From Elder Curtis~ Nauvoo

 

Nauvoo temple at night

              We had the opportunity to spend a couple of days last week in Nauvoo with another senior couple (Elder and Sister Ahlstrom) who also serve in the Chicago mission.  Nauvoo is about three hours away from Utica; and we received our mission president’s permission to leave for a couple of days.  

 

As many of you recall, we had a very difficult experience in Nauvoo 20 years ago in June 2002 when we drove across the plains to attend the open house for the rebuilt Nauvoo temple.  My mom and dad, Carolyn and Aaron, Deanne and I along with Emily and Debbie drove to the church historical sites in Missouri and ended up in Nauvoo for the open house.  Along the way my dad started not feeling great.  By the time we got to the open house he had difficulty walking and attended the open house in a wheelchair.  After the open house we took him to a clinic in Nauvoo where he was sent to the hospital in Carthage.  The hospital kept him for a few hours then released him.  We started the drive home and by the time we got to Omaha he was feeling much worse.  We spent the night in a motel, with plans to fly mom and dad home the next morning to get medical help.  The next day my dad got up to get ready and dropped over.  The paramedics were unable to revive him. 

This was probably the most traumatic moment of my life.  My dad’s sudden passing at a young age 74 was completely unexpected.

 

With this background, I was not sure how I would feel on this trip, my first trip back to Nauvoo.  I felt very close to my mom and dad while in Nauvoo, but I didn’t think of that traumatic experience much at all.  While walking through the beautifully restored homes, I recalled how dad had visited Nauvoo years before in the early days while the church was doing extensive archeological work and planning some of the restoration work.  My dad loved to learn and he loved church history.  He loved how the partially restored Nauvoo demonstrated how the Lord had blessed His people.  My dad was thrilled when plans were made to rebuild the Nauvoo temple.  He was very excited to attend the Nauvoo open house and he knew everything about this temple. 

 

We had the opportunity to go through the rebuilt Nauvoo temple on an endowment session.  The Nauvoo temple is the most beautiful temple I have attended.  The woodwork is amazing and the architecture is the same as the original temple.  I recalled how the dad’s ancestors, Enos Curtis and Ruth Franklin Curtis, were among the relatively few that were able to receive their endowments in the original Nauvoo temple.  We learned that on February 6, 1846, Brigham Young had told the people that because of the mobs they would need to leave the temple behind and Brigham Young had started riding away to cross the river.  He turned his horse around and went back when he learned that hundreds of people were waiting at the temple longing to receive temple blessing before they would need to abandon their homes and the city they had built out of a swamp.  Enos and Ruth were sealed together as husband and wife on February 6, 1846.

 

We saw the women’s statue garden next to the visitor center.  I recalled how mom had attended the dedication of this garden because of the volunteer work she was doing on the church curriculum committee.  She also left behind a great legacy of service and knowledge.  

 

We walked down Parley’s Street, where the saints lined up to cross the river to head for the unknown wilderness.  At the bottom next to the Mississippi River is a memorial for those who left, but did not make it to the valley.  I recognized two names on this memorial, Ruth Franklin Curtis and Thomas Kewley.  Ruth died in Iowa from exhaustion at age 58.  Thomas, who died in Nebraska, was Margaret Kewley’s brother.  You may recall that Margaret Kewley was grandma White’s grandmother.  In a way, the memorial was also for my dad because he did not make it back across the plains.

 

I’m not saying that my parents were necessarily there in Nauvoo, but my experience did remind me that they left a great legacy, maybe equal in a way to the legacy of other pioneers, including our ancestors, who sacrificed everything they had because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Deanne and I are very blessed to have the opportunity to serve here.  I just hope that we are doing our part to serve the Lord.

 

Love,

Elder David Curtis

                                                      HWith a horse after a wagon ride

                                                                       At Carthage

Copy of original angel Moroni from Nauvoo temple

View from our hotel

                                         With Elder Curtis, one of the performance missionaries

                                                                          Dawn

                                                              Hyrum and Joseph