It was raining when we got to Kirtland. We started at the visitor center and were guided by a sister missionary to the restored sites that the church has done. Our favorite stop was the N.K. Whitney store. (even though they were replacing the siding.) We saw where the prophet Joseph walked and talked and the school of the prophet's room. Most of the building is original. There was such a special spirit there. We also liked Ann Whitney's yellow house. This was the start of learning about so many early saints who had such great faith and made so many sacrifices. It was a beautiful area. The Kirtland Temple is owned by the Community of Christ church and is up the hill about a half a mile. We couldn't see it from the LDS area but you can see it as you are driving up the hill. Such a great view. We took a tour of the temple (for a minimal fee) including watching a short film about their church. Our tour guide was from Nicaragua and had a very strong accent. We had a hard time following what she was saying most of the time. The feeling was very different there. The focus is on the historical aspect of the building, which is interesting, but no spirituality or any kind of personal touch to the tours. All the people in our tour group were LDS, including a sister missionary that was just released (Brandon knew her). We sang the Spirit of God in the temple. It was different than we thought it would be but we did learn a few interesting things. By the way, the temple has gone through many changes over the years, more recently the stucco was redone and cracks were actually painted on the outside.
Entering the Kirtland visitor center
Upstairs in the Whitney store (school of prophets room) A lot of the wooden floor was original. You could tell and we loved the originality of that. And the stairs to get upstairs were our first experience of very narrow, steep stairs.
Some mercantile from the Whitney store (did you know they didn't make shoes for the right foot and left foot? - they were both the same.)
The sawmill
Ann Whitney's yellow house. I pulled back a little so you can see some of the green trees and the wet sidewalks.
The trees and bushes have really filled in.
After Kirtland, we drove back to Cleveland to see the Mullholland family that Brandon had just baptized. He shares that he had a great experience teaching this family and helping them learn and live the gospel. He says that they made the biggest changes in their living style and were happy to do so. They have been blessed. After meeting them, I could tell that they had great respect and admiration for Elder Price. They had a great relationship and were very down to earth with each other. I could see in their eyes the unspoken words of how much they appreciated him, for his personality and for his role as a missionary. It was an awesome experience to see that and to sort of see Brandon in action as a missionary.
That night we headed out of Cleveland towards Niagra Falls. We stayed in a Walmart parking lot in Pennsylvania (I think). We experienced more rain and an abundance of green scenery.
No comments:
Post a Comment