May 13- Nauvoo

After Carthage we spent the whole day in Nauvoo. This was the favorite part of our trip. I felt like I was at an amusement park because the town is set up like it would have been for the Saints and you choose which places you want to visit. Each house, store, or workshop was so exciting and educational. There are missionaries in every site you chose to see. Nauvoo was a great place to see in the off-season because it's such a small place that it wouldn't have been so fun packed with people. There wouldn't be very much parking, and the stores would be more crowded. However, parking really wouldn't be too bad because the town is really small and the hotels are in walking distance of the sites. The weather was great too, not too hot nor to cold.

We started the day seeing the sites that the Community of Christ owns. The buildings they own are still original, except for the Red Brick Store, which was rebuilt. 

We saw the Mansion house which is a hotel that Joseph and Emma ran for a little while. 

This is the Nauvoo House. We didn't go inside because a group had the place rented out for the week.

We also saw the Homestead, which you can tell they added on after the original house.

And the Red Brick Store. 

The Community of Christ doesn't allow pictures so I only have inside pictures of the Red Brick Store. The Store was really neat to see because that is where the endowment was given and where the first celestial marriage took place, along with other things. This is the room where everything took place.

Joseph had an office in the building.

This is the store that is on the first floor. They had things for sell in the store that were being given away for free by our church. We were glad we didn't sucked into buying anything. 

We were a little disappointed that our church doesn't own the Red Brick Store because none of the sacred things that were given there were talked about on our tour. It could have been a much more spiritual experience. It was on this tour that I realized that Emma got remarried after Joseph died. My knowledge of her ends with Joseph's death and I would like to learn more eventually. 

This is the grave stone for Joseph, Emma and, Hyrum. The bodies are actually under this stone. Joseph and Hyrum were secretly buried by Emma so no one could dig the bodies up. But the story goes that Joseph's family knew where they were buried, which was very close to the current spot and also close to the river.  The river was rising quickly so the family wanted to move the bodies so the river wouldn't wash them up out of the secret burying place. That new location is where the stone is now.