Kirtland Day 2

See Day 1 HERE.

Day 2 was wonderful as well!  We all slept in, minus Eli.  He woke up at his usual 7:00 on the dot, but was thrilled because I actually let him watch TV (for like the 3rd time ever in his life), so he stayed quiet and we could get some more sleep!  We finally woke Connor up at 8:30 (!) and went down to eat breakfast.  We finally mosied out of the hotel about 10:00 - love vacation! - and headed back to Kirtland.

First we went to the Temple.  It's owned by the Community of Christ Church (formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints).  They had a great hour long tour and we learned a lot.  I can't imagine them being able to build such an amazing building back then.  It is three stories high, the walls are 2.5 feet thick, and the woodwork inside is amazing.  It's really beautiful.  It took them 3 years to build it, and then just a few years later, they had to pack up and leave it to go to Missouri.

We couldn't take pictures inside, but here are some of the outside:

After that we went to the Isaac Morley farm.  Isaac Morley moved from Massachusetts to the wild frontier of Kirtland when he was a young guy.  He then went back to MA to get a wife :) and he convinced her to move to Kirtland with him.  He bought over 130 acres of densely wooded land, and it was basically just them and the Native Americans.  Just a few months later he was called to serve in the militia, so poor Ann Morley had to live by herself in their little log cabin for 40 days.  They said she was afraid to start fires for fear of attracting the Natives.  She had no friends, no nothin'.  Scary!  He eventually got sick, so they sent him back and said he was dying and was of no use to them.  She nursed him back to health and after NINETEEN YEARS, they finished clearing their land and had a thriving farm.  Holy smokes.

They were part of Sydney Rigdon's congregation that all eventually joined the church there when Parley. P Pratt came as a missionary.  Joseph & Emma lived on their property for a time, along with many other saints who moved to Kirtland.  They had a schoolhouse on the farm where many revelations were received, including several sections of the Doctrine & Covenants.  They were eventually asked by Joseph to sell the farm.  They moved to Missouri, then to Nauvoo, then to Winter Quarters (where Ann died), then to Salt Lake, and then to Manti to colonize there.  Sacrifice!  Isaac lived to be 79 years old!  Amazing.

(This is up where the schoolhouse would have been.  They call this Kirtland's Sacred Grove because so many revelations were given here).

After that farm, we drove 45 minutes to Hiram, Ohio to see the John Johnson farm.  The drive there was SO BEAUTIFUL!  We were on some small country roads and it was gorgeous.  Joseph and Emma lived here for a little while also (they lived in 5 different places in/around Kirtland).  There were 13 sections of the D&C received there, including 76.  This is also where Joseph was dragged out of bed and was tarred and feathered and then got up the next morning (Sunday) and preached and baptized 3 people.

 Upstairs in the home.  Mother Johnson was very fashionable and artistic and had lots of fun colors in the house.  This room was her favorite - their bedroom - that she sacrificed to give to Joseph as an office.

 Outside the home.  I can't get enough of these trees!  The boys loved playing with the leaves.

 Connor ran out there to be in the picture with Eli. He didn't want to be left out. :)

After going there, we drove another 2.5 hours to Columbus!  We figured we were already on the road, we may as well go to the temple.  The boys slept most of the time and we brought them to Jeremy's cousin's house and Jeremy and I did a session at the temple.  We then picked them up and headed home about 9:00 and dropped into bed just after midnight.  Whew!  It was an amazing trip and we're so glad we did it!