Church History Tour Part 1: Missouri

Robyn and I are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (some call us the LDS or Mormon church).  This year for our vacation we decided to take a history tour of the areas that are significant to the early days of our church.  Our tour began in Missouri.


We went to Independence where we were able to see the Community of Christ Temple.

The Community of Christ is the largest break off group that has broken away from the mainstream LDS church.  After Joseph Smith's death when the saints went west to Salt Lake City, certain saints chose not to go and reorganized their own church.  They started with a belief in the Book of Mormon but have since tried to distance themselves from it to some extent.


We were able to go inside and see what it was all about.  They had a museum inside with some of the artifacts of the early church.  We were also able to go into the chapel in the center of the temple and look up and see the spiral from the inside.  It was pretty cool looking.

It was neat to see the architecture and walk through the museum.  It was also very interesting to see how different their temple is from our temples.  It is still a place of worship but it feels very different.  It seemed that the function of their temple was more like our conference center.  It is a place of worship but not necessarily a sacred place.


From there we proceeded across the street to the temple lot where Joseph Smith dedicated for the future building of a temple.   There is just a small plaque there almost covered by a bush showing what it is.

Since we clearly hadn't had our fill of temples we then went to the location of the Kansas City temple which is currently under construction.

From there we went to Far West.  Joseph Smith also dedicated this area for a future temple as well.  Robyn and I decided to take a precious picture.

But then Robyn got cranky because Jared was taking too many pictures.

Her face is too classic.

After that we proceeded to Liberty Jail where Joseph Smith was incarcerated for a time.  Several of the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants were recorded in Liberty Jail.  The original jail was destroyed, but the Church has rebuilt a replica of the jail that you can see.

I was amazed to learn of the filthy conditions within the jail.  It also really helped me reflect on the trials that the prophet faced.  This period in his life was truly a refiner's fire for him and helped him become who he needed to be.  It was very powerful.


Lastly, we went to Adam-ondi-Ahman.  Robyn looked very precious as we overlooked the valley.

We believe this will be a place of gathering upon the return of the Savior.  I thought the acoustic properties of this area were particularly fascinating.  I stood atop this rock and spoke in my normal voice without raising it at all.  Jared went several hundred yards away and he could still hear me.

Robyn climbed up on top of the rock with me and was just talking quietly to me when Jared responded from clear across the little valley.  She kind of jumped and said, "He can hear us?"  It was really cool.  I guess it's a good place for us to gather and hear a speaker.


After Adam-Ondi-Ahman we were driven from the state.  Luckily, it has been illegal to kill a Mormon in Missouri since June 25, 1976, so I was doing the driving and not an angry, murderous mob.


Stay tuned.  We're currently in Nauvoo, Illinois learning about all sorts of history.  I'm sure I'll write about it soon.