Kade's idea of conflict resolution

Kade came in my room and told me that Baylee wouldn't share the popcorn with him. So I told him to think about it and figure out a solution, it wasn't something I needed to take care of. His solution.... He told Bay there was a huge spider in the kitchen. When she went to see the spider he grabbed the popcorn and ran outside. I thought it was pretty resourceful, hehe :)

Getting Home!

We made it to St. Louis airport about 2:00 pm on the 21st after visiting Carthage. Our flight wasn't until 6:00 and there were 5 other people on that flight from our tour. Two ladies, Jennifer and Janell Wagner, were from Vegas too. Austin, Mishawn, and Katie all live in Phoenix (which is were we had to switch planes). Well a huge storm moved in over St. Louis and shut down the airport for a couple hours, so our plane was late leaving which meant we missed our flight out of Phoenix. The soonest we could get another flight was not until Thursday morning, and we had waited long enough to see our kids! So we decided to rent a car and drive home from Phoenix. Jennifer and Janell both had to work Thursday so they needed to get home as well. So the 4 of us rented a car at about 10:30 at night and headed home. We pulled in our driveway at 3:30 Thursday morning. Travis drove the entire way. Scary thing is, he doesn't remember anything past Hoover Dam! We had gotten up at 6:30 in Nauvoo (their time zone, whatever it is!) so by the time we got home we had been up 23 hours. Never in my life has my bed felt so good!

Day 12- Carthage Jail

Joseph and Hyrum sacrificed everything for this church, even their own lives. After spending the last 11 days learning about Joseph's life, Carthage was pretty hard to be at. I don't know what to say to convey the feeling of love, loss, sadness, gratefulness, and a little anger at that mob who killed him. Just like so many other places we visited on this trip, it's hard to express the feelings in my heart for this Prophet. I can truly understand how the saints were willing to follow him anywhere. And why Heavenly Father chose him to restore the gospel on the earth in this dispensation. Praise to the Man

Day 11- More Nauvoo

This morning we walked down Parley Street, it's the same street the saints walked down when they left Nauvoo. It was amazing to me to hear the stories of these faithful saints leaving everything they had worked so hard for in Nauvoo, and leaving happy.

Our good friends the Lewis's were on vacation and happened to be at the Nauvoo Pageant the same night we were there.

The Nauvoo Pageant was our favorite!!

We are even thinking about going to be in it next year :)

Day 10- Touring Nauvoo.... in some serious rain!

This morning we had the opportunity to go to the Nauvoo temple and do a session. It was a great experience! When we came out, it was pouring!!! There has been a severe thunderstorm warning all day but that didn't slow us down any :)

This is the stone quarry site for the stone used in the original temple. Norm, our wonderful tour guide has a van from the hotel that he drove around town all day just picking people up and dropping them off. On our last pick up with him he took us here to see where the stone had come from.

One of the restored homes here is the Browning home. I didn't even know he was mormon lol!

This afternoon we went to the visitors center and was a movie about Joseph then say a play put on by performing missionaries about the Nauvoo saints.

Day 9- Moving West

Far West Temple Site. In D&C 118 Joseph received the revelation that the 12 apostles were supposed to leave from this site on missions on April 26, 1839. From the time he received this revelation and that time though Joseph was betrayed and taken captive to Liberty Jail and the saints were forced to evacuate Far West in January. Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball headed back to Far West to fulfill that prophecy in the beginning of April. On April 6th they past Joseph Smith and Hyrum because they had been allowed to escape Liberty Jail. Also at Far West the churches official name was changed to what it is today. And also the law of the tithe was changed to 1/10th instead of "all you had".

Adam-Ondi-Ahman, what a glorious place!! There is no visitor's center, no cute little couple missionaries sharing stories and doing tours. Just an incredible spirit that testifies to the importance and sacredness of this place. Unless you have got to experience this place it is really hard to describe it.

