Kirtland----CHECK!

After Conal's family reunion we headed out to Kirtland Ohio. We already had our entire house packed up for a couple of days......why not check two things off our list in one weekend. Not bad!

I am now realizing that I am going to have a hard time keeping this post a reasonable length. It wasn't easy dragging all of the kids everywhere and keeping them from touching everything but it was SO worth it. I learned so many new things even though I have been to Kirtland before and we had such an amazing experience.

First we went to the John Johnson farm in Hiram, Ohio.

This is where Joseph and Emma lived for over a year. Several sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were received in this little farm house, in a room on the second floor which they call the revelation room. If I'm not mistaken, I believe Joseph saw the Savior here as well.

This is also where Joseph was tarred and feathered in the middle of the night and as a result of the cold one of their twins passed away. I have gained a greater appreciation for this story since I've lived through a midwest winter!

Then we went over to the Kirtland Temple.





I don't want to pick on the Community of Christ church, but I have to say that the feeling at the Kirtland temple (owned by the Community of Christ) and the feeling at the other places we visited in Kirtland (owned by the LDS church) was completely different. To help with this I tried to remember how many sacrifices had to be made by the saints (Conal's and my own ancestors included), and that this was at one time a dedicated House of the Lord.

Next we headed over to the Newel K. Whitney store. This was so different than the last time I was there! The whole area has been restored and looks like a mini Nauvoo and they now have a vistors' center. I LOVED it!

This is the creek that they used to baptize new members in. Conal and I wonder if Edwin D. Wooley (my great great great grandfather) was baptized here as he became a member of the church while living in East Rochester, Ohio which is about 90 miles outside of Kirtland.

The store was next. Many neat things happened in this little store.

The first bishop's storehouse:
The school of the prophets:

The Word of Wisdom was received in this room:

We also saw the Whitney home.

I love this little chair because it was one of the few things that the Whitney's took with them when they left. It made it all the way to Salt Lake but has been returned to its rightful place.

After this we headed over to the saw mill. This is where the wood was cut for Kirtland Temple. Imagine our surprise (ok I admit it, I *gasped*) when we found out it was owned an operated by Conal's great great great grandfather, Joel Hills Johnson. We didn't know that until they told us. Apparently he was a genius in his time as he figured out that it saved water if the water went under the water wheel instead of over.




He also owned the ashery which helped finance much of the building of the Kirtland Temple.

We were also surprised to hear that his house is still standing.

We couldn't go inside because Senior missionaries live in it.

Thank you to the two cute and PATIENT sister missionaries who were our tour guides.
Oh man! Now I want to go back. I love church history. Anyone up for a church history tour?