Pioneer Day

July 24, 2022

Pioneer Day

Site of the never-built town of Norway in La Salle Co. Illinois

Happy Pioneer Day to everyone. This is the first time we have celebrated July 24^th near the start of the journey rather than at the end. I was able to get some more information about the history of the early church in this area of Illinois. Northwest of Ottawa, in our ward is a small town of Norway. This was the site of the first Norwegian settlement in the United States in about the year 1826. Missionaries preached the gospel to these settlers and converted a number of families. There is a record of the saints in this town of Norway donating sheep towards the construction of the original Nauvoo temple. In 1844, Brigham Young and Parley P. Pratt visited this area and made plans to develop a settlement here. In 1845, the church purchased 100 acres from Goodman Hougas and Jacob Slovig and filed plans with the county of La Salle to develop a town, also called Norway, on land about three miles south of the current settlement of Norway. We have included a picture of the corn field where this town was to be located. Shortly after this plan was filed, the saints were forced to leave Illinois. Many of the Norwegian saints immigrated to Utah. Several years later some of these saints returned to Norway (the country) to establish a mission there. Some saints stayed and affiliated with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (now known as the Community of Christ). There is a 19^th century Community of Christ church located just down the country road from the site of the town that was never built. We did visit the museum located in current village of Norway as well as a Norwegian store. There are a number of references to the church in the museum. We were able to buy some pickled herring and Norwegian cookies, although Deanne did not eat the pickled herring. Oral history in this area talks about a temple site that was selected near Norway, although we have not yet found any written information on this site.

We are doing great here. We are keeping busy working with members, both active and less active. We are also spending a lot of time with the younger missionaries. This next week will be very busy with a zone conference on Tuesday and then inspections of ten apartments on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We are helping a member move on Saturday.

We are busy with the ward here. Dave spoke in church 2 weeks ago and Deanne is speaking in church next Sunday. Today, Deanne led the music in primary. Next week we are also teaching the fifth Sunday lesson during the second hour of church on missionary work. We also taught the fifth Sunday lesson back in May on family history work. In two weeks we are teaching the youth Sunday School class.

Starting the first of July we have a new mission president, President David Chase and Sister Rachelle Chase from Highland, Utah. We participated in a mission-wide zoom call with them when they first arrived and then met them in person when they went to all of the zones so we could get to know them and their family. We will meet them again on Tuesday at Zone Conference. We loved President and Sister Shumway and will love President and Sister Chase. I am amazed at the level of spirituality that these mission presidents are able to convey to the missionaries. They have a very difficult job leading 200 young men and women and keeping them focused on the work of spreading the gospel. Their leadership shows in the great young men and women these missionaries become.

Weather so far this summer as been pretty mild. The humidity is high, but we have only had a few days with high heat. We do get rain, which keeps the crops growing and the grass green. On Friday night we had a major storm, which developed into a couple of small tornados in Naperville and Joliet. There wasn’t any major damage from these tornados.

We love all of you and miss seeing you. We hope that you are all having a great summer.

Love,

Elder and Sister Curtis