Bentley {Susan} Clark: 2011

JUNE 14TH

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! The day is FINALLY here! I've been waiting for this trip for forever. Literally. We left the Stake Center at 9. We have about 50 people in our group, and took up almost a whole gate! We played cards and ate black bean burritos and had a lovely time waiting for our flight! I was bubbly with excitement. The flight was 3 hours, and I could feel the humidity. Bad day to straighten my hair. We were in the car with the McCleve's. They are so funny! My favorites! Then I looked out the window and my mouth dropped. Missouri is SO BEAUTIFUL. We flew into Kansas City, which is NOT in Illinois. ;) They probably don't even know what the color brown looks like. The only complaint? I miss my mountains. But I can deal for a week. :) There are cows wandering on rolling pastures and everything is like Crayola green! Not even kidding. There are painted water towers everywhere and the most adorable little houses. Ahh. I'm in love. Our first stop was Liberty, and it was also beautiful! I would definitely live here, if it were in AZ. We visited Liberty Jail, aka the Prison Temple. In the actual building in the dungeon part they had models of the ones that were kept there, and I swear it looked like they were moving!! We drove to Far West to see the Temple Cornerstones. The drive was awesome, there were FIREFLIES! Ahh! First time seeing those, too! We ate dinner with the bugs, and then started driving to Nauvoo. We were supposed to get there in a few hours, but that all changed with the HUGE rain storm that occurred! Seriously, I've never seen it rain so hard in my life. A lightning bolt shot a tree next to our car!! At one point a semi passed our car and "enrobed" our mini van. I thought we drove into the Mississippi River.. We safely arrived in Nauvoo around 3:30 in the AM, but half of our group took an alternate route, so now it's 4 AM and we're in our hotel rooms. Me, Kami, and now Mogame are sharing a room. We have a super long day tomorrow.

JUNE 15TH

We only got three hours of sleep. Breakfast was at 9. They let us go off and wander around Historic Nauvoo and the town by ourselves, which I'm grateful for. Sometimes I just need alone time with Kami! haha :) I'm so glad they let me go, because I'm not technically a Laurel, but the same with Cassie and Cal. We're not 16 yet. But we can pass for it! We saw a play called Anna-Amanda, about being true to yourself. It was geared more towards little kids, but it was still great! I found out that all the performers are on Performing Missions?! I did not know they had those! That would be one of the coolest things ever! Too bad I can't sing or dance! haha! We toured the Red Brick Store, the gun and blacksmith/wagon shops. It's rather odd how there is a Catholic church right next to the Temple, and how Historical Nauvoo about 1/4 of it isn't owned by the Church.. interesting. Cal is pretty much the coolest person ever! I'm so glad we're all friends and that he talks now! haha he came with my family to Havasupai last week. He is Chuck Norris, basically. He's got good taste! He spent the entire week with 3 pretty ladies ;). We were scheduled to do Baptisms in the Nauvoo Temple (MY DREAM!), but we ate pizza and took a nap beforehand. I finally figured out how to use the manual focus on my camera, it wasn't fixed all the way, but it would have to do. Lemme just say, coming out of the Temple JUST before sunset, where the sky is overpowered by gold, crimson and violet is THE most gorgeous thing ever. I wish I had my camera then! It overlooks the Mississippi River and the sun was hitting the trees just perfectly... oh! Man. Later we saw more musical performances, and this was the place where me and Kami fell in love with the song Boondocks by Little Big Town.. haha it's our absolute favorite! We were the only ones who went while everyone else went swimming in the hotel. Geez, come on! You can swim at home! You're missing Boondocks! haha ;) A few of us exchanged room numbers and called each other the whole night. It was hilarious!! :D We're planning to meet up early for breakfast to play games and such because we have tons of luxurious free time tomorrow. Such a perfect day!!!

