Church History Tour Part 2: Nauvoo

After leaving Missouri we continued our tour of the early history of our church in Nauvoo.

Nauvoo was absolutely amazing.  There is lots that I need to share. (sorry for the really long post)

The church has bought most of old Nauvoo and have restored many of the buildings.  Visitors are able to learn stories of the early saints and to see much of how they lived.  Much of our time in Nauvoo was spent seeing what it was like to live in the early 1800s.  Here are a few fun experiences we had.

We made rope and were so proud.

We visited the schoolhouse to be educated by Robyn

We preached the gospel in the Seventies Hall

We got "prairie diamonds" from the blacksmith.  (These nails were used as rings because couples couldn't get actual diamonds.)

We walked down Hotchkiss street but edited the name to make it a  little extra awesome.

We rode on a wagon, where we discovered that Robyn could not have been a pioneer because she gets too cold.

We went to David's Chamber where Joseph Smith's son David went to paint.

We found an old school outhouse that was awesome.

In addition to all the fun we had, we had some great experiences that were very profound.  There were two that really stood out to me.  The first was the visit to Carthage Jail.

I have studied the accounts of the martyrdom of Joseph Smith when he was murdered in Carthage Jail.  I've always wanted to piece together the stories and being there in the jail really helped me to do that.  It was particularly profound being in the "martyr room" as they call it, the room where Joseph was when he was killed.

This is the bullet whole from the bullet that was shot through the door and into Hyrum Smith's face.  (Don't be bothered by Jared's finger sticking through.)

This is the window that Joseph Smith jumped out of.  He was shot twice in the back from the mob that was coming up the stairs.  He was also shot from the outside by the militia that had been assigned by the governor to protect him.  It was extremely powerful for me to be there and think about what happened there.

The last thing that was extremely profound for me was the walk down Parley Street.  I don't have any good pictures of it except that I took a picture of this monument at the end of the street.

This is a statue of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young looking west beyond the Mississippi River.  Of course, we know that after Joseph was killed, Brigham took the saints west to the Salt Lake valley.  This monument commemorates that but it also had a quote from Joseph Smith that showed that the exodus had been planned before his death.  Joseph said, "My people shall become a mighty host in the vastness of the Rocky Mountains."

This statue wasn't what was powerful to me though.  What was powerful was what they call the "Trail of Hope."  Parley Street was where the saints drove their wagons to the Mississippi River and then crossed and went west.  Along this street they have placed plaques with entries from the journals of the saints as they left.  Many of them talked about looking back at the temple one last time, and the sadness they felt.  We were able to make this same walk to the banks of the Mississippi and to look back at the view of the temple up on the bluff.  It was incredibly powerful for me to look back and to see that same view and try to imagine how they felt.

Overall, it really was an incredible trip.  We had lots of fun and we also were able to learn a lot about the history of the church.  It was a great experience and I'm very glad we went.

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.