Missouri

This morning we stopped by Far West.  We were tempted to try and get her last night, but it was dark and we weren't sure how big the roads would be.  It is out in nowhere and our gps couldn't even find it.  It would have been cool though.  There was a prophesy given that the twelve apostles would leave to go on missions on this spot.  It even said the date.  The only problem was mormons had now been kicked out of Missouri and the extermination order was in effect.  Joseph Smith was in liberty jail.  Brigham Young insisted that they follow through.  I don't know how many of them came, but they snuck in just after midnight on the appointed day.  Not only did they leave for their missions, but they carried on business.  They excommunicated some people and set apart others to be apostles.  It would have been kind of cool to get here in the middle of night for that.  It also was nice to be able to see as we were driving.

Corner stones were laid for a templet that was never built

The kids laughed when my dad told a story about one of the apostles. After they snuck into Missouri, he went and found an old member of the church, someone who had left it.  He knocked on his door and said, "Prophecy fulfilled!"  Of course when my dad was telling the kids he told them he said, "Prophecy fulfilled!  In your face!"  Haha!

 Maysen

 Stockton, Dad, Preston, Mike, Jorja

 A few of the revelations that were given here

 Prophecy with the date specified

This is the corner stone where the apostles were set apart when they snuck here in the middle of the night.

Stockton, Mike, Preston, Jorja, Maysen, Stephanie

 Mike putting on Missouri

 We earned Kansas today but haven't put it on yet.

We stopped by the Kansas City Temple.  Padz was impressed.

 Maysen

 Preston

 Preston racing Mike to see who could touch the temple first

 Preston trying to take a panoramic picture of the temple

We tried to find the Zion's Camp and Eight Witnesses marker.  We went down tiny roads, but our gps didn't know exactly where it was. Finally we gave up.  Too bad.  We were so close.  Instead we headed to Liberty Jail.  Joseph Smith and a few others were held here for a miserable winter.  This is where Joseph received a few revelations. D&C 121,122,123 ~ or something like that.  The one that says, "The son of man hath descended below them all.  Art thou greater than he?"  The jail was only used for about 20 years before it was deemed unfit for humans.  Then it was turned into an ice house. The ice put into the bottom (where the prisoners were kept) stayed frozen for months, if not all year long.  Wow.  What a miserable winter.

A few years ago my dad, Matt, John and Cassie came here.  This is when John & Cassie were moving to Ohio.  They were the only ones in here.  Matt went into this area and pulled on the rope.  He was busted when the video camera showed him doing it and they got mad at him from the other room.  When my dad was telling the story, I was assuming it was from our trip when Matt was seven.  Nope.  It is much funnier imagining Matt now doing that.

 Dad

The church restored this jail to how it would have been when Joseph Smith was held here.  They have it opened so we can see inside.  The visitor center is built around this jail.

Joseph Smith and the others were held in Liberty Jail for that bitter winter with no charges filed against them.  As they were being moved from Liberty Jail to somewhere else, they were told by the guard that he was going to go get himself drunk and they could do what they wanted.  This guard was told to allow them to escape.  There was not sufficient evidence to hold them for trial.  It was more advantageous to the persecutors of Joseph Smith to have him be an escaped prisoner rather than one whose charges were dropped because of insufficient evidence. 

In contrast to the hatred that we learned about in Liberty, our next stop was the Richmond Courthouse to see a statue of Alexander Doniphan. He was not a member of the church, but was a friend to them.  He was told to kill Joseph, but refused.  Once the extermination order was in effect, Doniphan received this order, "You will take Joseph Smith and the other prisoners into the public square of Far West, and shoot them at 9 o'clock to-morrow morning."  He replied to his commanding officer, "It is cold-blooded murder.  I will not obey your order.  My brigade shall march for Liberty tomorrow morning, at 8 o'clock; and if you execute these men, I will hold you responsible before an earthly tribunal, so help me God."  That is amazing that someone would so boldly stand up for this group that was being so persecuted.  He's just become one of my favorite historical people.

