We arrived in Nauvoo on Friday, April 18. We were greeted by our host couple, Elder and Sister Dieterich, who showed us to our apartment so we could move in. They took us and another couple. Elder and Sister Nelson, to dinner that evening at a mexican restaurant in Hamilton, Ill (about 12 miles away). The company and food was great.
The weekend included shopping to get food and other items for our apartment to make it home for the next six months. On Sunday we met with all of the temple missionaries at church, had lunch with the other couples and then were set apart as temple ordinance workers by President Nelson, a counselor in the temple presidency.
Monday was another day to get settled, shop and get acquainted with the area.
Our training at the temple began on Tuesday and continued through Friday. The training included an orientation tour of the temple, training specific to our assignments as ordinance workers, and a guided tour of Nauvoo and some of the sites across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo led by Sister Susan Easton Black Durrant.
The week was full of information and was a great experience for us. We had many of opportunities to get acquainted with the other couple missionaries. We were fed well and generally experienced a great welcome to Nauvoo.
On Friday, each missionary couple was given an assignment to attend one of the congregations of the church in the Nauvoo Temple district. We were asked to attend the Kirksville 2nd Ward. Kirksville is in Missouri and is about 100 miles from Nauvoo. We were pleased with the opportunity to be assigned to one of the local congregations.
A Note: Sister Susan Easton Black Durrant and her husband, Elder George Durrant serve in the temple as ordinance worker. Sister Durrant recently retired as a professor at BYU and has been involved with Nauvoo since the 1970's. She is the author of many articles and books. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings she gives a lecture on one of the presidents of the church. It has been a great opportunity for us to be here to learn from her.
