Dear family,Hi! Well, hopefully this email goes better than the last one did! I was glad to hear from home. :) I like the story about FHE and testimonies. It was sweet to read.Well, let me try to get in the stuff from last week now, even though it's been a while since the initial emotions and details. I'll tell you a little bit about Nauvoo first. One of my favorite things here is the thunderstorms. I now know just what rolling thunder can actually sound like. We had some pretty good storms at the beginning, and the first few we had at night kept me up-- mostly because they were so cool to listen to! The lightning was pretty intense too. I tried to count the time between flash and thunder, but it was impossible because there was so much of it I didn't know which thunder clap belonged to which lightning bolt. One day my comps and I walked home from a dinner appointment in the rain (not lightning though...) in our pioneer dresses. It was a pretty good pour, but I've since learned that comparitivly that was a drizzle. Anyway, it was fun, and we made it very dramatic (cuz hey, we were wearing pioneer dresses!). We took some pictures-- I'll be sending one home for you. P.S. I think I look pretty cute in my pioneer dress, though it's not always the easiest thing to deal with. The good news is Sister Meyer has done an excellent job training us in the art of successful bathroom-usage in pioneer atire.I've now seen most of Old Nauvoo, including all the Community of Christ sites. (We still have a few houses and shops we need to see.) One of my favorite places is the Pioneer Burial Grounds. (It's actually on the bluff, away from the rest of the historic sites.) It is SO peaceful and beautiful there. I loved it.One place we work is the Family Living Center. We explain a lot of pioneer skills there. I may not be skilled at making actual dough yet, but I could now make bread without a modern oven! I think I should get points for that! I've also learned how to weave on a loom and make rope. Yep! I can actually MAKE it and I have! I might send my rope home for ya'll.Teaching is great. I love it when the tours are good, though there are definitely some really hard moments. Sometimes it's really rough (the people don't want to listen, they don't talk to you..); the hardest is when school groups come in because we're not allowed to talk about the gospel or church at all- just history. Those times it's easy to feel like a tour guide. But then there are moments that are awesome. One of my first days here I gave a tour to a couple who aren't members of the church. I ended up teaching them the whole first lesson, and at the end they accepted a copy of The Book of Mormon. It was such a good feeling! I love seeing people change- even if it's just a little bit.Okay, now I'll tell you a little bit about this last week. One of the highlights-- Saturday morning we were studying and we got a call about an hour in to go to one of the sites because a Deaf couple showed up. We threw on our pioneer dresses (because we were serving in a site that afternoon and wouldn't have time to come back and change) and raced down there. We gave a visitor center tour and also a Family Living Center tour. We were with the couple for probably three or four hours. They were curious about the Mormon church and Nauvoo, so they had a lot of questions. It was so neat to talk to them and get to know them. At the end of the tour we told them to tell other Deaf people they know about Nauvoo and that we signing sisters are here, so hopefully we'll have some more Deaf visitors come as a result. One funny thing that happened-- during the tour they started asking about our clothes. Gradually we each realized what they were talking about. Because we were in our pioneer dresses, they thought we are similar to the Amish or FLDS in what we have to wear. We laughed and explained that our dresses our costume to represent the era, and pointed out the "normally dressed" people around us that were probably mostly LDS. We explained what typical missionaries wear and why and then told what we like to wear back home. It made me wonder how many visitors think that about us... Ha ha.Sunday afternoon I got to serve in Carthage. It was SO busy! I observed Sister Meyer on one of her tours-- which had about 50 people and most of them were members of a historical society. No pressure there! She did awesome though. It was a little intimidating though-- my first time upstairs I was ahead of most of the group because I had to accompany some people as they went upstairs. They started asking me all these specific questions like "which window?" and things like that. I was like, "Um, this is the first time I've ever been in this room. I just got here. My companion is training me on this tour." That helped a little. A little while later I gave a tour, but I made sure it was a small group-- there was about 13 people from 3 families. I didn't know all the stuff right off so I had to look at my cheat cards a few times, but I thought it went pretty well. At the end I shared my testimony and that's the most important thing. I decided it's one of my favorite places to serve. The Spirit is very strong there.We also started a few of the major Nauvoo productions this week, so our schedules become a bit more hectic. I like the shows though-- it's fun when we get to see bits and pieces.Other than that, nothing too notable. Doing the work!I love you all! I hope you've had a good week and that this week goes well for you. Happy summer! Be good, be safe, and be happy.Love,Sister Westwood