Nauvoo Vacation: Day 12 (Tuesday)

This morning we got an early start... we were all really excited... I know Courtney doesn't really look like it in this picture... but they were watching their first movie of the entire trip!

 Over the last couple of years I have been working on family history and temple work. I thought most of it had been done on my side of the family, so I decided I should start with Dan's Grandma Lou. She is his fathers, mother. (His dad is a convert to the church.) I started with one newspaper article, as there aren't any family records that have been passed down... and here we are a couple of years later playing out an episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" I wanted to find records and graves to confirm names and dates, etc... before we started doing work. (And after what we found out about Dan's grandpa's family I am glad we did!!!)

We headed for Nelson, Nebraska where I knew many of them had lived and died...

 I was absolutely giddy at this moment! This is something I have wanted to do for so long!

 Downtown Nelson, Nebraska...

 Based on Census records, I knew his grandfather Major Fletcher Long had been a farmer, later a County Clerk (which he is in this picture) and later a County Judge. It was so fun to walk into the city building and see this hanging on the wall! His grandfather is the one sitting on the front left.

The ladies in the Clerks office were wonderful and helped us find so many records, including marriage records and property records. Come to find out, many of the "Long's" were quite the entrepreneurs when it came to buying and selling property for a nice profit.

 They also gave us cemetery records and we found all of the graves we were looking for. Francis (Frank) Asbury Long and his wife Lizzie...

 One of their sons....

 Major Fletcher Long, his wife Tina Long, and one of their sons Frank Long....

 And here is one of the biggest reasons this trip needed to happen. They had 2 infants that died. We knew about one of them that lived for about 2 weeks... but this baby was born and died on the same day. December 25th....

 This was one of those moments in my life that I will never forget. I feel so connected to these people. Although I am only related by marriage, my sweetheart and my children are their blood. I love doing family history! I was promised in my patriarchal blessing that it would be one of the greatest joy's in my life... and it is so true! I am so glad that Dan wants to help with it now too... like I've said before... if it involves "hunting" in any way... he is in!

 We stayed for a couple of hours and then headed to Omaha, Nebraska and the Winter Quarters Temple and visitors Center.

 Courtney asked for this shot because it was of William Clayton (the Cutler's relative) who wrote, "Come, Come, Ye Saints"....

 Inside this visitors center you can see the temple across the street.

 We then headed for Council Bluff's Iowa (about 20 minutes away) so we could get more information on the Mormon Battalion. At this point we still hadn't figured out the mistakes in Dan's line of the Session family.

 And now, for the rest of the story about Courtney and her Book of Mormon challenge. When we walked in to the visitors center, there was a man talking to the Sister Missionary working there. He was asking questions and told all of us that he had lived nearby for 10 years and had often thought about coming in to find out more about the Mormons. (He also said the Presidential election had him wondering and that he wasn't sure who he should vote for. He needed to know more about Mormons...) As he was talking and asking questions the Sister Missionary asked him if he had ever heard of or read the Book of Mormon. He said no, and that is when Courtney jumped into action! She pulled her's out of her bag and told him..."I have one for you! You need to read this!" He took it from her and told her thank you and promised her that he would read it! Courtney was beyond thrilled! He came in and watched a movie with us about the Mormon Battalion and kept commenting that he couldn't believe how much Mormon's had done for our Country.

When we had to leave for our appointment at the Winter Quarters Temple, we offered a prayer thanking our Father in Heaven for answering Courtney's prayer. This man had driven by here for 10 years...but today... maybe 5 minutes before we arrived... he decided that today was the day to stop. This was an incredible and testimony building experience for our entire family. Our prayers are heard and answered.

 My family pretending to check out the map for the trek West!

We were rushing so much to get to our hotel and change so we could make it to the temple on time, that I forgot my camera in our hotel room! No pictures of us in front of the Winter Quarters Temple! Blasted! It was a gorgeous temple and I sure enjoyed being able to watch McKenna be baptized. Dan did all of the confirmations. The spirit was so strong!

After we were done we went out for our final meal of the trip... We found an Olive Garden in Omaha. It was great to sit and reflect on this vacation and all of the spiritual experiences and blessings that had come because we were prepared. This vacation was so different than any we have ever gone on in the past, but will be one of our favorites forever! Everything about this vacation strengthened us, inspired us, and humbled us. None of us will ever be the same.