There is no way I can convey just how significant Kirtland is in the history of the church....or the world. Unless one is a church history buff and has read alot, until you've been here, you would never know. There are just so many stories and events that happened here. I will tell a few.
The Community of Christ Church owns the Temple property. While no longer a functional Temple, it is very sacred and important in church history. We were able to take a tour inside. The Temple was built at a great sacrifice to the saints, as they were quite poor.
Pictures were not allowed of the inside. We got quite a few of the outside. Next door to the Temple is a cemetery with many people in early church history are buried.
These headstones have been placed by the descendants of the Smiths and Pratts.
Not to far from the Temple, the Church has aquired the property and restored many buildings to their original state. It is an incredible story. In short (if I can)...The main road of Kirtland ran right through the houses and buildings that the Church wanted to aquire. The church offered to pay to have the road moved...no results. Finally , one day Steve Young of the 49'ers, and famous Mormon, was giving a press conference and had a shirt on that said Kirtland on it. The city realized that the publicity would generate income into their town, because of all the people who would come to visit this very significant place in our church history. It has been such a blessing to us to have these very sacred buildings.....it builds the testimonies of the Saints.
We had a most wonderful and spiritual tour of the many sites on the property. One of which was the Whitney store. This is also an amazing story of how this building had never had anything happen to it through nearly 130 years since it was abandoned by the Whitneys. It goes like this: The store had been several things, among which was a tavern. In the early 1960's a member of the church, I can't remember his name...I think he lived in Utah, had a dream. In it he saw the Whitney store and was instructed that he should go buy it. He was a man of means, and touched by the spirit, he discussed it with his wife and headed off to Ohio to buy the house. When he got there, he hid his car so nobody would no he wasn't a local. He found out where the owner lived, and knocked on his door....the man lived next door to the tavern. He told him he wanted to buy it. The owner said it wasn't for sale. He was offered a considerable sum of money, but the man said no, but to come back the next day and they would talk. The next morning the man from Utah knocked on his door at 5AM. He offered the man $40,000 and he bought it. It remained a tavern for several years, and in 1978 the church was able to buy the house and eventually restore it along with the rest of the sites. It is now a very beautiful place, and it isn't hard to imagine the life of the early Saints.
Emma and Joseph didn't have a place to live when they came to Kirtland, so the Whitneys offered to convert their storerooms above the store into living quarters for them. This is believed to be Emma and Josephs original table and is on loan from the Ohio historical Sociery. It is the table and in the very room where the revelation on the Word of Wisdom was recieved. Many sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were recieved here.
This room is the School of the Prophets, where the Elders recieved instruction prior to going out to preach the gospel.
The story of the John Johnson farm in Hiram is very interesting as well. They opened their home to Joseph and Emma , who had been living with the Morley family in Kirtland. The Morleys sold their farm to go to Missouri to help the saints there. This is the room, when in the middle of the night, a mob of 40 men rushed the house in the middle of the night. 16 men burst into the room and pulled Joseph outside, beat him and tarred and feathered him. They also tarred and feathered Sidney Rigdon, who lived across the street in another home owned by the Johnsons. The men put hot tar in Josephs mouth and then put the hot tar on his body. They tried to pour posion down his throat, but because of the tar they had put in his mouth, the posion would not go down. The next day Joseph arose from his bed and gave a sermon on the front steps of the house, disappointing many of the mob who were in attendance. His sermon was on love and forgiveness. 3 days later their infant son Joseph, died from exposure from the cold that came into the house the evening the mob came.
In this upper room of the house, 16 revelations were recieved. D&C 76 was one of them. In it, the pre-earth life and 3 kingdoms, or degrees of glory were taught.
We went to Carthage Illinois on our way into Nauvoo. Carthage jail is the place Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed for having beliefs that differed from the mainstream. An angry mob of 200 men stormed the jail, fired shots into the upper room where they were held. Joseph fell from the 2nd story window to the ground below. The mob continued to beat and shoot them to make sure they were dead. Of John Taylor and Willard Richards, who were with them in the jail, John Taylor was shot, but was not mortally wounded.
We went to the Nauvoo Illinois Temple on Thursday July 17th.
The Temple in Nauvoo has been reconstructed with plans that were found 150 years later, on the same spot as the original. The original was hit by a tornado and burned by fire through the years.
The Nauvoo Pageant was one highlight of the trip. A wonderful production with volunteers from around the country, who acted out life in Nauvoo and portrayed people who lived there. This scene is near the end...they built the Temple.
Then at the very end, the Temple from the play was lowered and the lights to the real Temple were turned on and President Hinckleys voice talked about the rebuilding of the Nauvoo Temple. It was very touching.