We made it to Nauvoo! This statue is across the street from the Nauvoo temple. It is of Joseph and Hyrum and they are preparing to leave and go to Carthage. And the two people in the picture with Travis are a couple of our wonderful friends we have made on our trip, Levier and Linda Gardner.

We went to see the temple at sunset last night. What a glorious building this is! I can't even imagine how the saints were able to leave it after all the work they had put into it. Travis took a ton of pictures, and finally got this one with the light just perfect. They "spared no expense" as President Hinckley put it into this temple to make it as much like the original as possible. One interesting thing we learned was that the architects told Joseph there wasn't any way to do the round windows, it just wasn't safe or going to be strong enough. But he insisted because that is exactly what he had seen in the vision of this temple.

Day 8- St. Louis to Independence

We started off today by going to see the St. Louis Temple. One more of the beautiful Lord's Houses here on the earth today!

This is the court house is Independence Missouri. At this courthouse about 400-500 local men met to decide what to do about the mormons that were "taking over" Independence. They had several problems with the mormons. #1 Missouri was a slave state and the mormons were largely against slavery. #2 About 1200 mormons had moved into Independence and they were about to out number the locals and they would be able to take over the voting with the majority. #3 The Sante Fe Trail and Oregon Trail both begin in Independence and the mormons were taking the trade business with the people heading west. #4 That doesn't even begin to talk about the religious differences!

So they met together and wrote a secret declaration to get all the mormons out of Independence. They sent a group of men to talk to the mormon leaders and told them they had to leave. The mormons asked for 90 days, they were told no, they asked for 10 days, they were told no they needed to be gone in 15 minutes. The men returned to the courthouse and, in anger went across the street to WW Phelps print shop and destroyed his printer and burned everything. Miraculously, 2 brave little girls grabbed the book that was being printed at the time and ran into the adjoining corn field and hid from the mob of men destroying everything in the print shop. The men never found the girls and they saved the first copy of the Book of Commandments (except for the last page). It was the first copy of what would later be known as the Doctrine And Covenants.

In sharp difference from the temple we started our day at, we next went to the temple that belongs to the Community of Christ Church (formerly RLDS). It is dedicated to Peace which Travis found very interesting :) They showed us a video of their churches basic doctrines and it was kind of strange. They begin with our same history, talking about Joseph Smith and the trials the early saints went through. But then they show things like a mom baptizing her child. And in the first presidency of their church and their quorum of the 12 there are women. We have had an opportunity to learn alot about their church on this trip though and it has been very interesting. They are kind, open people and very accepting it seems of our religion.

This is Liberty Jail, it is a very moving place to visit. Joseph and 5 other men were unjustly imprisoned here from December 1838 to April 1839. The dungeon where they were kept was about 14x14 and a little less than 6 feet tall. Most of the men could not stand up straight. It was dirty, they were treated very poorly and I think the worst part was that they had no right to hold them. Some wonderful revelations came from this trial is Joseph's life though. It is a good reminder that none of us has suffered anything in comparison with what he suffered for this gospel. Because of the revelations that were received here, this place is actually referred to as the "prison temple" though.

This is a very humbling place to see.

Day 7, All day on the bus :)

Today was travelled a LONG way! Norm keeps us entertained though and we have a great bus driver. We stop about every 2 hours for "comfort" breaks. And everyone on the bus are kind of like family now! The majority of the people on our tour are retired. There are 4 girls about our age that are single and about 6 teenagers, so we are right in the middle of everyone. There are such great people though and we have really enjoyed spending this time with them!

We finally made it to St. Louis! Little did we know that there was actually LDS history here! About 22,000 Latter-day Saints past through St. Louis on their way west. Joseph made the trip between Independence and Kirtland 4 times. Considering it took us about 9 1/2 hours on a bus, that was a lot of travelling in Joseph's time! St. Louis is the beginning of the Boonelick trail.

This is a picture of us by the St. Louis Arch.