JUNE 16TH

Jacob eats so much. Oh my goodness. Haha! Basically a never-ending pit. We had a devotional out in a cemetery about equality of the priesthood and womanhood. We took a tour of some of the buildings in the RLDS side of HN, oddly enough a Catholic Asian named Michael was giving us tours at a fee. Basically the whole RLDS religion is flawed and no one could answer our basic Gospel questions. There were gaps and they make up their own doctrine and such. I'm so glad that the real LDS church is simple and all connected and MAKES SENSE. Haha that's another blessing I'm so grateful to have! Another weird thing, they don't bear testimony at the end of a tour, I never realized that. But it's weird! Anyways, Sister Brague gave us a devotional later, and we went on a carriage ride throughout the countryside. Okaaayyy.. the senior missionary couples are so precious!! <3 Afterwards we ate dinner... buffet style! The strawberries here are delicious!! We probably ate their whole year supply. Heck, I probably ate their whole year supply! We saw another play Rendezvous at Old Nauvoo, put on by the senior missionaries! So cute! We got those famous red bricks that say Nauvoo on them, I really hope that TSA doesn't confiscate them! We saw the performing artists again, mainly for Boondocks ;), afterwards while waiting for the cars, all the lightning bugs came out!! Haha me and Kami must've looked like children running after them in the fluffy grass barefoot and screaming and sneaking up on them.. but hey, we most likely had more fun than anyone else did!! I CAUGHT TWO OF THEM!!!! Highlight of my life! I love being a child. ;) We got super yummy froyo after. And then pizza and "woot-beer" afterwards, followed by more room calling! I never want to leave!!

JUNE 17TH

Well, we're going to Carthage today!! Holy dang, we're so lucky for that huge rainstorm. It made the weather just p e r f e c t!! I could hardly feel the humidity, and wore my light jacket the entire time! Normally it's super hot and sticky here during this time of year. Totally felt the Spirit there, it was so peaceful. I've been getting tons of great shots! There is so much to photograph! But the one photo I've envisioned every since I heard of this trip... I couldn't get. :( oh well! Looks like I'll just have to come back another time! ;) After visiting, we went to the town center and watched some of the guys jump out of trees and such. Pretty entertaining! But they're insane. haha! We chased a fox in our mini van into the middle of a field, by the way. Sister McCleve wanted pictures. She's so adorable! She reminds me of my mom. Ooh, Kami taught me how to whistle through a blade of grass! We took an ASL tour of the visitor's center before we watched a movie. Thus began my love for sign language. I know how to sign "I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" and the First Vision story! Soooo awesome!! We saw High Hopes and Riverboats later, and it was so good!! We "loitered" in the Temple grass, the grass here is amazing anyways, but when it comes to Temple grass, you won't find anything better than it!! It's so breathtaking here, each minute is making it harder for me to realize that I have to leave tomorrow. We took off running to go shopping because we wouldn't have time tomorrow.. I know just a bit of how the Saints felt about not wanting to leave.. it will be hard!! I definitely have a new appreciation for them because I've walked a bit in their footsteps and seen when they've seen. We had a testimony meeting, but for some reason I didn't bear mine, gosh dang it!! I should have.. we're leaving tomorrow... :'(

JUNE 18TH

Our crazy leaders had us leave the hotel at 5:30 in the AM! Not cool. haha ;) Last night we were calling them again, which is super entertaining. Then we went to the Amish Country! We stayed in the modern part of town and didn't go quite into the "Amish Paradise"... By the time we got there after 4 hours they were serving lunch.. afterwards we visited Adam-ondi-Ahman! Holy beautiful. If this was considered a "wasteland", then the Garden of Eden just might knock me unconscious. Haha I don't want to go back to our literal wasteland, AZ! Haha now I'm gonna forget what green looks like! Brother Alleman taught us about AoA and it cleared up a ton of missing gaps! I wouldn't mind living there ;). Oh and a butterfly landed on my shoulder. Why must this place be so charming?? We were pressed for time and had to leave... sigh. We went back to the airport and took off. What happens in Nauvoo, stays in Nauvoo. Fo sho.