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We have a complimentary Nauvoo Pageant soundtrack available for friends who are not of our faith.  This soundtrack is a wonderful way for you to experience the sweetness of our experience for yourself.  The music is uplifting and powerful. If you have enjoyed hearing our story and would love to hear more, please send us your contact info and we will have this beautiful soundtrack delivered to your home.  If you are of our faith, we would love to send CDs to your friends and family of other faiths.  Please consider sharing the sweetness of the gospel and the story of Nauvoo with those you love.

We will need this information from you:

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All contact information will remain confidential and will only be shared with those responsible for organizing the distribution of the CDs.  You can send us your contact information by entering it in the comment section.  If you have commented on the blog before, however, the info will be visible to the public.  If you have not commented before, your contact info will remain hidden and unseen by the public.  You can also send me (Trista Weibell) a private message on facebook or contact me through email (moxiefoto@gmail.com)

Our lives are more tender and sweet because of our participation in this pageant.  We hope that you will choose to invite the spirit of the pageant into your life and share its sweetness with your friends and neighbors.  We love our Savior very much and are filled with gratitude for His light and love that we cherish in our lives.  May your lives also be filled with His peace.

Christian, Tucker and David arrived in Nauvoo on Sunday.  It’s so good to be with them again!

Monday morning we registered with the rest of the Sunshine Yellow Cast.

All my boys were fitted for their costumes.

We played crazy Getting-to-Know-You games and learned the Country Fair dances.  Mostly I took a lot of pictures and edited them.

We received our Frontier Country Fair assignments and went to work on them Tuesday night.  Christian, Taylor, and Tucker are playing in the Frontier Country Fair Band.  Tucker plays acoustic bass guitar. Christian plays guitar and Taylor is on drums.  They play a speedy round dance, a mach-speed Scottish Highland Fling, a melodious waltz, and a wicked polka.  David marches around on stilts.

During the day, we are on the sweaty hot stage learning our moves.  Taylor’s got some good ones.  Tucker does, too.

Sometimes we get to practice in the air conditioned junior high gym.  We also get to practice finding our place in four concentric circles that are spinning in opposite directions without leaving any lone satellite people in the middle.  Suzie conducts us like an orchestra to get all of our spins and twirls and hops down just right.

We practice a lot.  We sweat a lot.  We smack a lot of bugs and drink a lot of water, and we love every minute of it.  It’s the people who make this experience completely memorable.  As we practice each scene of the pageant, we group together and talk about the principles we are teaching and the events we are portraying.  We talk about how life is short and how we are all here for a reason.  We talk about the fact that people come into our lives for a purpose.  We talk about taking Nauvoo home with us, and we share our stories of faith.  Next week when we take the stage (Yes, that’s really only one week after arriving), we will be prepared to light the stage with our spirits.  The pageant will be as beautiful as it always is.

As a surprise ending to a wonderful week, my parents came for a visit to Nauvoo.  It’s nice to be together with them, also, in this beautiful place!

Last night, I sat on a metal chair in the dark, shadowy front wing of the stage, photographing the Saints in Zion.  After a week of watching the pageant, I was beginning to wonder when the tears would flow.  That moment came as our narrator, Parley P. Pratt, stood on stage and described what the Saints experienced in the early days of Nauvoo.  As they looked over what would soon become Beautiful Nauvoo, they saw mosquito infested swampland that brought disease and sickness. They saw death and heartache.  The Prophet Joseph, himself, was very ill.  One day, he rose from his sickbed, gathered the apostles and miraculously healed a multitude of people.  “From this experience,” Parley said, “we learned that each day is a gift.”

On this muggy, dusky night, my breath caught in my throat as I thought back to the struggles in my own life.  In 2003, as a young mother of three boys, the youngest of which was barely a year old, the doctor delivered the news that I had Hodgkin’s disease, a form of cancer.  I am completely cured today, but the experience was a very difficult one for me personally and our family as a whole.  I would not wish to have that particular trial again, but I cannot forget the beautiful perspective on life that it has given me.  Each moment truly is a gift.  Eight short years later, I still have not forgotten that fact.  It lives in my heart.  I celebrate birthdays as if they might be my last. I try say kind words when I think them, and I try to listen to the spirit so that I can seize the moment and live without regret.  What a great blessing it is to have been given this perspective in life that will influence how I live the rest of my life, and what a better life it will be because of it.

Last night, as the tears flowed from my eyes and down my checks in my shadowy corner, I realized that not only is each day a gift, this day is a gift.  It is such a gift to not only be here on this earth, but to be gathered with my family and the Saints in Zion.

The Prophet Joseph Smith said, “And that same sociality which exists amongst us here will exist among us there only it will be coupled with eternal glory…”

Through my lens, I have seen the hearts of the Saints.

I have seen real, raw, tender emotions, both of joy and of grief, and my heart yearns to be with them, not only here and now, but always.

Red Cast has come and gone.  We made wonderful friendships, and said sweet goodbyes.  I love Red Cast’s spirit.  They have such a spirit of patience, which is much needed when we are all practicing on the first cast to get it right with the others.  Their patient, willing smiles were such a blessing in our lives.  Red Cast has returned home as Blue Cast and their powerful spirits take the stage this week.

Yellow Cast arrived yesterday with their sunny smiles and contagious enthusiasm.

Each week I think my heart will burst as I grow to love these people and then send them on their way home.  Last night as Blue and Yellow Casts stood onstage, shoulder to shoulder, and sang The Spirit of God, I realized that my heart was bursting with love for all those people on stage – people that I knew, but more surprisingly, people that I didn’t even know, yet.  The spirit has truly enlarged my ability to feel and quickened my spirit.

It truly is a gift to be here at this moment!

