Kirtland

It was fun to finally see Kirtland and all of the sites. It was a fun trip that I will always remember, what made it even more memorable was having Collette my wonderful sister along for the ride! We began the trip going to Lake Eerie. Zach and Grant were loving the sand.


The first place we went to was the Visitors Center. We had a very thorough missionary couple that gave us a three hour tour. Keeping Zach in line was quite the deal. He looked at those ropes that were supposed to block him from entering the room and took that as a new challenge to cross into the forbidden rooms. Also in the school of the prophets Zach had a complete meltdown. I felt so bad for the people in the tour who had to put up with our craziness! It was amazing that despite all the crying, I could feel the spirit and knew that this truly was a sacred spot. I was also grateful for the Senior missionaries who were so kind and raised their voices higher when necessary!




Next we went to Kirtland temple. It was beautiful! We couldn't take pictures in the inside of the Kirtland temple, which was unfortunate, but it was incredible to finally see this beautiful temple, that the pioneers sacrificed so much for! The lady giving the tour gave us more factual information about how the temple was built instead of spiritual things, which is just as well. We couldn't go to the top floor because we had more than fifteen people in our group. Luckily Zach was asleep during this time!



We went to another house which I forgot the name to, however their portapotties were amazing! I felt like a had walked inside a church building, I will always remember those beauties. Then we hiked to the stone quarry which was a little difficult to find. But I was determined to find it! And despite protests from my group that it didn't exist, it does!



Next we went to the John Johnson farm, and let me tell you that this was the highlight of all of Kirtland and worth going to. It is about 45 minutes away but it was worth every minute! We were the last ones to go through the house and we got the tour of all tours. The man giving the tour was incredible and didn't mind when Zach went underneath the ropes, but he did mind when Zach tried to sit on the beds! This was the place where one of the twins died because of the mob coming to get the prophet. It was a chilling story to be in the room while we were told the story. Zach was having a wonderful time, but Grant was going wild and was done with the Kirtland experience, especially while we were in the revelation room, and while Grant was blowing up, Timmy was accidentally turning the pages on the Bible that was about 150 years old. When it comes to kids I think it is best to have the grand spiritual experience at the beginning of the tour instead of at the end! The missionary tour guide was so kind and let us stay as long as we would like. We later had a picnic outside of the farm, and were the last ones to leave the farm and close the gate.




This was a wonderful experience, and it made me appreciate the Prophet Joseph Smith and the early Saints even more, who gave up so much!