"Booootiful Nauvoo"

Halloween is a 'biggy' in Nauvoo; each little town around the Mississippi has a holiday they do and for some reason Nauvoo ended up with Halloween. This little town of 1,000 turns into a town of 5,000 for Halloween. The Missionaries as well as a few town people carve over 500 pumpkins and hand out 800 bags of candy.

The missionaries have the biggest popcorn maker you have ever seen, I am sure a couple of thousands bags of popcorn were given out. The missionaries are all this little town have, we keep it going. They have a parade with everyone dressed up. Of course the missionaries can either be 'Missionaries' or 'old Nauvoo period dress', it doesn't quit fit into the rest of the Halloween attire.

E/Williams was an 'outrider' for the wagon that carried the "Nauvoo Brass Band". The stores are all open and the hundreds of pumpkins line the street.

The fantastic carved pumpkins are auctioned off to have money for the next year. It is a fun time. Even our President and his wife came to help.

Along with Halloween the fall colors come they are so marvelous, better than any post card. We are so blest to be in this beautiful area at this time. You know the saints must have loved their little town.

Busy time in Old Nauvoo

S/Williams giving a Bustle oven Demonstration to Devanie. The women would hold their hands on the top brick of the oven to see if it was warm enough, if so they would clean out the fire and then hold their arm in side the oven for 15 seconds to make a better check for the oven. Then they would bake their breads, cakes, pies and crackers. The bread that is handed out each day is made in this oven, just like the saints of old. The bread is fantastic.

S/Williams is giving the candle demonstration to the VanOrden & Redford families.

E/Williams is caught in Zone Conference helping S/Ludwig. She called him up to tell of his bad habits and as she did the YP Missionaries would wrap him up in saran wrap. When it was all done he couldn't hardly walk back to his seat let alone breath. Elder Williams needs to change his bad habits. Thank goodness for a Young Sis. Missionary that had a pocket knife on her. Why is a YSM carrying a pocket knife?

Experiences at the Temple

We as a Mission Presidency take the departing missionaries to the temple, and after have a wonderful meal at the Presidents home. Here the missionaries tell of a special experience they have had while serving their mission. We love this part of the evening. Their testimonies are wonderful. While at the temple one time a temple engineer took us to the tower, up into the dome of the temple, were the bell goes off every hour. We could see out of the windows down to the green fields and the beautiful Mississippi River. What an experience that day; one we will always remember.

The statue of Joseph & Hyrum is special for E/Williams. The VanOrden line of the family states that "Charlie the Horse" was given to Joseph by Peter VanOrden, Charlie is the one he rode to Carthage.

Days In Old Nauvoo

This is the view we can see from our home. The big horses out eating in the field and the red & white barn. In the distance the two steeples are visible. One is the big Catholic Church steeple and the other the Nauvoo Temple steeple. They stand side by side in 'Old Nauvoo', both beautiful, one is not very busy and the other is busy every day. We help them, go to their dinners and the President meets with all the denominations in Nauvoo once a month, there is about 5 different churches in little Nauvoo. We live in peace, we can tell the Lord is blessing all of us.

E/S Williams we're able to work together in the "Webb Blacksmith Shop" on Sunday, which is a rare time. He is usually busy in the Mission Office each day. Here he made a little horse show and gave it to visitors along with a 'prairie diamond', a horse shoe nail ring. We served with another couple, they told about the wagons and making the big wheels for the wagons. It was a great day in Nauvoo.

The corn by our house grows tall as you can see. We are just leaving to go to our show, "Rendezvous" and stop to take a picture. Do you think it is over 10 feet tall. The deer and the raccoons love it.

President and Sister Ludwig keep track of all of the missionaries grandchildren. "If you have that many grandchildren praying for you", she says we will be blessed and all be great missionaries. In one month we added two little grandchildren to that number. Forest Williams, and Kolby Williams. We are so thankful for all of our grandchildren. We love them.

Young Sister Missionaries / Family

President and Sister Williams at the 'Old Stone Bridge', were Joseph and Emma Stood.


After the crowds slow down a little the YSM's (Young sister Missionaries) start preparing to go into the field. They practice proselyting, the missionaries are not allowed to teach here in Nauvoo. The couples have fictitious names and circumstances and we roll play once or twice a week, then feed them dinner once a week. E/S Williams are Karl and Roxanne Fox. She is a member, YW's President and he is a dry Mormon. She has been a member for 40 years, he never joined at that time, but comes to church a little. We have about 4 weeks of this, trying to get this Karl Fox baptized. I am getting a little frustrated with him, will he join or will he not. It depends on how S/Barry and S/Patterson do in their teaching. The 20 YSM's left the 1st of Oct. for their new assignments. Each got a new mission call, Mt., Co., NJ etc. They will return in 6 months to complete their mission in Nauvoo. We love them and are anxious for them to do well in their new mission and to return back to us in the spring.

Shalece, Jade, Devanie and Dalton all visited us in Nauvoo. We were so glad to see them. We had a great time showing them around Nauvoo, visiting the Amish (which Shalece just had to do), and going to Carthage with them. They loved the sites, shows and the temple. E/Williams is telling Dalton about the horse "Charlie" that was given to Joseph Smith by Dalton's G,G,G,G,G Grandfather, Peter VanOrden. He rode this horse to Carthage along with Hyrum, that fateful day.

A Mission is like being at home

Yes we planted a garden, if you call a garden 1 cucumber and 2 tomato plants between our house and the side walk. But it was different than at home, we only watered it once to help it come up and we are still getting great tomatoes and cuces off our little garden. We eat them each day and share with the missionaries. We've got about a bushel of tomatoes and I bet a bushel of cucumbers, they just keep coming. All the rain does make the weeds grow also, so that keeps me busy in my little garden.

My favorite place to be is the sewing room. We have 7 sewing machines, 4 sergers and 2 cutting tables about 8 feet long, all kinds of thread, lace, and material. And the best thing of all is the fun, great sisters that serve in there. We have such a great time, we talk laugh and just help and encourage one another. There is probably about 20 sisters that rotate in and out of the sewing room. We go to serve at the sites (homes, buildings, tickets the Nauvoo Visitor Center etc.) and then serve in the sewing room a couple of days a week if we are lucky. It is fun making the show dresses, site dress, vest, and slips and hats for everyone. I didn't ever think I would sew on a mission, but I didn't ever think I would sing, dance or play the ukulele either. We do bear our testimonies each day, so that is great. See I told you this mission was like being at home, I still have a garden and I still sew.

A view of Abe Lincoln

Springfield,Illinois is so close to us we thought we would visit the home of Abraham Lincoln on our Prep Day with E/S VanDam. What an exciting museum. We learned of the hard ship he went through to discontinue slavery. Individuals regarded their slaves as personal property and not people. During his Presidency he went through a time of sorrow with his children and wife.

Though he grew up in a log cabin he is one of our most noted presidents, a president for all people.

President Lincoln was 6ft. 3in., noted for his height, E/Williams has him beet by 2 inches. E/Williams is noted in Nauvoo for being the tallest missionary. They always make a comment about how tall he is. (And I might add, good looking)

We went to his home, a very nice home in a quiet part of town. It was very colorful inside. The more colors you had in your carpet and wall paper the richer you were. I would just as soon be a little poor. As you note the wall paper is a berry tone, with bright green drapes, what you can't see is that the big wall paper boarder is a pumpkin orange design. A lot of big patterns and colors, no wonder he and Mary had a few problems.

We had a marvelous day learning about one of our great Presidents. It made us thankful for our country and thankful for our freedom of religion.