here. I hope that everyone who reads my blog will desire to come to Nauvoo and feel this incredible spirit!