In 2011, I was going to grad school at Central Michigan University. Two friends and I decided to take a bit of a road trip during Spring Break that year. This was the last week of March, so it was still very cold. We planned to go to the Chicago Temple, the Nauvoo Temple, other sites in Nauvoo, Carthage Jail, Kirtland, and a few other places. In many ways, this trip didn’t turn out quite the way we’d planned.
The Early Part of the Trip
The early part of the trip went fairly smoothly. I did an endowment session in the Chicago Temple while my two friends did baptisms for the dead there. We then set off for Nauvoo. While we were doing several things, Nauvoo, particularly the Nauvoo Temple, was kind of the highlight of the trip.
Our Experience in Nauvoo
We arrived in Nauvoo after dark. While we had made sleeping arrangements, it was soon apparent that are overnight accommodations were not going to work. The first night, we ended up driving across the state border into Iowa and sleeping in my car. While it wasn’t the most comfortable sleeping arrangement, we had a lot of blankets. Even though it was late March, we didn’t get as cold as you’d expect.
The next morning, we drove back into Nauvoo and started touring sights. Because it was nowhere near the height of tourist season, we were able to get a very personalized tour of many of the sites. It was an amazingly spiritual experience. It even included some behind-the-scenes experiences that many people visiting Nauvoo would never experience. For me, it made some of those experiences from early church history more realistic. I could better envision where things had actually happened.
Visiting the Nauvoo Temple
That evening, we had scheduled a temple appointment at the Nauvoo Temple. I was again doing an endowment session while my two friends, who were not endowed at the time, did baptisms for the dead.
Coming out of the session, I was a bit lost, so I tried to discreetly follow other women, assuming they’d lead me to the locker room. From there, I assumed I could find my way out of the temple. There were about five or six women all heading in the same direction, so I figured it was the right way. As they started to head upstairs instead of downstairs, it felt a bit off, but I figured it had to be the right way. After all, there were five or six of them. They couldn’t all be heading in the same wrong direction. One of the women must have realized I was lost. She explained that they were headed to the ordinance workers’ locker room, and she directed me toward where I needed to go.
I quickly changed my clothes and made my way back downstairs. While the session had been great, I wasn’t excited about having to spend another night sleeping in my car. As I came to the ground floor, I quickly saw my two friends. They seemed a little too happy. It turns out that while they were waiting for me, they’d talked to the Nauvoo Temple matron and some other temple volunteers. The people had asked my friends about where we were staying. When the temple matron found out we were planning on sleeping in my car, she offered us her summer home for the night.
A View of the Nauvoo Temple
We ended up meeting the temple matron outside her summer home. I don’t know where her winter home is located, but the summer home is right across from the Nauvoo Temple. From many of the front windows, you can clearly see the Nauvoo Temple. It was a very beautiful sight, light up at night.
Even almost 13 years later, this experience is still a bit surreal to me. I met the temple matron, she handed me the keys to her house, and then she asked me my name. Who does that? To me, she is an amazing example of trust, service, and following the promptings of the Spirit. If I had a summer home, even if I wasn’t using it at the time, I’m not sure that I would trust three young adults that I’d just met with the keys to my home. Yet, I really appreciate that she did.
I don’t remember all the details of the house, but I do remember that it was two stories. The upper story was separated by walls into probably four or five different rooms each with several beds, as in probably enough beds for the temple matron’s kids and grandkids all to spend the night.
Our road trip lasted from Monday to Saturday, and that was the only night that I really got a decent amount of sleep. It was the only night that I slept on a real bed. That alone is a legitimate reason to be grateful to that wonderful temple matron who saw a need and helped us out.
The Rest of the Road Trip
The next morning, we ended up having breakfast at some other temple volunteers’ home. Warm, free homemade breakfast? I’m not going to pass on that. We then went to Carthage Jail, where I was able to connect the stories that I’d heard my whole life to a real location. It surprised me how much of that building (at least in 2011) was the same as it would have been when Joseph and Hyrum Smith were jailed there.
