Kirtland and Missouri - Church History Trip - July 2025

 

Kirtland was one of my favorite places. I really loved the tour of the temple. Before visiting the temple, we first went to Historic Kirtland starting at the Newel K. Whitney Store.

The Whitney store became the headquarters for the church and a place of revelation.

Joseph and Emma lived for a time in the store and it was a meeting place for the Church. 

We visited the Ashery that Newell K. Whitney gave to the church for financial assistance. It was interesting to see how they used the ashes to make potash to sell for use in making soap etc. 

We also visited the sawmill where they prepared the wood for building houses and the temple.

Several of my ancestors were woodworkers for the temple. It was neat to imagine them sacrificing their time  and giving their talents here for building the first temple of the Restoration.

We saw where many of the baptisms were performed in this river in Kirtland.

We also visited Emma and Joseph's house next to the temple. My favorite part was looking at the tiny hymnal that Emma complied while living there.

Last stop was to see the Kirtland temple. The senior missionary that took us through the temple was so amazing. He brought the Spirit and told us some amazing stories. We sang The Spirit of God.

We learned this window on display in the temple was the original crafted by Brigham Young, my 3rd great grandfather.

After our day in Kirtland, we started the long drive to Independence, Missouri. We stayed overnight somewhere and arrived in Independence late the next afternoon. We were able to see the visitor's center and the temple lot and walk around the Community of Christ church's interesting temple. It was pretty hot outside, so I think we had an early evening in the RV that night staying in the RV park next to the visitor center.

The next morning was the 4th of July. We started at Liberty Jail. This is a special and sacred place. I am grateful we have it preserved to visit.

After Liberty Jail, we drove to the Far West temple lot and to Adam-ondi-Ahman

Look at that RV over there. It did so awesome on this trip. 

As it was July 4th, I thought we better find some way to celebrate. I was looking up celebrations on our way up to Nauvoo and read that Hannibal, Missouri had one of the best fireworks shows in Missouri. So I got us the last camping spot at the Mark Twain caves campground and we planned to see those amazing fireworks. We rode a trolley bus from the RV park downtown and found a spot on the dike where online it said was the best view.

We watched the boats on the Mississippi River.

Finally after way too long of waiting, we watched the underwhelming show. This picture was the best part and that is zoomed in on my phone. I guess this year they changed the location of the show and our spot was certainly not the best location. It took forever to get the trolley back to camp. We were very tired and wishing we had watched the show from the RV park, but such is life. 

The next morning we went into the Cameron cave. They gave us flashlights and took us through the cave. It was fun. 

Then we crossed the Mississippi into Quincy, Illinois.

We found a good BBQ place to eat in Quincy. 

Mark was tired and wanted a nap and the boys needed something physical to do, so we found a pool with some diving boards to keep them occupied while Mark napped in the RV. 

Following a good few hours here we drove into Nauvoo and found our camping spot in the Nauvoo State Park as the evening set in.