Alexander Doniphan

This picture was funny.  My dad was taking the picture and said, "On three.  One. Two. Three."  Except he took the picture on one.  Stockton said, "What?  You can't do that!  I was waiting until three to smile."

 Preston, Maysen, Jorja, Stockton, Mike, Stephanie

 We tried again.  This time my dad took the picture on three.

We walked around the corner to a place where a small house used to be.  Joseph Smith was held here for a short time.  This is where he rebuked the guards.

Dad

 Maysen and Dad

 The house used to be where this small field is now

We then headed to Pioneer Cemetery where Oliver Cowdery is buried. There is a monument to the three witnesses here.

My dad says that the eight witnesses monument that we couldn't find looks very similar to this.

We left one cemetery and headed to another.  Sunny Slope Cemetery. This is where David Whitmer is buried.

 David Whitmer's grave

It is also where John was hit by a car when he was 6 years old.  John wanted my dad to take a picture of this grave.  It is the grave of Austin King, a main persecutor of the Saints.  John and I sat down on the grass while my dad took the picture.  Before he finished, we heard a loud screech of a car.

 You can get an idea of how far the road was from this grave

 Jorja

Here is the place where John was hit.  He flew 50 feet.  He was knocked out of his shoes.  It was the scariest day of my childhood.  We were told that he had brain damage.  He was life flighted to another hospital. They talked to us and said if he survived he would be blind, deaf, or dumb or maybe even all three.  Luckily nothing like that happened.  He was okay, just look really beat up.  The only white part of his face was the tip of his nose and the middle of his forehead.  One side had road burns, the other side tire marks.  That is one day I never want to relive.

John was hit here

I thought I uploaded a picture of the ledge my dad jumped off to get to John.  It is pretty high and he wasn't expecting it.  He had to go to the hospital to get his foot checked out while John was being worked on.  I think he ended up spraining it.

Our next stop was the Community of Christ temple/museum/gift shop. It was about to close.  We got there at 4:00.  We thought it was open until 5:00.  The guy told us to go to the museum first because they close at 4:30.  We did that.  It is pretty cool.  You can see the petticoat where Emma hid the Joseph Smith translation while she was being kicked out of Missouri.  Also, there is plaster from the Kirtland Temple.  You can see where the plates were smashed to make it sparkle.  Jorja was a little creeped out to see pictures of women performing the priesthood.  We stayed here until it closed.  Then we went to look in the meeting area of the temple.  The guy told us we were too late now.  It was kind of weird. Oh well.  If I had to choose only one thing to do, I would have picked the museum.

Community of Christ Temple

We went to the Temple Lot that is owned by another church.  Corner stones for a temple were laid here as well.  Two of the original cornerstones are on display in a building nearby.  They were also closed.  My dad said there is going to be the greatest temple ever built here.  He is guessing right on this lot, but it could really be anywhere nearby.  We had fun playing around here.

 Relaxing in a future temple

Stephanie, Jorja, Maysen, Mike, Preston, Stockton

 Preston says he is in a hot tub

We stopped by the church's visitor center.  The kids are getting pretty tired of visitor centers, but they always manage to find something fun. This time it was the revolving doors, the wagon and checkers.

Jorja & Preston

 Mike

 Preston & Mike

We made a quick detour through Kansas before we started our journey home.  And by home, I mean Idaho Falls.  We are going to head back through Omaha so we can pick up my cousin Jordyn.  I'm so grateful that we are going to be able to make it back for Grandpa Parry's funeral.  The funeral is Saturday.  If Grandpa had died a few days earlier, I'm not sure what I would have done.

We are stopped in a random rest stop.  The kids are in Fort Preston watching a Tom and Jerry movie.  I'm working on my blog.  I was hoping to get caught up tonight.  I ended up getting most of it done, the rest I'll finish in the morning before we head to Omaha.

Jorja, Stockton, Preston

The movie finished long before I was done.  I was working at the table and it was making it hard for Jorja and Preston to fall asleep. Hopefully they aren't grumpy tomorrow.