Kirtland, OH

On our way home from NY we decided to stop by Kirtland, OH to see more Church Historical sites. Here is the Kirtland Temple, currently owned by the Community of Christ Church (used to be RLDS). The tour (which we had to pay to go on!) started off with a video about the early saints in Kirtland. It was okay. The President of their church looked eerily like a younger President Hinckley! A nice touch was when after the video the curtains opened up so you could see the temple in all its glory. Then we went for a tour. No pictures were allowed to be taken inside. It was really neat to go inside and just imagine what it would've been like to receive counsel and instruction from the prophet.It was funny to watch the video and hear them talk about how they're using the temples (this one and the one in Missouri) for what they were intended for...meetings, lectures, schooling! Ha Ha, if only they'd stuck around for more prophetic revelations!

We walked by the nearby cemetery.

Here is the home of Sydney and Phoebe Rigatoni.

We then went to Historic Kirtland. This is where our church has all of its displays. We watched the video here, which was very impressive...you know, a real movie! We got a tour of the grounds, by sister missionaries of course. The sister missionaries actually live in Hyram and Jerusha's Smith house. The kids loved the water wheel that turned to operate the machine that cut wood down. They had fun in the ashery, too. Both of which were on loan to the church from N.K. Whitney.

This is the bed Joseph and Emma slept in above the Whitney's store. It was here that Emma actually had her own kitchen in so many years since being married. This was a huge deal for her. I understand!

We didn't realize how important Newl K. Whitney and his store was to the building of the church and to the early saints. He had to keep track of his own business and the items of the Bishop Storehouse and deal with all the people. He was well off for that time and had his own very nice frame house. So when the revelation came for the Saints to move on, him and his wife left all that behind. Their house, successful business, comfy life, friends, and family.

We were really impressed with how well the Church does with anything that it owns. The grounds are always clean and inviting. The buildings are perfectly preserved and maintained. And there is a spirit of reverence. Travis likes that the Sisters are cute :-)

We made it home that night and was excited to see that our order from Cabellas came in. We bought a 10-man tent! Nutty, I know!! But we figure if the world falls apart, we'll have somewhere nice to live.