Happy New Year

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MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!



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We Know

Knowledge is a wonderful thing. The trick is to have the right knowledge.
The Knowledge we need to get through this life is simple.
To know that God lives and is a person and we were created in His image.
To know that Jesus is the Savior of the world and Atoned for all of our sins.
To know that our Savior restored the fullness of His gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith
To know that the Book of Mormon is a true record and is another witness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To know that we have a living prophet on the earth today even Thomas S. Monson
We know these things are true. We want you to know they are true also.
Are you willing to find out?

The weather is turning cold and it has snowed and is supposed to snow again this week.
We will post pictures later.

Today is the 68th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. We must never forget how awful war is. We hope for Peace in the world.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are most thankful this season for the opportunity to serve our Father In Heaven in this historic Nauvoo. We are also very grateful for our family and especially that Rob's gift( a kidney) to Traci is still working and working very well. We know that anyone of you would have done the same thing for her if you had the opportunity. That is the greatest part, seeing our children supporting each other and taking care of each other while we are gone. Keep it up. We love you and all of our friends also.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM OLD NAUVOO.

I asked God ...

I asked God to take away my pain.
God said, No.
It is not for me to take away, but for you to give it up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole.
God said, No.
Her spirit was whole, her body was only temporary.

I asked God to grant me patience.
God said, No.
Patience is a by-product of tribulations, it isn't granted, it is earned.

I asked God to give me happiness.
God said, No.
I give you blessings, Happiness is up to you.

I asked God to spare me pain.
God said, No.
Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to me.

I asked God to make my spirit grow.
God said, No.
You must grow on your own, but I will prune you to make you fruitful.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
God said, No.
I will give you life so that you may enjoy all things.

I ask God to help me LOVE others, as much as he loves me.
God said... Ahhhh, finally you have the idea!

[ author unknown ]

Mission Experience

I was serving in the John Taylor Home here in Nauvoo on Wednesday. John Taylor was the 3rd Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A couple came in who were not of our faith. They were very interested in learning what Nauvoo was all about. After I showed them the home and told them a little about John Taylor, I testified to them of the truthfulness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I testified that I knew the Book of Mormon was the word of God. I told them about my own conversion to the gospel.

As we went down stairs I mentioned something about reading the Book of Mormon and the husband said that he thought that would be interesting. I asked him if he would like a Book of Mormon and he said he thought he would. I gave them a Book of Mormon and then they asked how it compared with their protestant bible. My companion, Sister King, then said that if it was the King James version it would compare very well and that was the version we used. I then told them that the Book of Mormon was another witness of the mission and teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and that if they read it and prayed about it they would know whether or not it was true. He then mentioned that with the job he had he had time to read and that he would read the book. I know they will find the truth.

I was very excited to think that I was able to perhaps help someone to come unto Christ through the restored gospel. It was a great day!

Blogging

I was reading our Ensign the other day and it had an article in it about using our blogs to answer questions about the church. We really want to be part of the discussion out there because so many people have misconceptions about Mormons. What are some of the things you wonder about us? Do you believe everything you hear? Just ask us and we can tell you what you want to know.

One of the things we are often asked is "Do you worship Joseph Smith?" Answer: No we worship the Lord Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. We revere Joseph Smith because he is the prophet our Savior chose to restore His church to the earth in these Latter Days. We love our Savior Jesus Christ and we also are grateful to the prophet Joseph for the sacrifice he made also. Have any questions? Just ask us.

Halloween in Nauvoo

Halloween is a big celebration in Nauvoo. The missionaries help to carve it seems like at least a hundred pumpkins. That took about 2 days. Then the day of Halloween, the pumpkins are delivered up to town and put along Mulholland Street in Nauvoo. It is the main street in town. They have candles in them and they are lit about 6 P.M. Then there is a big parade. All of the businesses are open and there are lots of people who are selling food to eat. It was pretty amazing. The Missionaries had a band wagon where they were playing their instruments and singing.


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Fall in Old Nauvoo

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I thought you all would like to see what fall is like in old Nauvoo so here is a little slide show. Enjoy

A Prophet of God

Well, we had the thrill of our lives yesterday. We got to perform our show for President Thomas S. Monson. He is the prophet. What a joy it was to be in his presence.
We didn't get to shake his hand but just to be with him was enough.

I guess that is what sets us apart from most other churches in the world. We believe that our Lord and Savior still leads and guides his church through a prophet just like in the days of the Old Testament. Wherever the Lord's church is he has a prophet to serve his people. President Monson is that prophet.
Have a good week.

