Day 18: Kirtland

Not to be confused with Kirkland, the Costco brand.

This was our last day. In fact, we cut some of the sites short because we had to get to the airport.

Our first stop was the Kirtland Temple. Like many of the prominent sites in my church's history, it is owned by another church, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Community of Christ Church (as it is now called).

The Kirtland Temple was the first temple built after the church was restored. It was dedicated in 1836. Shortly after it was dedicated, the members of the church had to leave it behind. At that time, in Ohio, a church could not own vast amounts of property, and the deed was in Joseph Smith's name. When he died, it went to his children, who eventually sold it or gave it to the RLDS church. Despite this, it is still a very important temple, as it was here where Joseph Smith received the keys to be able to do temple work. These keys have been passed down to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who continue to hold them today. They wouldn't let us take any pictures inside, so this was the best we could do.

We then drove to the Newel K. Whitney store, which is owned by our church. A delightful old missionary gave us a tour of it, the Whitney home, a saw mill, and an ashery before our tour guide found us and sent us back to the bus.

This is the Whitney home. You can see a man working on the garden in the back.

Newel K. Whitney was the first bishop in Kirtland. He owned this store, which had living quarters where Joseph and Emma lived briefly.

It also had an upper room where people would meet, and where men would come to be taught by Joseph. It was here in this upper room where Joseph received the revelation on the Word of Wisdom, which I tried to picture filled with cigar smoke and tobacco spit.

We then made a brief stop at the John Johnson farm, where we got out long enough to go the the bathroom, walk through the house taking pictures, and get back on the bus. The Smith Family also lived here for a time.

They were living here when Joseph was dragged out of the house in the middle of the night and tarred and feathered. The purpose of the tar was to kill the person. The purpose of the feathers was to mock what the person stood for. Joseph lived. However, they had adopted twins, a girl named Julia Murdock, and a boy named Joseph Smith Murdock. Joseph Smith Murdock died as a result of exposure from that night.

And that concluded our church history tour.

We made it to the airport just in time to get those with earlier flights to their gates before their planes took off. And a few short hours later, we were back in Las Vegas.

Some last thoughts:

• It's a long time to be on a bus with the same people.
• We think we got bit by bedbugs when we were in New York. Thanks, New York.
• It was an incredibly efficient way to see a lot of stuff in a short amount of time.
• It was the perfect trip to end my student career.
• Some of my favorite moments were just hanging out with my parents, which I could have done for a lot cheaper had we just stayed in Vegas.
• It was great to be back in upstate New York.

If you are reading this and you are interested in taking a similar tour, here is a link to the Latter Day Tours website. I would recommend it to anyone.