Other highlights of the road trip include having to pull over at a rest stop because visibility was terrible and traffic was barely moving because of a serious snowstorm, falling asleep almost instantly on a hard wooden floor, and getting to see Kirtland. Those experiences could each be their own stories.
Lessons Learned
My experience at the Nauvoo Temple, particularly the experience of getting to spend the night in the temple president’s summer home, provided several lessons.
Blessings Come When You’re Where You Should Be
One of the biggest is that blessings come when you’re where you should be. We could have chosen to not go to the Nauvoo Temple. I remember there was another event going on, I think it was in the visitors center, at roughly the same time as our temple appointments. That would have been fun. We could have done that instead, and we probably would have had a great time. We wouldn’t, though, have been in the right place at the right time to get an invite to spend the night in the house across the street from the temple. Instead, we likely would have spent the night in my car again.
Simple Acts Bring Huge Blessings
I also learned that simple acts on our part can be a huge blessing to others. I might be stretching the definition of “simple acts” when I say that the temple matron offering us her summer home was a “simple act,” but to her, it probably was. She had a guest book on her front table, and it was clear that we were not the first people she’d loaned her home to. For her, it was probably a matter of that she wasn’t using it. Someone else should.
While I am sure that my two friends appreciated the gesture, it was an even bigger deal to me. I did all the driving on the trip. Some of that driving was late at night, including on the night of the snowstorm. I was literally exhausted by the end of the trip (hence why I fell asleep on a hard wooden floor). Being able to get one good night of sleep may have been the difference between safely making it back home and me falling asleep at the wheel.
There Really Are Great People in the World
Unfortunately, it’s often easy to focus on negativity. The temple matron’s willingness to help us out as well as the couple who provided us with food the next morning are reminders to me that there really are great people in the world. These are people who see the good in others and who without hesitation want to help and serve others. While many of us will never get the chance to provide an entire home to strangers, we can all be one of those great people by being of service to others as well. Sure, it might be in much smaller ways, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be meaningful to others.
Sometimes We Can’t Fully Express Our Gratitude
We thanked the temple matron for the keys to her house. The next morning, we left her a note of gratitude. We also thanked the people would fed us the next morning. I think we sent the temple matron and the couple thank you cards a month or so later as well. Yet, it doesn’t feel like enough. Sometimes, we just have to express our gratitude as well as we can. It may not be enough, but we can do our best. Even now, I wish that I could see those people who helped us out that evening and again express how much it means to me almost 13 years later. For now, though, the gratitude that we expressed at the time will have to be enough.
Of course, this inability to fully express our gratitude applies perfectly to our Heavenly Father. Fortunately, I believe that as long as we express that gratitude as well as we can in both words and actions, He really does know that we are extremely grateful for all the blessings that He’s given us.
The Nauvoo Temple is a Wonderful Place
While I love every temple that I’ve visited, the Nauvoo Temple does hold a special place in my heart. I now live close to 1,500 miles away from Nauvoo. I’ll likely never visit that temple again. Because of my experience there, though, I have strong positive feelings toward the Nauvoo Temple and Nauvoo itself. I’m not sure that those feelings could be as strong without that experience. Even just the experience of seeing the temple from across the street solidified my love of the Nauvoo Temple. I also feel like the experience reinforced my love of temples in general.
Some Experiences Stick With Us for Life
I think about my experiences at the Nauvoo Temple on a fairly regular basis. While I don’t think about it every day, it’s something that’s on my mind several times a month. There are many experiences that happened around that same time that I’ve since forgotten or that I rarely think about anymore. Yet, this experience sticks with me because it’s something that I need to remember. I have a feeling that it’s something that I’ll remember 30 or more years from now stick with a great appreciation for these women’s willingness to help out three crazy young adult women. I’m sure there will be other life experiences that will stick with me because they are also experiences that I need to remember and maybe even share with others.
