Newman Family: June 2008

Jeff and I had the opportunity to go to Nauvoo as a Ma and Pa for our Stake Youth Conference this past week. Words cannot describe the beautiful spirit that fills Nauvoo. My love and testimony for Joseph Smith has grown even stronger.

This is Carthage Jail where Joseph Smith was martyred. The top window is the exact window Joseph fell out of when he was shot.

This is the dungeon room in Carthage where Joseph and the other men were first put.

The temperature in here got to about 120 degrees. The jailer felt so bad for them, he decided to put them in his own personal bedroom. That is the room where Joseph and Hyrum ended up dying.

If you look closely, you can see a bullet hole in this door.

This was the bullet that killed Hyrum Smith.

Michele and Jeff standing on the shore of the Mississippi River where the Saints started their journey.

This building is called the Nauvoo House. This is where the boys and men in our stake slept. It was originally a hotel that Emma Smith ran after Joseph died. Emma also died in this house.

We had the amazing opportunity to do baptisms for the dead in the Nauvoo Temple. It is the most beautiful temple font I have ever seen in my life.

The Newman Family on the steps of the Nauvoo Temple. I was known as "Mamasita" the whole trip and the kids called Jeff "Papa Jeffe".

This is the Old Nauvoo Cemetary. They do not allow youth groups up here to do service because of the sacredness of these grounds. However, they made an exception for out stake and we were able to spend about an hour and a half cleaning the old cemetary grounds. There is a very special spirit that resides here.

Our family was put in charge of making a path that leads to the cemetary.

On our way to Nauvoo, we stopped at Liberty Jail in Missouri. This is the original floor from the jail that Joseph spent about 4 months on. The figures in the picture are part of the presentation they give.

This is the Joseph Smith Homestead where Joseph and Emma originally moved to when they first arrived in Nauvoo. The left part of the house was built on later in 1858 by Joseph's son Joseph III
This is the Mansion House. In 1842 Joseph Smith built this beautiful frame house just across the street from the Homestead. Just after its construction, however, a hotel wing was added to accommodate the many visitors to Nauvoo while the Nauvoo House was under construction. It was in this house that the Prophet Joseph Smith lived when the Martyrdon occured. We were able the take a tour of both of these homes. We saw where Joseph and Emma slept. We walked where they walked, and we were able to see some original furniture pieces from the house.

On our way home from Nauvoo, we stopped in Omaha Nebraska at Winter Quarters. This is where the Saints stopped during the winter on their way to SLC.

This is a monument of a mother and father standing over the grave of one of their children.
More than half of the graves in this cemetary are children.

I told a story to my family about a man named Stillman Pond. This man lost 5 of his children on his way to Winter Quarters. While in winter quarters, he lost 4 more of his children. I gave each of the kids in our family a windmill to put on a grave of one of the Pond children. One of those children was a 6 year old boy named Lymon Pond. Not all of the graves are marked with a headstone, but we had a map that told us the locations the bodies were buried. This is a picture of me with my windmill at Lymons burial site.