September 6, 2012

September 6, 2012:
We had training meeting yesterday morning at 8:00 am. They put me in as assistant site leader in the Wilford Woodruff Home. It's only a short block from where we live. That's kind of cool. Sister Bennett is the site leader. There were a lot of changes, because so many missionaries are leaving.
We did Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo last night. Finally, only one show instead of two. Sister Newman asked if I would be a buggy rider and the part in Streets "and sing!" kind of sung obnoxiously. I'm a natural for that. And I still say the "ouch!" at the end of the quilting and singing in Relief Society.
Elder Scott served in the Riser Boot shop and I served in the Print Shop yesterday. We only had 3 or 4 tours in six hours and he only had 2 tours. Weird!!! I went to say "Hi" to Elder Scott when I was through and they had a puzzle going and I stayed the whole hour working on that puzzle (I still love puzzles).  It's really quieted down since the summer rush. Sister Sanders was sick so Sister Openshaw and I got changed to the 10:00 am to 4:00 pm shift. Some of the sites are open from 9 to 5 and some are open from 10 to 4. It takes 3 missionaries to run the 9 to 5 shift and 2 missionaries to run the 10 to 4 shift. The shifts are A-9 to 2:30, B-11:30 to 5, C-9 to 11:30 and 2:30 to 5, and of course D-10 to 4. In the summer months, the shifts were all 6 hours long, now there 5 1/2 hours, except the D shift is still 6 hours.
A bunch of missionaries left yesterday to go home. Gibson's, our borders :), left a few minutes ago to take a pair of the oxen back to Georgia. They don't have to go all the way this time, the owners are meeting them in Tennessee. Gibson's will leave to go home the 17th, I guess. Then we will be all alone in our little house here in Nauvoo. That will be different. 41 missionaries are leaving in September, 62 by the end of October, 76 by the end of November, 87 by the end of December and 2 in January. Then it kind of settles down until March. I don't know if any are coming between now and then or not. That leaves 83 of us here. A lot different from summer, when the young performing missionaries, the young sister missionaries (a few of them stayed), and the Nauvoo Pageant missionaries, plus about 170 visitor center missionaries were here. Plus the guests have slowed way down from coming. It's different. Even a good part of the Nauvoo Temple missionaries have gone or are going home. They only come for 6 months during the summer and then only a few of them stay to be in the temple during the fall and winter months. I guess we stock up on cookies and ropes and other things we need for the summer rush during the winter.