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.