#nauvoo

Nauvoo, Illinois

Because my parents are currently serving a historical mission in Nauvoo, my siblings and I (and the littles) spent Christmas there. Due to the constant tightrope walking of being still technically a member of the church, but also being queer (biromanic and nonbinary), it gave me a lot to think about.

All of the missionaries clearly loved being there. There are four parts of the mission that most people don't know about. There's obviously the historical missionaries, who do all of the teaching, but they have a parallel mission who run the temple. The missions share a mailroom, and sometimes meet up for social gatherings. Another part of the historical mission are the Teamsters. Their wives do the tours, while they take care of the massive horses and the oxen. The final part is the one my dad wishes to be on, which is the maintenance crew. Usually during winter, they repair outdoor benches and start germinating plants, but this winter they also have the task of updating the electrical in all of the buildings that were recently acquired.

It's really sobering to go through an area that is mostly empty, and knowing that just a couple inches under the soil are the foundations of hundreds of houses. All of the houses are for tours, or house the missionaries.

Onto more religious battles. The path that the pioneers took out of Nauvoo once shared the name of Trail of Tears, but a few years ago it was renamed to the Trail of Hope. Reading the stories along there reminded me of my queer and religious siblings across the globe. One of the quotes hit especially hard from Wilfred Woodruff, who would later be a prophet: "I looked upon the Temple and the city as they receded from view, and asked the Lord to remember the sacrifices of his Saints." Queer people of faith have to give up so much to be who they were created to be, and sometimes it's overwhelming. For those of my siblings who left the LDS church, I hold nothing against you. Some days I consider it, but they will have to kick me out themselves.

It hurt, not being allowed to go into the Nauvoo temple. As a nonbinary person who is out basically everywhere, I no longer qualify for a temple recommend. The last time I was in Nauvoo, I was eight, and watched my brothers go in without me. Now, I watch as my niece goes in, and fight back the tears because I have kept every commandment, and I'm not allowed to go in because I was born into a body that isn't what I am.

Memorial of the inhabitants of Nauvoo in Illinois, praying redress for injuries to the persons and property by lawless proceedings of citizens of Missouri (Joseph Smith, et al)

Record Group 46: Records of the U.S. SenateSeries: Committee Papers of the Committee on the JudiciaryFile Unit: Petitions and Memorials Referred to the Judiciary Commiteee Relating to Various Subjects in the 28th Congress

Just got back from a Long trip to Nauvoo Illinois. 😃✨ It was a very cool experience seeing all the old church history sites and learning about the testimonies and efforts of the Saints that lived there.

What was especially cool was checking out the new sites that the Church had recently acquired. 👀 Especially the Red brick store. Which was where the Relief Society—One of the Largest and Oldest Women's organizations in the world—was established on March 17, 1842.

Pretty cool stuff 😎 ✨ Maybe a bit too cool, since ya boi Toasty got caught trying to sneak into the Relief Society meeting 😅