Kirtland

First thing this morning we headed to the Newel K. Whitney store.  I remember driving by this store almost 20 years ago with Mike's family. We didn't get out, but we waved.  My dad couldn't believe we would pass up this opportunity!  He then told me everything that happened in this store. 

The street we drove by on was quite busy.  The N.K. Whitney store was on a corner of two busy street.  The streets have now been moved.  The church asked Karl Anderson (who we met later today) to see if he could get the city's approval to move the road about a mile.  The church would pay for all expenses, estimated at $15,000,000.  Karl Anderson asked the Mayor along with reasons of why this would be beneficial to the community.  Later the Mayor met with Karl Anderson (1993) and told him he was in favor, but some of the other council members weren't.  One of the people against this was a school teacher.  One of the students in this teachers class brought the May 31, 1993 Sports Illustrated magazine to school.  On the cover was Joe Montana and Steve Young.  Joe Montana was wearing his 49ers jersey.  Steve Young was wearing a t-shirt that said, "Kirtland Ohio, City of Faith and Beauty". The school teacher was so excited and brought it to show the other members of the city council.  They loved it and asked Karl Anderson if he could use his connections to get a nice blown up version of this picture for their new city hall.  Steve Young agreed.  He did more that just get them a picture.  By the fall of 1993 he was now the star of the 49ers.  When the 49ers came to Ohio to play the Cleveland Browns, Steve Young invited the city council, with their families, to a social the next day at a local park.  He posed with them for photos.  He played football with their kids and signed autographs.  He also gave them an enlarged autographed copy of the photo.  The next city council meeting the city council gave their unanimous approval to move the road.

How did Steve Young get this shirt?  Nine years before there was a 10K run in Kirtland.  Steve Young was there and was given the shirt he wore in the photo.  He was wearing that shirt under his uniform when Sports Illustrated came to do a store on "what-ifs".  Steve Young took off his uniform during a break because he was kind of hot.  That is how the church was given permission to move the road.

The new location of the busy street

 Looking out of the Newel K. Whitney store

This is the John Johnson Inn, now kind of a visitor center

 Inside the Newel K. Whitney store

 Original table Joseph Smith sat at while he received 16 revelations.

Unless he got up and paced the floor.

 The School of the Prophets met here.

The Word of Wisdom was read here.

 Several members broke their pipes and threw them in this fireplace.

 Joseph & Emma's 1st child that lived was born here (Joseph III)

My dad took some pictures but didn't realize that he had it on the black and white setting until later in the day.

Stephanie

 Newel K. Whitney's house

 School house.  Sometimes sacrament meetings were held here.

 The lighthouse at Fairport Harbor

Fairport Harbor was where a lot of Saints entered Kirtland.  Anytime missionaries left, they usually left through here.

Stephanie (Lake Erie)

 Ron

Our next stop was the Morley Farm.  Karl Anderson met us here and told us all about the events that happened here.  Joseph & Emma lived here for 6 months.  13 revelations were given here.  Their twins were born and died here.  They had a vision of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ at the schoolhouse.  Lots of cool stuff happened.  We walked on the road toward the school house as Karl Anderson told us about it. Dan, our bus driver, then sang How Great Thou Art.  It was the most beautiful version of that song I have ever heard.  Absolutely incredible.

 Dan & Karl Anderson's wife

 Dad, Karl Anderson, Stephanie

 Here is my dad's version.

This is when he realized his camera was on black & white.

Next we went to the Kirtland Temple.  There is a lady from Germany on this tour.  She is probably in her 80s.  This tour was a Christmas gift from her daughter who is also on the tour.  This lady is so excited to see the Kirtland Temple.  She has wanted to see it all her life.  We were able to go inside and take a short tour of the temple.  Before we left we were able to sing The Spirit of God.  That was quite cool.

Stephanie ~ Kirtland Temple

We walked across the street to a cemetery.  As we walked my dad pointed out a few sites.

Joseph & Emma lived here for 4 years.

 Joseph Smith's store

 Kirtland Temple

I talked to Stockton for a little while today.  I sure wish this photo Mike sent me wasn't blurry.  Mike snapped a picture of Stockton talking to me.  He's adorable.  And he looks happy to be talking to his mom!  It might be because he passed his driver's permit test!  I asked him if he had any ridiculous questions.  One of his questions was, "How many times can you take the test in a day."  Ha!  Seriously, why is that question on there?  If your curious, the answer is two.