Healing Power of Christ

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We have experienced the healing power of Christ first hand as last week our daughter Traci had a kidney transplant. The kidney was given to her by her older brother and began to work right away. Traci and her brother Rob both had Priesthood blessings and were promised that angels would be attending the doctors and guiding their hands. That is one way you can experience the healing power of Christ, but there are some other ways.
Christ can heal your feelings of inadequacy. Christ can heal you from the affects of your sins and forgive them. Christ can heal your wounded heart and soul especially if you have experienced hurt or abuse from others. He wants to heal us and he wants to help us. We must only do one thing. Come unto Him and let him do it.

There is an artist who has had her work on exhibit in the Nauvoo Visitor's Center. These sculptures depict the healing power of Christ and His miracles from the New Testament. It is amazing. See the slide show for a look at the art work.

If we do not believe in Christ that is our choice, the evidence is clear. He was the Son of God and He came to die for all of the things that we do wrong that if we would repent, he can forgive them and we can live with him again.

Slowing Down

We are definitely slowing down now. The last week was busy because of Labor Day, but the rest of the time will be slow. We are now on our fall/winter hours. Sites open at 11 A.M. and Close at 5:00 P.M. We still have an 8:30 Prep meeting that we have to go to. I will get a lot of reading done this winter. We have to move out of our apartment in about 3 weeks. The owner is getting these little units back. This has been very traumatic for me anyway. Now it is all settled so I am feeling better.

Our theme in Prep. Meeting has been Eternal Marriage. Many wonderful thoughts have been given. The gist of all these thoughts is that Marriage is Ordained of God and he meant couples and families to be together forever. That means marrying the right person, at the right time, in the right place (Temple), with the right authority(the Priesthood).
I am grateful to be sealed to my family forever. Have a great day.

Sunset's Over.

Well our summer show ended last Sat.
Here is a little slide show to enjoy.

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Nauvoo Miracle

This evening we had a "Sociable" which is like a fireside but for the whole town of Nauvoo if they wish to come. The BYU Acapella group called Vocal Point were the ones who were going to sing to us. We waited until 8 P.M. to have this because of the heat and humidity. We were sitting there waiting for the show to begin and here came great big thunder clouds. As the show began, not too far away we could see lightning coming down and on the other side of the clouds. We were very worried that it would soon open up and rain but the show went on. There were clouds and lightning all around us but no loud thunder. The show was great and we were home a little after 9:30 P.M. Within an hour it began to rain. Now I call this a Nauvoo Miracle. This show was so spiritual and touched everyone's hearts. Thank You Heavenly Father for the Nauvoo Miracle.

Busy, Busy, Busy

We have been so busy. It has been crazy here in Nauvoo. There are thousands of people here for the Nauvoo Pageant. It is amazing. We are doing 6 shows a week and we are tired. The days meld into each other and the only way we can recognize Sunday is because we go to church. In the John Taylor Home alone we have had nearly 4,000 people tour this home.

I love telling people about John Taylor, his strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his testimony of Joseph Smith as the Prophet of the Restoration and Brigham Young as the prophet who would lead them west. I have had some great experiences lately. A little girl about 8 or 9 came in with her family. As I was giving the tour she asked a lot of questions and they were good questions. At the end of the tour I was mentioning what a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel these people had. She proceeded to tell me that she would bear her testimony every Fast Sunday. I said, "Would you like to bear your testimony to us now?" She said "yes" and she turned around and bore her testimony of the truthfulness of the church to those in the room. It was awesome. This is just one of the great experiences I have had.

Hot Days

We got a new camera and have been taking some great pictures. The turtle that you see was in the middle of Highway 96 and in danger of being smashed. I stopped and put him/her on the side of the road. The geese were coming across highway 96 and this car had to stop for them.
It has been really hot and humid the last 2 weeks. I have been working in on the weed crew for a couple of months now. It is amazing to see how much work it is to keep Nauvoo beautiful. It is a very important job. Without the grounds crew, the spirit in Nauvoo would not be here. We just got through helping the horticulturalist plant flowers all over Nauvoo. It is quite a job. Last week I got some heat exhaustion working in the high humidity and I had to quit working. We now begin work at 6 A.M. and we are able to quit at noon. It has been so hot and humid here that the horses that pull the wagons for the Wagon Tour have had to quit early. It is so hard on the horses. It was amazing. We are well and happy.

