"It's been one week..."

Well, three.
The first week was pretty well the same, we worked - slept - couldn't sleep - until about Wednesday. Wednesday we got home from work, and shortly after got a call from Sister Call asking if we wanted to go with them to Quincy the next day. We both had to work so we called our manager and asked if she needed us or if we could go to Quincy. Just as a background, Quincy is where the saints went after they got kicked out of Missouri. They were waiting for direction as to where to go next, but Joseph was in Liberty Jail so they hadn't heard from him. The people of Quincy took in all the saints and housed them till they got an idea of where they were going and how much money they needed to get there. Anyways. They had plenty of housekeepers so she let us go to Quincy! In the morning we went to this old house that was converted to a museum because it's still mostly original furnishings and structures and whatnot. It was BEAUTIFUL. Grandma and Mom would have thought they had died and gone to heaven. After that, I had the best burger in the world at Steak n' Shake... And holy MOSES it was fantastic. President and Sister Call are the best.

They invited us to go to the Nauvoo Pageant with them as well later that night, so we did. At first we thought it was just going to be the same quality as the missionary plays (which I do love) but with families in them instead. I was so dead wrong. It was amazing!! I cried like the whole time! It was so good. It just talks about the Saints' experience here in Nauvoo, as told by Parley P. Pratt. He talked about... Well okay. It was basically like we were sitting there and chatting with his spirit and watching his memories. It was really sooooooo good. They talked a lot about how it was so hard for them to leave their city, but that they just had to take a leap of faith into the darkness. Which really made me cry, because that's exactly what I'm doing by going on a mission. Anyways. As the pageant was going, they would "build the temple" bit by bit and, at the end after Joseph Smith was martyred, they finished it singing Praise to the Man and The Spirit of God. Obviously, everyone's crying by now. So then they talked about how the city was mostly destroyed, and then eventually we rebuilt the temple. Right on cue, the temple lights up and you can see it perfectly from the pageant stage.

The following Saturday we helped with costume check-in for the pageant. It's insane the system that they have to make sure everything goes perfectly. Which it does, every time! Saturday after pageant families come in and turn in their costumes. Then we sort them out, take out any hems made, wash the seams, and they're taken to different homes to be washed by Monday morning for the next family to come and pick them up. So that was fun.

The next day we went and taught primary. We didn't know we were going to be needed, but one of the teachers didn't show up so we had to pull out a lesson as we were sitting in primary. It turned out to be pretty good though. We taught CTR 5, and I'm starting to realize that I LOVE that age. It kind of makes me want to switch back to a double major again and get a certificate in elementary education. I love kids! They are so fun!
Later that night we went to the Trail of Hope for a little vignette that the young performing missionaries put on. There are about ten of them that stand by some of the reader boards along the trail of hope and they tell excerpts from the journals of the Saints. It was really good, a really good Sunday activity. We also got to talk to a lot of people in line, and it was fun to get to know others.

The following... Tuesday? Or Wednesday? One of the two... I realized that I still needed to defer my enrollment. Well, okay. I have known that I need to do that for a while. However, I've been putting it off for a while now because a) I don't want to stop going to USU because I LOVE LOGAN and b) I think it makes the whole mission thing real, and I wasn't sure that I wanted it to be real yet. However, I couldn't just let my account sit there. So I finally got online and looked in my email for directions on how to defer. It was so easy, just said that I was taking an extended stay for religious purposes (it then asked for a description, and I wrote that I was serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). I put which semester my deferment would start and which semester I would be enrolling in again. Aaaaaannnndd..... Cue the tears. Yeah, I was crying. And not like, some tears rolling down my cheeks, quiet crying. No I'm like sobbing. Haha I'm such a freaking baby. But really, I had a good reason for that one. I am so going to miss USU.

However, the next day (or same day... It was a Wednesday.) I started calling to make appointments for my mission papers. I got my physical scheduled and called the dentist to make an appointment there. So she only had an appointment this Friday, and then didn't have anything after that until OCTOBER. So I just made it for that Friday, and I wasn't sure what I needed from the dentist or if I needed to start my papers before I went. So I called my bishop after I made my appointment to see if he could answer these questions of mine, and he found out for me that I don't even need another dentist appointment because my last one was within six months of the day I turn in my papers. After which, he said that I should consider starting my papers anyways so that I have plenty of time to do any unexpected requirements they might need like immunizations or whatever. So... I said okay. And there I was with no dentist appointment but the opportunity to start my papers. I was really excited!

We also had Dallin H. Oaks come and stay at our hotel with his family this last week! Kenz and I were so excited! So we were freaking out and nobody could figure out why these two 20 year old girls were losing it over this old guy coming to the hotel, which then gave us lots of MISSIONARY OPPORTUNITIES to explain who he was, how the church is organized, and why it's such a big deal that he was coming to our little hotel. It was really cool. I talked to him, but just for a second. Kenzie really got to talk to him for a while though! And then before he left, he came down to the front desk and left me a ten dollar tip because I cleaned his room that day. He wrote on the envelope "To Kaitlin - From Oaks room 246" HAHA. Yes I did get a tip from an apostle.

Before he left I thought it would be funny to play a joke on some people... So I texted my mom after I talked to him and said "So I'm at work, right? And Dallin H. Oaks comes up to the front desk and we're talking, and as we're talking he asks if I'm excited for my mission and I say yes, and he starts saying "Yeah, you'll love Colorado. It's a beautiful state and the people there are so amazing and the members will just take the best care of you..." I didn't know what to say so I just kind of played along but now I don't really know what to do... I'm really freaking out..."

She. Lost it.
Haha she sent me like 10 texts in a row. I was just like "Actually, that was a joke. He just said it was nice to meet me. Gotcha!"
Haha. Anyways. I also did that to my grandma, she thought he was just joking around with me, and then I did it to Mary and she kinda freaked out too haha.

I've been very happy here lately. I know I haven't been very good about posting every week like I told myself I would, but I've been so happy. It's getting to the point where I don't actually know how I am going to leave Nauvoo... Like, it has already been almost three months that we've been out here and I'm going home in only four weeks. I finally realized something though that I think I've needed to figure out for a while. For the first few weeks here, I wasn't that into the pioneers. I looked around and saw everyone here that practically worshipped them, and I tried to feel the same way... Do you know what I mean? How so many people just focus on the pioneers and that's their strong point in their testimony and that's like all they talk about? Well I wanted that kind of love for them and I wanted to be able to be like "Blah, the Pioneers, they're so great..." And I just wasn't feeling it. Like I admired and appreciated their sacrifice and their hard work in building up the church and grabbing a hold of it so quickly, but I wasn't developing the kind of love for them that made it all I want to talk about. Then, we went to the pageant again yesterday. There were PROTESTORS, by the way. So that, plus the pageant about the saint's and their lives, and just the general feeling that I've had lately, I realized that I don't want to worship the pioneers and they don't want to be worshipped. The pioneers were ultimately just another group of voices to say that God lives, He loves us, and He has a plan for us and a Son who died for us. Just like Moses and his people, Noah and his people, Adam and Eve, the Nephites, and all of the other people in the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Yeah, the pioneers had the faith to move mountains and they had to endure a lot to prove it. But they didn't do what they did so that we could remember them forever and worship them and want to be like them. They did it so that we would remember WHY they did it, worship our loving Savior, and want to be like them in regards of their unwavering faith.
Which is what will make leaving Nauvoo easy. I want to get out on my mission and be another voice proclaiming the Gospel to the world.