Just as it takes the right recipe and correct ingredients to make a rich and creamy batch of fudge, it takes the proper ingredients to create a rich and sweet life. And for Dan and Melva Hahl, a lesson in making fudge is a lesson in gospel living.
"If you take the right ingredients - like listening to the counsel of the prophets and reading the scriptures - and blend them properly, then your life becomes something rich and sweet," explained Pres. Hahl, recently called as second counselor in the Nauvoo Illinois Stake presidency.Pres. and Sister Hahl, proprietors of the Fudge Factory in Nauvoo, have found their business to be a place where patrons feel comfortable enough to ask questions about the area, and often about the Church.
"We get to meet all different kinds of people, members and non-members," commented Sister Hahl, second counselor in the stake Relief Society presidency. "People who know about the history come here to visit, and others stop who are unaware of the restored homes so we direct them down the hill."
After living in metropolitan areas most of their lives (Albany, N.Y.; Vienna, Va., outside Washington, D.C.; and Houston, Texas) the Hahls did something even they didn't expect to do by moving to this Midwest town of 1,100 residents.
The Hahls moved to Nauvoo after he retired from the Geological Survey of the Department of Interior. Their son, Larry, has been helping them in the fudge business since returning from a mission in Toronto, Ontario, last year. Their other four children and six grandchildren (many of whom are scattered across the United States) occasionally come to Nauvoo to visit and help.
"I was getting ready to retire and we had examined possibilities of employment after retirement," Pres. Hahl explained about their move. "We decided to remodel old homes and were looking for a place to do that. We had it narrowed down to two places, but it was not in Nauvoo."
But then the Hahls heard that the Fudge Factory was for sale. They looked into it further, taking a trip to Nauvoo in early January 1988. By the middle of January they had purchased the shop and opened for business that April.
"We had never made a decision like that," Sister Hahl remarked. "So many people said, `You are going where? You are going to do what?' We had been so conservative in the past.
"And everybody in Nauvoo wondered what we were doing coming from New York. We decided before we came here that Nauvoo was a special place and we were privileged to come and live here. We decided we should live and be the kind of people that Latter-day Saints should be in a community and in business."
With that commitment, the Hahls have been active in the local chamber of commerce, a retail merchants association, the Lions Club, on the library board and involved in city council projects.
Their involvement in the community and that of other LDS members have helped the Church be accepted in a place that was once full of hostility for Latter-day Saints.
Years ago, the bishop of the Nauvoo Ward became part of the town ministerial council, and each bishop since then has participated on the council. Ward members also take part in the town's biannual passion play, participating side-by-side with Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans and even those who are antagonistic toward the Church.
"We are beginning to make some progress here where we haven't been able to in years before," Pres. Hahl commented. "The time is here for the saints in the area to provide a leavening to the whole area.
"When the hustle and bustle of tourists are gone and you visit some of the homes, you can feel the blessings that were left here by the prophet Joseph Smith," he added. "You can feel there was a temple dedicated here and that the Lord, through the Spirit, instructed the people living here in those early days of the Church."
Sister Hahl continued: "When people walk the streets of Nauvoo, they can feel the spirit. They want to know what makes it different and what it is they are feeling. That often allows us to talk to them about the Church in a non-threatening, yet sincere and loving way."
Sister Hahl herself is a convert to the Church. She grew up in Jackson, Miss., and joined the Church there when she was 18 years old. Pres. Hahl grew up in an active LDS family in Rahway, N.J.
"We thought we would come to Nauvoo and work for a few years and go on a mission," Sister Hahl said, "but then Dan was put in the stake presidency. We feel like this is what we are supposed to be doing right now. The time will come when we will be able to go on our mission like we had planned. But we have fallen in love with this place.
"Church history absolutely comes alive when you live here," Sister Hahl remarked. "The early saints were happy here and prospered. They learned to serve each other and they grew. I often think as I walk down the streets of Nauvoo about who lived here and wonder how they would feel with what we have done with what they had. I wonder if we would have made the sacrifices they made when they were here."
"They did magnificent things in Nauvoo," Pres. Hahl added. "There was nothing like it in this part of the United States. They established a way of life. A lot of times members and non-members come through here without realizing that this was the basis for establishing communities from Canada to Mexico.
"The early saints put into practice what they learned here. They made it work in Nauvoo and carried that knowledge with them as they set up 300 communities. It was a marvelous thing they did in colonizing the West. That spirit was developed here."
Sister Hahl concluded: "It's a wonderful time to be here. We love the peace, the beauty, the silence, the history and the people of Nauvoo."