Happy Father's Day

Here is a video about a great Father. I hope you will enjoy it. I am thankful for my father and the great man that he was. I am also thankful for a Heavenly Father who loves me and blesses my life each day. Again, Happy Father's Day! Click on the link in the section on the right that is a Youtube link.

Today we had the privilege of taking the Tabernacle Choir on tours of Nauvoo. It was so great to bear my testimony to them of the truthfulness of the Gospel. What a day it was. One of the Choir members gave Elder Rawlinson their newest CD. We are so blessed in our church.

Weather and Prayer

Well, it is still not quite summer yet.
It rained again last night and the ground
is so saturated that there are little lakes
all over Nauvoo.

Prayer is the subject for our Prep meeting
this week. Sister Brockbank gave the thought
and asked us to remember when our children were
young how we liked to have them check in with us.
Heavenly Father is the same way. He likes us to
check in with Him. That's what prayer is all about,
checking in. So don't forget to check in with
Heavenly Father today and every day.

3 Nephi 18:20
"Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name,
that your wives and your children may be blessed."

Have a great day!

June is busting out all over.

Here we are again. It has been so long since we have updated this blog. We have been so busy. We are now doing 2 Rendezvous shows 2 nights a week plus 2 Sunset by the Mississippi shows during the week. We hardly have time to eat. We do find time though because we haven't lost any weight yet. The Slide Show over on the right side contains Pictures of the flowers that are now blooming in Nauvoo. Most of these are planted by our horticulturalist Durell Nelson. He has been doing the flowers and plants in Nauvoo for 30 years. He is very good. So I hope you enjoy a look at Nauvoo's flora and fauna.
Have a great day!

Spring?

Well we are having the wettest spring I think Illinois has ever seen. It rained all day and all night Friday night and we got about 6 inches in that time. The City of Nauvoo's sewer backed up. It has been a real mess in some places. Missionaries are even dealing with flooding. One of the missionary couples had their basement flood. It had about 10 inches of water in it because the sump pump didn't work. They will fix it tomorrow.

We had our district meeting tonight. We had to find the answers to 3 questions. One of the questions was "Do you really believe that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ?"
I suppose there a lot of people who wonder about this. For me personally the answer is Yes! I do believe that he did see them. Now you may ask the question "What do you base this on?" Well, I base it on logic and spirit. Here are the reasons I believe it.

1. Knowing 14 year old boys, I don't think any 14 year old boy would make up a story like this just to be ridiculed and persecuted his whole life. I would think he would finally give up.

2. I have read the Book of Mormon. Knowing what I know about Joseph Smith and his level of education, he could not have fabricated the things in that book. There are too many things that he did not know about written in this book.

3. Because I have read the Book of Mormon, the spirit whispers to me that it is true.
I know this book is the word of God.

4. If I know that the Book of Mormon is a true book of scripture then Joseph has to be a prophet. If I know Joseph Smith is a prophet then the Book of Mormon is true.

5. The most important reason is that I have prayed and asked God as Moroni directs in the Book of Mormon. Moroni 10: 4-5. "And when ye have received these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true;; and if ye shall ask with a sincere hear, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. Vs. 5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

You too can know if these things are true. What have you got to lose? Get a copy of the Book of Mormon and read it. Then do as Moronit directs and ask God. He will let you know whether it is true or not. Be careful though. You cannot just skim it. You must read it all the way through. Have a great week!

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Ready for summer

Today at our zone conference President Ludwig announced that with the 20 sister missionaries from the Peoria, Illinois Mission, and with 20 or thirty new site missionaries, and with 40 new temple missionaries, our population has now grown to 400 missionaries. Oh I forgot to mention the 50 new Young Performing Missionaries. We will need everyone this summer. We have 3 weeks left before the "Sunset" show begins. We are now practicing 2 nights a week for that and perform 2 nights a week in Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo. I'm tired already!! We are getting excited about Raymond (My brother-in-law) and his wife Beverly coming to be the mission Doctor. We can hardly wait!!!

Another Chance

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I was watching an episode of "Touched by an Angel" while I was ironing one day. It was about a young man who had come home to live with his mom. He had been on drugs and unknown to his mother he was still into drugs. After talking her out of her money he made a drug buy but was buying from undercover agents. Are you on the seat of your chair yet? In the process of trying to catch him his mother was shot. He felt really badly about the whole thing and decided that everyone would be better off without him because he had not only messed up his life but others as well. He was standing in the middle of a train track waiting to be run over by it. Monica, the Angel appears and tries to talk him out of his plan to kill himself. He says to her something like, "Why would God want to give me another chance?" Monica, the Angel then says, "God loves you Tommy. He will give you all the chances you need to change your life." That is something that I need to remember. Everyone needs as many chances as they can get to become what Heavenly Father wants us to become. The trick is to use those chances wisely and not waste them.

