The Snavelys: 2010

Last weekend we took a trip to Nauvoo to see the Nauvoo pageant. Let me just say that it was absolutely amazing! If you haven't been before you have to go! It was so well written and the actors did a great job. The best part is that it's a true story! :) The spirit was so strong and I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for those sweet pioneers who sacrificed so much and most especially for the love that our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ have for us. One of my favorite things was that it showed how happy the pioneers were even though they were experiencing great trials.

At the end they light up the Nauvoo temple and you hear president Hinckley's voice saying, "How grateful I am, how profoundly grateful for what has happened. Today, facing west, on the high bluff overlooking the city of Nauvoo, thence across the Mississippi, and over the plains of Iowa, there stands Joseph's temple, a magnificent house of God. Here in the Salt Lake Valley facing east, to that beautiful temple in Nauvoo stands Brigham's temple, the Salt Lake temple. They look toward one another as bookends between which there are volumes that speak of the suffering, the sorrow, the sacrifice, even the deaths of thousands who made the long journey from the Mississippi River to the valley of the Great Salt Lake." How wonderful it was to hear President Hinckley's voice! I couldn't hold back the tears-he was such a great man!

We also got to do a session in the Nauvoo temple! All during the session I couldn't stop thinking about those pioneers and how they must have felt leaving their homes and the beautiful temple behind after they had worked so hard to build it.
I kept thinking about several entries from President Brigham Young's journal that we talked about in Sunday school a few years back. These were written as the saints were preparing to leave Nauvoo.

“This morning there was an immense crowd at the reception room waiting for admission. … One hundred twenty-one persons received ordinances”

“Such has been the anxiety manifested by the saints to receive the ordinances [of the Temple], and such the anxiety on our part to administer to them, that I have given myself up entirely to the work of the Lord in the Temple night and day, not taking more than four hours of sleep, upon an average, per day, and going home but once a week.

“Notwithstanding that I had announced that we would not attend to the administration of the ordinances, the House of the Lord was thronged all day, the anxiety being so great to receive, as if the brethren would have us stay here and continue the endowments until our way would be hedged up, and our enemies would intercept us. But I informed the brethren that this was not wise, and that we should build more Temples, and have further opportunities to receive the blessings of the Lord, as soon as the saints were prepared to receive them. In this Temple we have been abundantly rewarded, if we receive no more. I also informed the brethren that I was going to get my wagons started and be off. I walked some distance from the Temple supposing the crowd would disperse, but on returning I found the house filled to overflowing.

“Looking upon the multitude and knowing their anxiety, as they were thirsting and hungering for the word, we continued at work diligently in the House of the Lord. Two hundred and ninety-five persons received ordinances” (History of the Church, 7:579).

And this from Our Heritage, "Why would these Saints work so hard to complete a building they would soon leave behind? Almost 6,000 Latter-day Saints received their endowments before leaving Nauvoo. As they turned their eyes toward their western migration, they were bolstered in faith and secure in the knowledge that their families were eternally sealed together. Tear-stained faces, ready to move on after burying a child or spouse on America’s vast prairie, were resolute largely because of the assurances contained in the ordinances they had received in the temple."

How grateful I am for the blessings of the temple! Just thinking of those saints and how eager they were to receive the blessings of the temple touches my heart and gives me a desire to attend more often! I hope I won’t take for granted how close I live to the temple and how easy it is for me to go!