When we arrived in Kirtland, it was overcast. We had tour guides waiting
for us and were split up into two different groups. The picture on the left is of
a replica of a sawmill that Newel K. Whitney owned. They used the waterwheel
to move the blade of the saw. While our group was touring the ashery, it
started pouring. But that was alright; our tour guide knew a lot about the
sort of things they did to make different types of ash to sell. Whitney’s
ashery made a lot of money, and he donated the entire operation to the Church
in order to help pay for the Kirtland temple.
Once
the rain slowed to a drizzle, we went to see the Newel K. Whitney store.
Joseph and Emma Smith lived inside here for a while. Newel’s wife left quite
meticulous notes, and you can look and see who purchased what on the now-typed
list sitting on the counter in the main part of the store. Here’s a picture
(to the left) of some shoes you might have been able to purchase from the
Whitneys. There’s no right or left—you would wear the shoe until it became
accustomed to your foot, and then if you wanted to save money, you’d switch
it over to the other foot. I don't think our modern shoes would let us do
that...
Because of the rain, our tour was cut a bit short, but there are a lot of other neat places to see in historic Kirtland, like the John Johnson inn. I managed to sneak inside for a moment and took a picture of the little diorama showing the layout of Kirtland. Of course, it's not a very good picture, so I'm not including it.
The next morning, we attended church with the Kirtland ward. They were very welcoming, and one of the talks was about how Emma is a hero to members of the church. Afterward, we hopped on the bus and stopped momentarily at the Morley farm. We didn’t get off the bus, so these were the best pictures I could get. The Morleys donated a lot of their farmland to the Saints moving into Kirtland.
After visiting the Morley farm, we went to see the Kirtland temple. The
Community of Christ owns the temple now. They don’t permit photography on
the inside, but it’s a very impressive edifice. After we were shown a movie
by our tour guide (she was very nice), we went to take a tour inside the
temple. The lower and upper floors look pretty similar, though the upper
floor has desks. It was used as a missionary training center of sorts. According to our tour guide, the temple was originally a blue color.
We sang The Spirit of God by W.W. Phelps inside the temple. It sounded beautiful, and it made it easy to imagine what it must’ve been like to hear that lovely song as it was first sung during the first temple dedication. The Community of Christ church prefers to refer to the Kirtland temple as a “house of learning” in order to be a bit more orthodox. For those of you completely clueless, the Community of Christ used to be known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints up until a few years ago. They were going bankrupt, so they decided to join a conglomeration of Christian churches. They had to change their name in order to join, and no longer teach the Book of Mormon as scripture (though they still read it). The Community of Christ has their own version of the Doctrine and Covenants. Each time they meet together, they add a new chapter. They promote peace and goodwill, and believe that the mantle of the prophet should’ve passed to Joseph’s eldest son, rather than the leader of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. They have a neat gift shop near the temple where I bought a replica of the first copy of the Book of Mormon and the hymns that Emma selected for the Church.
After visiting the temple, we went to see the John Johnson farm. Joseph
and Emma stayed with the Johnsons for a while as well. It was about a day’s
ride to get there from Kirtland on horseback. Joseph received a lot of revelations
that are now included in the Doctrine and Covenants here. Most notable is
Section 76, in which the Lord explains the different degrees of glory men
can obtain in this life. The section was received in this room (pictured on the right) upstairs
which Joseph was given to work on his translation of the Bible and other
records.
It was here at the Johnson farm that Joseph was pulled out of bed (pictured on the right)
in the middle of the night. A mob tried to force him to drink a vial of
poison. He succeeded in avoiding doing so, but one of his teeth was chipped
in the incident. He was then scratched and finally tarred and feathered.
The next morning, however, he was preaching to the Saints. Several people
were baptized afterwards. Following our visit to the farm, we went to the
airport and said goodbye to Jim, the bus driver.
"Sorry...I just thought with the captain issue in question, I'd throw
in my name for consideration."
Pintel