Nauvoo in Words

Parallel Journeys 

On our last night in Nauvoo, Kaitlin and I were walking to the car and she told me how our journey to Nauvoo parallels on a small scale what the saints went through.

The Call to Zion:

From the very beginning of the church, Saints all over the world headed the call to gather with the saints. Some of my ancestors converted in New England, others left their homeland in England to cross the sea to America. All of them left family, homes, occupations, and possessions to go to Zion. They didn’t really know what to expect, they just went on faith because they felt it was the right thing to do.

Even though we had not planned to go to Nauvoo this summer, we felt the call to go. So we saved money, set aside time, and left the comfort of our home, friends and technology to go to Nauvoo. Even though we were getting Kaitlin ready for a mission and our employment was uncertain and future unsure, we went forward with faith.

Becoming One People:

In Nauvoo and other settlements, saints welcomed each other with open arms and hearts. Strangers were brought into homes, limited resources were shared, and class systems were set aside. Although from different nations and places, they had one faith that bound them together.

Walking in to the first day of rehearsals is unlike any other experience I have ever had. Many of the staff already know your name; they shake your hand, look in your eyes and say how glad they are that you are there, and they mean it. You meet others and they are already friends that you just haven’t met yet. As you look at the families, you know they all have different stories, a fireman from Arizona, an engineer from Utah, a mother from Iowa, a student from Nottingham, different, but the same as yours; they all felt the call to come and be in Nauvoo and sacrificed to be there.

Uniting in Trials:

Sickness swept through Nauvoo, taking the lives of many and taking a toll on all. Together they fought the mud, the bugs, and the heat to build a city. Each saint had their place, building bricks, making cloth, herding animals, caring for children, among others. They worked together on the Temple, giving one day in ten to build that huge limestone building where they knew their family could make covenants and be sealed together forever. Their hardship, their loss, their sacrifice, only brought them closer together as a people. United, they built the largest and most prosperous city in Illinois in just a few short years.

In Nauvoo we all got a sickness that we jokingly called the ague, a nasty head cold and cough that swept through the entire cast. We spent 16 hour days rehearsing in mud that covered the tops of our shoes and rain, or hot humid sun. Everyone was given a job to dance, or wave a flag, or move a prop, which everyone did with enthusiasm and without complaint. Even though we were all suffering and sleep deprived, you never heard a cross word, or negative comment, only praises from our director and the staff and encouragement from one another. We knew that to earn the right to represent these pioneers we had to experience a small measure of what they experienced. We literally built a temple on the stage in the pageant, but we also built friendships together as we worked as one. In eight days we learned two pageants containing five dances, over 20 songs and 3 hours of stage time.

Leaving the Place we Love:

In 1846 the saints were forced from their beautiful city by mobs. They swept their floors, loaded the wagons and turned their faces from their newly finished temple to head west. Their hearts ached as they walked though the freezing snow down Parley Street. Not only were they leaving their homes, but also the society and friendships they had made.

In the final minutes of the Nauvoo Pageant we reenact the saints leaving Nauvoo. We have build a 40 foot tall temple on the back of the stage, and then we leave it, huddling together with shawls and trunks, and walking down the stage, off stage ramps, and through the audience (and the mud) into the darkness. This part of the pageant is always super emotional, but on our last night, it is even more so. In a meta way, we really are leaving the place and the people we love. We are leaving behind the Zion society we have created in this place, doing this pageant, and will soon be going back to the harsh, real world.

 Going on Our Way Rejoicing:

In the Nauvoo Pageant, my 2nd great aunt Eliza Snow says that the saints “felt to rejoice” as they started west. They had built the temple. They had made covenants with God and had their families sealed together. They were going together to find somewhere where they could be free of fear.

It’s with mixed feelings that we left Nauvoo. We were happy to be leaving the humidity, bugs, and exhaustion, excited to be sleeping in our own beds. But, we had had a wonderful time and had made new friends that we would probably never see again. We had had amazing spiritual experiences and had learned so many new things, many of which were personalized for each one of us. We were leaving our mini-Zion behind, but we were taking those feelings of Zion with us in our hearts, with renewed determination to be better people and to strengthen Zion where we live.