Day 11 - July 11

Kirtland, OH was the first gathering place for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Lord revealed to Joseph Smith in January 1831:

Wherefore, for this cause I gave unto you the commandment that ye should go to the Ohio; and there I will give unto you my law; and there you shall be endowed with power from on high;

Doctrine and Covenants 38:32

We spent only the morning here, since we decided to drive directly to Nauvoo in order to spend more time with Malauna's family, who were already there. There was much more to see in Kirtland than we had time for. (This is a recurring occurrence on this trip.)

We toured the Kirtland Temple, which was dedicated by Joseph Smith on March 27, 1836. The tour was operated by the Community of Christ church (formerly Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or RLDS), so we paid $3 per person as a restoration fee (excluding Leo). The tour group started small, but then more and more people joined. The movie they showed before taking us to the temple was nice, but didn't really hold the attention of Roderic and Hyrum - way too many nature scenes not related to the subject. But it does give some good historical context to those that can understand it.

The temple is gorgeous! They have tried to keep the interior unchanged as much as possible. They ask that you do not take pictures. Here are a couple from the Community of Christ:
Upper Court
Lower Court

We believe that The Lord truly did accept the sacrifice of the early saints of the Church of Jesus Christ in building such a marvelous temple, and that Christ did truly appear to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in this temple, as did several ancient prophets. Many other people witnessed angelic visitations and miracles, including some of our ancestors. Ryan remembers feeling a strong conviction that this truly did occur on his first visit to this temple in 2001.

One thing that impresses Ryan is how vertical and steep the staircases are, and how high the ceilings of each floor! There are some openings along the stairway where you can see inside the walls and areas in between floors, and it's amazing the craftsmanship that was used. And the pulley system for using curtains to divide the rooms into smaller sections when desired. They don't build them like this anymore.

Leo was done with the tour before it started (nap time), so Ryan and Malauna took turns taking him out into the hallway of the upper room of the Temple. He had fun scaring his father by walking around on the second floor landing...with Ryan trying to make sure he doesn't fall, yet doesn't get upset.

There is a lot of history to discuss in those places, and during that Roderic and Hyrum were also losing interest. When it came time to go down to the first floor, our tour guide directed that we sit together as a family in a pew box. I thought of the early saints sitting there, like Nancy Naomi Alexander Tracy and family (one of Ryan's ancestors).

Roderic and Hyrum kept sitting on the floor, or putting their feet on the sides of the pew box, or making loud noises. I don't think young children came to meetings back in 1837. We were starting to be quite a distraction, and it didn't match the reverence that the place is due. So, we left the tour before it was finished...walked straight on out, showed ourselves the door.

Our tour guide was pretty knowledgeable, and very respectful but cognizant that his entire audience were Latter Day Saints. He was a life-long member of Community of Christ. He studies religion at Graceland University in Lamoni, IA. It would be fun to discuss things more personally with him...but such a chance is hard to come by. He told us that a member of the RLDS church reclaimed the Kirtland Temple in the 1870s, and it had been being used for meetings of various related groups of saints since the 1830s. As such, the building was never rededicated by the RLDS Church.

After taking a family picture at the Kirtland Temple, we drove down the hill to the Visitors Center for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They wanted us to be able to devote at least a day to the tours they'd normally give us, but when they found out we only wanted to spend an hour or so, they tried to accommodate. The movie we were shown there was based on the journals of Elizabeth Ann Whitney. She was a woman of remarkable faith. This movie was very interesting for our whole family. There was a large Youth Conference tour right behind us, so they rushed us through the Newel K. Whitney store to the upstairs rooms that the Whitney's had finished for Joseph and Emma Smith to live in. We sat in the "Revelation Room" and listened to the two sister missionaries giving our tour while the large group passed us by.


In this room with Hyrum, Joseph Smith received 16 revelations found in the Doctrine and Covenants, including the Word of Wisdom. The table in the background was owned by Joseph Smith Jr.
In the adjoining room where the School of the Prophets was held, a lingering youth from the Youth Conference group, bore his testimony of Joseph Smith. This was a small room that was often filled to capacity with men eager to learn things pertaining to the gospel.

The nice sister missionary giving us a tour took our picture in front of the store. Then we were off on our 3 state drive: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois.

This is a building we saw on the shores of Lake Erie as we were getting to Cleveland, OH.

While driving, Sabrina worked some more on her Pre-Algebra class, thankful that the 3G network on Ryan's Droid was working well all along I-80. We drove past Chicago around 6pm, but traffic wasn't too bad. The GPS had us cross the Mississippi River twice (once to go into Iowa from Illinois and once to leave Iowa back to Illinois.) The second bridge we crossed had a toll. And there were right angle turns to make on the bridge. And stop signs. And a movable barrier that would come down if the bridge was up. We arrived in Nauvoo at 10:45pm, local time.