Stockton

Susquehanna

We stopped and visited the grave of Joseph and Emma's first child, Alvin.  I love how some of these graves have been restored.  A modern version of the grave on one side, and the original grave on the other.

Alvin Smith's Grave

 Emma Smith's parents graves

This monument has been here for a long time.  My dad remembers contributing to the fund to build it when he was younger.  The Aaronic Priesthood was restored near here by John the Baptist to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.

Ron & Brett

This area is under major construction.  First thing is they are moving a road.  They are also making a giant visitors center with a tunnel underneath the road.  They are resorting a couple of houses as well. We weren't able to go in any of those.  We were able to visit Joseph Knight's house.  This is where the first branch was established.  The church doesn't own this.  A couple of members do.  Three or four different couples.  They have spent the last ten years or so fixing up the place.  They live in Utah and Arizona and come out twice a year to work on it.  Two of the ladies were here now and talked to us about their experiences.  Wow.  Such dedication.  Different random members have also helped on the house.  They have a blog about some of their experiences at colesville-restoration.com.

Joseph Knight's house

 Joseph and Hyrum

The lady is pretty sure this was the original floor.  She had us step on it. Joseph Smith probably stepped there at one time or another.

Stephanie

 Mina feet, Marie feet

 Mina & Marie

 Princess Mina

 One of the ladies who has fixed up the house talking with K.

 Fun antique bench.  The baby railing comes out when not needed.

 Mina

 Joseph & Emma's house

15 revelations given here

Book of Mormon translated here

 Tunnel leading to the soon to be visitor's center

Next we worked our way down to the banks of the Susquehanna River. This is where Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were baptized.

Marie

 Marie & Mina

 I love this picture!  Love the personalities.

Brett, Grace, Marie, Mina

We didn't stop here, but Dan drove really slow.  I took a picture out both sides of the bus.  This is around the area where Peter, James and John visited Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to restore the Melchizedek Priesthood.

Over the river is the Josiah Stowell home, which is being restored by the same families.  This is where they stay when they come to work. Here is a picture of one of the ladies that has been doing this for over ten years.

 Joseph & Emma

This mantle was originally in the Tarbell Home.  That is where Joseph and Emma were married.

Josiah Stowell owned a lumber mill.  These floors were made from the first cut.  I guess the owner would get the first choice.

Brett and Rachel left after this stop to drive back to Virginia.  We are headed to Ohio.  It was so fun to have them on this trip.  I'm glad they were able to pull it off.  I didn't expect them to be able to make it to as much of the trip as they did.  I was pleasantly surprised!  I was also surprised at how well behaved their girls were during the many presentations they listened to.  Brett texted me that they made it home. They sure are troopers!

I snapped a picture of my seat on the bus.  Every seat has two outlets. Plus the bus has wifi.  Talk about roughing it!

 Text Stop

We visited Elmira College.  This was the first college that allowed women to get a four year degree.  It was an all women college for awhile, it is to now.  We listened to a presentation on Mark Twain in this beautiful chapel.

 Mark Twain

 I thought this was Paul Revere

 Turns out it was someone who died after collecting

a donor's pledge on horseback in a rainstorm.

 The first year the girls had to carry their chair from their

rooms to their classes to the cafeteria.  Tight budget.

Mark Twain's study has been moved to this college campus.  He wrote many, many works here.  Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper.  Lots and lots of stuff.  How fun to have a little writing room.  Too bad is probably smelled really bad!

We drove to Ohio and had dinner with Dan's family.  His family had driven about an hour and a half so they could see him.  His wife and three boys, two of them are teenagers.  Once we were all loaded on the bus his family sang two songs.  Their voices are amazing!  The entire bus loved it.

We had a bit of a drive to our hotel.  Dan entertained the bus with stories of him trying to date his wife.  They were hilarious.  He kept asking her out, she was always busy.  Meanwhile he got to know her mom.  He worked security at a big mega church that their family attended.  He would always help her out of her car and be really attentive to her.  When she saw Dan with her daughter she was very pleased.  He had so many stories, the entire bus was laughing most of the way to the hotel.  We got in pretty late.  I'm super tired.  It is past midnight.  I am not a night person.  Hopefully I didn't make too many errors in this blog entry.