Dear family and friends,

It's a beautiful Sunday in Nauvoo! Well, a rainy one, but still beautiful. We have been so busy this last week, and we are constantly going but it's so wonderful. We even rehearse on Sundays. When we are all done emailing today, they are letting us go home for like a 2 hour break! What? That's unheard of. We have finished blocking the entire show of High Hope and Riverboats and started choreography these last few days. All week long Elder Camp told us if we could get ahead of schedule then we could go to the temple on Friday morning, and we all worked super hard and were able to take a morning temple trip to the Nauvoo temple. It was gorgeous. It must have been so hard for the Saints to leave Nauvoo because of the beauty they had created here. Nauvoo in Hebrew literally means "beautiful place". It is.

So, something way cool. Nauvoo is the greatest mission because there are so many senior couples serving here. We have already received homemade bread from one of them. The grandchildren count for the Nauvoo mission is a record number, higher then it has ever been: 2,351!

My sisters and companion are amazing people. Really. This is Zion. We love each other so much, and share everything. When we got back 45 minutes late this past week from our grocery shopping trip to Keokuk, we all took the blame (haha that happened this week). We laugh all the time with each other! My companion, Sister Pettit is from Orem, Utah, and we get along so wonderfully. I will have to send you pictures of us all soon.

Today was wonderful. We went to church this morning. It's kind of funny, because it starts at 8 but if you don't get there AT LEAST 15 minutes before, you are completely late. Some people start showing up an hour before. It is just packed with couple missionaries! Right after church, we had the opportunity to go to Carthage. When we were in the room where the prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were martyred, the elders and sisters and I got to sing a song from one of our shows entitled, "No Ordinary Brothers." In the show, the cast sings it right after they have received the news that the prophet has been martyred. It is so powerful, and so real. During rehearsal this week we all cried our eyes out, as well as when we sang it in Carthage today. Never have I felt so strongly that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. He restored the church to this earth. Christ is the Savior of the world and this is His true church. The words of the song "No Ordinary Brothers" are beautiful:

We knew them both
Thanks be to God we knew them
For we were blessed to be among the few
Who walked and talked and looked into the eyes
of a living prophet
who brought us light and taught us truth

Father in heaven
Grant us this day
Strength to move forward
Forgive and obey
Spreading thy gospel
now and forth with
Never to forget that we knew
A prophet of God
our brother, Joseph Smith.

Come to Nauvoo and see it! You will bawl your eyes out, and smile and laugh like you never have before! Your testimony will be strengthened, your faith will be rekindled, you will feel of Christ's love for you. The Lord is blessing us so much here. He is keeping me healthy and my voice strong. Thanks for your prayers! Love you! Hurrah for Israel!

Love, Sister Paulsen

P.S. Mom and Dad, when you come you need to see the other cast of High Hopes too because the other cast is amazing too and I still have lines and stuff and perform just as much.