Ohio Day 7

Kirtland was one of our favorite stops.

We slept late in Cleveland. It was our first time sleeping in on this entire vacation. After eggs and sausage, we rolled out about 10 o'clock on the way to Kirtland. Each of us declared Kirtland our favorite Church History destination so far. It was a really nice day. 

We started at Historical Kirtland, which is the site of the Newel K. Whitney store. After a short video, we walked around the property, touring the store, the Whitney home, their ashery, and the sawmill. We really enjoyed seeing where so many well-known stories took place. As we sat in the upstairs room in the store, we saw where Section 89 was inspired and written. We saw where the school of the prophets met. It was amazing to realize that Joseph and Emma had walked and lived right where we were standing. 

This was the Whitney's home, but Joseph and Emma lived here, too.

This is inside the Whitney store.

We learned so much about how the Whitney's gave up everything for the gospel.

This is where the School of the Prophets was held.

This is inside that yellow home pictured above.

And here is the outside of the Whitney store.

This is the ashery. I had no idea how this type of place worked.

Inside the small Visitor Center

After the walk around Kirtland and the store, we drove up to the Isaac Morley Farm. This is a very small site that didn't have much to see, though we did walk a short, pretty trail to the crest of the hill where Joseph Smith taught a famous sermon.

The Morley farm was a quick stop.

Next we stopped at the Kirtland Temple Visitor Center, which is run by the Community of Christ. We had lunch in the parking lot and then visited the small museum. Finally, it was our turn to take the tour. We walked through the bottom two levels of the temple. We started on the second level, which is "a house of learning," which was likened to the MTC, where they taught Apostles and other missionaries before sending them out to the field. The first floor is "a house of worship," and looks nearly identical to the second. The major difference is that this is where Christ visited and accepted the temple. We really enjoyed the man who gave the tour (and suspected he was an LDS volunteer). Tears were very close as we stood and sang "The Spirit of God", while Mom played the piano. We couldn't take pictures inside, but we absolutely loved this tour!

We enjoyed touring the Kirtland temple.

These are the original doors. They are HUGE and heavy!

We loved this temple.

Our next stop was the John Johnson Farm. This site is a little farther south and is the place where Joseph stayed when the rest of Kirtland seemed unsafe. We saw the room he was pulled from before being tarred and feathered. We also sat in the room where Section 76, The Vision, was received. We really did see why Kirtland was such a powerful time in Church History.

The Johnson Farm was a special stop.

We had exactly 40 minutes to make the 37 minute drive to the Visitor Center called Boston Mills for Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We made it just in time to pick up the Junior Ranger booklets! From there, we weren't sure whether to drive to a hike, or go to Costco just a few minutes away for dinner. Ultimately, we decided on dinner, which turned out to be pretty smart. While we ate, a massive storm rolled in. Rain was coming down in sheets, and people piled up around the door of the store, gaping at the lightning and soaking rain. After we sheltered in Costco for quite awhile, the storm seemed to lighten. We decided to make a dash with our groceries and return home. 

We decided to save this National Park for the next day!

The rainstorm was crazy! We were so lucky to be inside.

It was actually nice to get home early. We had laundry to do, dishes to wash, and scriptures to read. The storm really worked as a warning to send us home early so we could get some sleep!