Nauvoo Relief

I returned last night from 'Old Nauvoo,' the primal city of the prophet Joseph and his final resting place.

I was struck with one simple fact: the stark bareness and simpleness of the place. The temple was devoid of lush gardens and winding pathways. The grounds were well-kempt and grassy, with a small flower display at the front steps. The sole monument was platform with Joseph and Hyrum seated atop horses, facing across the Mississippi.

For those not oriented with LDS history, Nauvoo was a city to which the LDS Saints relocated after having been driven from Kirtland, Ohio. From a swampground infested with malaria and anti-Mormon mobsters, they coaxed a flourishing city with a blacksmith, bakery, and most notably, the Nauvoo temple. Due to increasing hostility bred from misunderstanding, the saints left their beautiful city and its temple and crossed the frozen Mississippi in early to late February. Our beloved prophet, Joseph Smith, was killed just thirty miles away in carthage Jail. They left their homes and the body of the prophet and the body of his brother, Hyrum.





I stayed in this quaint white house, called the "Hart House." The view directly out the front door was the Nauvoo temple. I woke in the morning and parted the curtains to watch the sun rise, casting vibrancy on the temple's granite walls.







This was 'Main Street.' Traversing its length took no longer than fifteen minutes on foot. I did find a fudge shop, though, so my travel was extended to the amount of time it took to sample authentic strawberry fudge.
This is coined the "Trail of Hope," and inscriptions are carved into mounted plates that document some of the feelings of the LDS Saints as they left Nauvoo across the frozen Mississippi.


In closing, Nauvoo was filled with the intense love of the Draper family. It became, for me, a place that signified the sacrifices of the saints. That sacrifice currently extends to me in all sorts of forms learned from the Drapers that I didn't know possible. Sacrifice of worldly fetters for bonds of purity and strength that defend themselves. Sacrifice for the goodness and welfare of others (service). Ultimately, it became a place where I learned about sacrificing for love.

The plainness of the temple grounds represent to me the ability to stand erect admid a landscape of sacrifice. To contain jewels within oneself, not without. To live, as it were, eternally, emboweled in a rim of sacrifice, love, and purification.

I became in Nauvoo a poem that I love by John Keats:

To one who has been long in city pent,
’Tis very sweet to look into the fair
And open face of heaven,—to breathe a prayer
Full in the smile of the blue firmament.
Who is more happy, when, with hearts content,
Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair
Of wavy grass, and reads a debonair
And gentle tale of love and languishment?
Returning home at evening, with an ear
Catching the notes of Philomel,—an eye
Watching the sailing cloudlet’s bright career,
He mourns that day so soon has glided by:
E’en like the passage of an angel’s tear
That falls through the clear ether silently.