Lucky for us we just happened to be staying about a block away from Busch Stadium where the Cardinals play baseball... and there was a game last night!! We were supposed to go on a riverboat ride and dinner on the Mississippi but because it has risen so much they aren't allowing any tours on the river. So Norm took us all to dinner on the 28th floor of a rotating restaurant, then we went to the game! We made it there by the 3rd inning and had a great time.

Day 6, Kirtland Ohio

This is the stone quarry where the rock came from for the Kirtland Temple.

The twins of Joseph and Emma are buried here in the cemetery across the street from the temple. As well as Joseph's grandmother and Hyrum's first wife.

The Kirtland Temple is an interesting place. It is owned by the Community of Christ church, more commonly known as the RLDS church. They changed their name a few years ago. Christ appeared here as well as Moses, Elias, and Elijah. It was the first temple built in 1800 years. They Community of Christ church have taken very good care of this building, but they don't treat it like we do our temples. No ordinances are done here. They use it for education purposes and community meetings mostly. It is an interesting thing to contemplate the reason Heavenly Father allowed the temple in Nauvoo to be destroyed but preserved this temple. Why do you think he did??

This is one place I had honestly never heard of before. It is the John and Elsa Johnson farm in Hyrum Ohio. LOTS of important things happened here and this family sacrificed pretty much everything they had for the gospel, and I had never heard of them! They allowed Joseph and Emma to live here for a year. The church was headquartered here. They built Joseph and office upstairs in their home. The night that Joseph was taken in the middle of the night and tarred and feathered was from this home. 16 revelations were received here. It is a huge (especially for that time period) home that they willingly opened to many, many people. When people would come from Kirtland it was usually a full days travel to get to the Johnson Farm so when they came to see Joseph they would stay with the Johnson's. 2 of the Johnson's sons were members of the original 12 apostles. In 1833 they sold their farm to pay for the land the temple sits on in Kirtland.

This was John and Elsa Johnson's bedroom until they converted to an office for Joseph. Jesus Christ appeared in this room.

AMISH COUNTRY! What a beautiful place this is! We went to Holmes County and spent the night in the middle of Amish land. Travis was fascinated with their farming :) They were using horses for bailing even. We ate in a great, family style amish restaurant then went on a buggy ride with a guy named Lester lol.

Day 5, Niagara Falls, Kirtland Ohio

This morning we started off our day by riding the Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls. Way cool place!! What a beautiful, natural wonder.

We travelled quite a way today on the bus, but finally made it to Kirtland Ohio and went to the Newell K. Whitney store. I came here once when I was probably 14, man is it different!! The church paid to have the road go around the church history sites instead of straight through the middle. They had also built a really cool visitor's center here. They have rebuilt the lumber mill, the ashery, and the school house.

This is upstairs of the Whitney store. This is an "office" they built for Joseph to use. They also built a bedroom and a small kitchen for Joseph and Emma. In this home their first baby to survive past infancy was born, his name was Joseph Smith III. He was the 4th baby to be born to Joseph and Emma.

This room was upstairs in the Whitney Store. It was called the School of the Prophets, and was used as a missionary training center. 20 revelations were received here. In this room many people saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ during a meeting held there. The Word of Wisdom was one of the revelations received here :).

Our last stop today was the Isaac Morley Farm. Brother Morley built Joseph and Emma a house on his property, he was a patriarch and a stake president. He sold his entire farm and gave all the money to the church. And Isaac Morley was actually sent to Sanpete County by Brigham Young and settled Manti. On this farm the 4th General Conference of the church was held. During the priesthood session of that conference after Joseph had set apart the first 23 high priests of the church, many of the men saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appear.

Day 4. Sacred Grove, Palmyra, and Hill Cumorah

We are so blessed to get to go someplace so special as the Sacred Grove! The feeling in this grove of trees is not something that can be explained. It is beautiful, but deeply spiritual. To go here is to simply know without a shadow of a doubt that Joseph Smith went here to pray, just wanting an answer to his prayer. And he came out knowing more than any preacher on the earth at that time. He knew what he had seen, he knew God knew it, and he could not deny it. We also know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared here and we can not and will not deny it! One of the missionaries there told us that it took alot of courage for this boy to go and pray out loud (he never had prayed aloud before) but it took alot more courage to walk out of those trees and declare to the world what he had seen.