This past week has been busy. I served in the John Taylor Home most of the week. What a kind and tenderhearted father he was. He rode all the way back to Nauvoo, at risk to his own life to get a little rocking horse for his little boy who missed it so.

spring, winter, spring, winter

As you can see, we are up and down with Spring and Winter, but the weather is getting somewhat warmer. Today is Easter Sunday. The day we remember the Savior's Atonement and Resurrection. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for me. I hope that I can live worthy of that sacrifice.

We are getting more people coming and have had a lot of visitors that began coming in March for Spring Break. Our Rendezvous cast had to do 3 shows last week. The first show was at 5:45, the 2nd at 7:00 P.M. and the third at 8:15 show. We were tired when we got out. I call this the entertainment mission of the church. We are either performing, rehearsing, or giving tours.

We have had people we know come through here this week. One of my old cub scouts, one of my old 2nd graders, and today a couple came through and we found out the Ralph's Great Great Grandfather converted his Great Great Grandfather in South Africa. Then another family came here from Payson and they knew Ralph's Nephew. Doug Rawlinson. It is definitely a small world.

We are so grateful we are here to serve in this mission. As you can see we have a little Blue Grass Band called the Nauvoo Ramblers. We will be performing this summer during our Sunset productions. I have learned some simple bass chords for our band.

Enjoy the pics
Love, Sister and Elder Rawlinson

Spring

Spring is finally coming to Nauvoo. The Cardinals, Red Winged Black Birds, Blue Birds, and Robins are out. On one of our warmest days, I got some pictures of a squirrel in his tree. We are getting a lot of rain. We have had a lot of visitor's lately. There are people here on Spring Break and for weddings. I have been in the John Taylor's home. He was the 3rd President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was also with the Prophet Joseph Smith when he and his brother Hyrum were murdered. It is so much fun to show his house and talk about his testimony of the Gospel. That is the most rewarding part of the mission, giving people the tours and telling them about the faith and determination of these early saints. When summer hits we will be so busy we will not have time to even eat or breathe. I love sharing the testimony of these people and my own.

The Word of God

Saturday morning, we had our preparation meeting. The subject for the week had been the Book of Mormon. Elder Hurley gave the talk on it and this is what struck me.
He summarized the whole week by listing some important points about the Book of Mormon.

1. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and testifies that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the World.

2. The Book of Mormon was Translated by Joseph
Smith through the gift and power of God.

3. Any one can know the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon by doing as Moroni directs in Moroni 10:4-5 which essentially says, read it and then ask God if it is true. God will tell you whether it is true or not.

I had always known these things, but had never listed them in this way. If the Book of Mormon is true then Joseph Smith is a Prophet and has restored the fullness of Christ's true church to the earth for this dispensation. I testify that it is true and Joseph Smith was the Prophet of the restoration.

Article on the Exodus

Dear Family and Friends,

Check the link list for an article on Elder Rawlinson and his ancestor Hosea Stout, which was printed in the Deseret News.

Love,
The Rawlinsons

Walking Down Parley St.

On Feb. 4th the mission and community walked down Parley Street to commemorate the exodus out of Nauvoo. The day was sunny and warm unlike the day that the saints left Nauvoo. Feb. 4th was just the beginning of the exodus, which continued through most of the month of Feb. The mobs continued to attack. People were leaving as fast as they could. Elder Rawlinson marched with the Nauvoo Legion. I walked along with the other missionaries. We met at the Family Living Center for hot chocolate and pastries. We had postponed the beginning of the walk because the temperature was supposed to be sub-zero temperature, but it stayed pretty warm. When we came to the Memorial at the end of the street, the Nauvoo Legion posted The Colors of the United States of America and the flag of Illinois. The names of those who had died before reaching the Salt Lake Valley were read by their descendants who were serving missions here. A prayer was said and then we were all dismissed.

As Elder Rawlinson and I walked back to the car, we read the statements by those who left, that are posted along the trail. It was amazing to see how much they had to leave behind, how many of their children died of sickness because they were forced out in the winter, with little provisions. I tried to picture in my mind how it must have felt to leave this place and the Temple that they had worked so hard to build.
I will probably never ever come close to knowing what it was like.