Despite a zippy ride down Mulholland on my bicycle, I arrived at the Trail of Hope early one morning feeling sleepy, bleary eyed, and harried.  The work here in Nauvoo has begun in earnest.  The pageant, country fair, vignettes and family pictures have all started this week, leaving me little time to process what I am feeling here in this place I never want to forget.

This particular cloudy morning I came, sleep deprived or not, to record the story of the early Saints who left their homes and beautiful temple in the dead of winter.  They made the long walk down Parley, crossed the Mississippi, and headed west.  I have often pondered the change of title for this location in Nauvoo.  It seemed that Trail of Tears more adequately described their sorrow and heartache.  I, too, felt a weight on my shoulders as I walked Parley Street this particular morning.

I decided to walk Parley in reverse order, so that I could photograph the cast members before the crowds arrived.  I walked to the end of Parley Street and found the pipers.  Joseph played If You Could Hie to Kolob beside the softly rustling trees on the banks of the Mississippi.  I was there to work, but paused for a moment to let the spirit work its way into my heart. I’m not sure the pipers know what a soothing effect their music has on the soul.

I snapped a few piper pictures and headed back up Parley, feeling just a bit more rejuvenated.  I stopped next to chat with Darren Hill, who was leaning across the fence in the diffused morning sun.  I imagined that this is how it was in Nauvoo, neighbor passing neighbor on the streets, pausing to chat and uplift.

As I worked my way down the rest of Parley Street, I saw tender scenes of sorrow, humor, comfort, and love – many of them unstaged.

I saw Alex, pausing to shake hands, hug, and share words of testimony with her fellow friends.

I saw tears slipping down the faces of role playing men and women, as they described their feelings preparing to leave their City Beautiful.

More importantly, they shared their testimonies with us through those tears, often accompanied by resolute smiles.

There were also humorous moments, both scripted and unscripted.  Kelson Davies described being a young boy when he left Nauvoo.  In the snippet of laughter I caught as I passed his place on Parley, he described having to dress as a girl to cross the Mississippi.

I quickly gathered all the pictures I needed, and then made my way to a quiet bench at the end of Parley.  I took a moment, even if it was just a small one, to pause and reflect upon the brief moments I had just experienced.  Come, Come Ye Saints played sweetly and tenderly in the distance.  In the matter of a short few minutes, while I hurried from station to station, working, the spirit, chose to enter my heart and give me strength and comfort.  My Heavenly Father blessed me with a much needed abundance of His Spirit this early morning.

I marched up Parley comforted, smiling and, rejuvenated.

I now understand why the Trail of Tears was changed to the Trail of Hope. There is a powerful spirit on Parley, one of tender sadness, but also one of profound hope.  I am quite certain the early saints experienced the same spirit I felt this day on Parley.

Our Heavenly Father loves us.  Of this, I am sure.  He loved me enough to lift me on this beautiful morning, and He loved the saints enough to give them strength to make their long trek west.  We do have hope through our Savior and His miraculous Atonement. May we all find our quiet moment on Parley to reflect upon the marvelous blessings we have been given.

Taylor and I climbed into the suburban on a cloudy, overcast 4th of July filled with anticipation.  We were headed to Carthage for a first ever, historic event.  The Nauvoo Bagpipe Band had been invited to participate in the Carthage city parade.  Little did I know as I cranked the tunes, and sailed down the highway, that this quaint, somewhat small town parade would completely delight me!

The Midwest is steeped in down home goodness and Americana tradition.  As we stood on the old church corner with the pipers, farm boys rolled past on their tractors, a little miss baseball team (cute as pie) waved at us from a truck, and people stopped, lingered and talked.

The parade took place in old downtown, and marched past the breathtaking courthouse in the center.  The crumbly brick buildings and vintage cars rolling down the street really had my heart in a flutter.

I’m totally going to own this sky blue Volkswagen Bus when I grow up.  Just sayin’!

Entry #47, the Nauvoo Bagpipe Band, marched down the street midway through the parade, causing a stir of excitement! Parade goers jostled their neighbors to get a better view, and children, with an amazed glitter in their eyes, asked, “Are those bagpipers?”

And once again, this time in greater numbers, and making a more impressive sight, they marched past cars and buildings.

People moved in close to the caution tape to photograph and film them.

This young man got his pipes for Christmas last year, and this year he’s marching with the band.  Way to go Brighton!

The pipers marched around the last corner block as I chased them down, alternating camera clicks and video!

Taylor looked especially good in his kilt, marching next to the pretty little lady in Irish dress.

The parade wound past a senior citizens center and came to a stop.  The pipers walked back to the city center in groups of twos and threes in the sweltering heat.  We were lead inside the historic courthouse for water and a freezer stocked with yummy frozen ice cream treats.  The stained glass windows and rotunda were so beautiful!  I sweet talked Ian into momentarily dropping his ice cream and water and posing for a portrait for me.

I can’t decide which one I like best!

Then Ian’s brother, Robbie, wandered over, and as is often the case, the two began to play a duet.  As you can imagine, the rotunda acoustics were amazing!

I think the kilts really make this courthouse look distinguished!  And of course, Robbie got his own portrait.

After cooling off for a few minutes, the pipers went back out into the hot, humid day to perform on the city center stage.  In the usual pattern, they had them laughing and crying.  There were solos and duets, beautiful singing by the Irish girls, a drum major playing bass drum, and a funny story. They ended on the sweet tune of  Amazing Grace.  I’m growing very much to love these pipers, their amazing smiles, wonderful spirits, and talented gifts.

Before we left Carthage, this pretty little picture caught my eye, reminding me of all that is good in America.

I ended my 4th of July celebration in the pipers’ cozy kitchen with pizza and prayer for such a wonderful day!