This is the log cabin that the Smith's first lived in on their farm outside Palmyra. In this cabin the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith. This home was on the property Hyrum had purchased next to Joseph Sr.'s property.

This is the frame home that Alvin built for his parents. Unfortunately for the Smith's they were only able to reside in this home for 4 years before the persecution became too intense and they had to leave. The golden plates were hidden in this home for 2 1/2 months and no translation was done here.

This is the Palmyra Temple. It is the only temple that has a clear glass window in the celestial room because it overlooks the sacred grove. We don't have anything to back up the story, but one missionary told us that the church was not able to clear the trees between the temple and the sacred grove because it was not church property. But an ice storm came threw the area and destroyed all the trees in the path blocking the view, so now there is a perfect view of the sacred grove from the temple's celestial room. It was the 100th temple dedicated.

This is the monument at the top of Hill Cumorah. President Hinckley was actually for the dedication on the way home from his mission in 1935 as a "tourist". It was dedicated by President Heber J. Grant.

Martin Harris mortgaged his farm to help finance the printing of the Book of Mormon.

Alvin died right before his parents house was finished. He had appendicitis, a doctor that they didn't know came to administer to him and gave him some pill sort of thing that was suppose to purge his system. After he died they figured out that what the doctor had given him had actually killed him. It had actually become lodged inside of him and he basically suffocated.

The Grandin Print Shop where the original 5000 Book of Mormons were printed.

The reenactment of Christ's visit to the Americas after his resurrection. It was a beautiful description of His blessing the children.

Before the pageant begins all the cast members are out by the seats to talk to people. We had our picture taken with the "wicked" King Noah.

Day 3, The start of the LDS Church.

Our first stop after leaving Vermont was to Colesville New York, this is the place that Joseph and Emma was married. Their was only this sign and an information kiosk, and a pretty cool dirt track.

Our next stop was to Harmony PA. This is Emma and Joseph first house, on property given to them by her father. In this home Emma had their first child, who died at birth. There is not a name of the headstone but it is believed that the babies name was Alvin. In this home the Prophet Joseph received 15 revelations that are in the Doctrine and Covenants. Joseph Sr., Hyrum and Emma all received revelations in this home. The majority of the translation of the Book of Mormon was done in this home, including the 116 pages lost by Martin Harris. It is very interesting to me that, although Emma's father didn't approve of Joseph, he gave them property to come live by them. I have to believe her mom had something to do with that decision! When they left here and went to Peter Whitmer's farm because of the persecution Joseph was receiving, they never again had any know contact with Emma's parents.

In the Susquehanna River behind Joseph and Emma's home, Oliver Cowdery and Joseph had gone to inquire of the lord about baptism after translating 3 Nephi chapter 11. John the Baptist visited them and conferred the Aaronic Priesthood upon them. They then baptized each other in the river.

This was a really cool waterfall Norm took us to see :)

This is the visitors center and chapel at the Peter Whitmer farm in Fayette NY. The sister missionaries shared a really incredible story about the Angel Moroni transporting the plates between Harmony and Fayette to protect them.
This is inside the Peter Whitmer home. The organization of the church happened here with the first meeting involving somewhere between 50 and 80 people. After the organization of the church, members were baptized into the church including Joseph and Oliver again, this time as members of the church, and Joseph Sr.

They finished the translation of the Book of Mormon here in 90 days. The 3 witnesses were shown the plates here as well as Peter Whitmer's wife. (who must have been a really incredible lady!)
One other interesting fact we learned today... of the 11 witnesses recorded in the Book of Mormon, 7 of them were either direct members of the Whitmer family or part of the family by marriage. They must have been quite the family!