The historic sites in Missouri

Oh, how time slips by … so quickly.  I was going to write two days ago, and then yesterday … and now, I wonder how it got to be today, with still nothing written.  It isn’t that I have nothing to write about.  There is plenty.  Perhaps, I just don’t know how to condense it all into something that is still meaningful and conveys the feelings that were there as we experienced what we did over the last week.

With the Nauvoo temple closed, we felt pretty useless for the first couple of days.  After all, that is why we are here – to work in the temple.  We didn’t have a lot of days to take advantage of – really only a week.  That’s not long enough to go back to Utah, or even to visit Kirtland or Palmyra.  So we chose to just do a two day tour with a local brother here.  He took us, along with five other temple missionary couples and we went to visit some of the church historical sites in Missouri.  He owns his own bus that seats a dozen passengers and off we went – about three and a half hours out to Adam-Ondi-Ahman.  We didn’t see anything that we hadn’t seen before, but we got to hear what and where events took place there that we had missed before as there are no missionaries there to explain anything nor are there any signs to explain any of it.  It was nice to get the inside scoop.  It was cold and windy; that hadn’t changed from when we had been there before.  But now we know where the altar stood where Adam offered up his morning prayers.  We stood on “preacher’s rock”.  We listened as others whispered a football’s field away and could understand all that was said.  And we reviewed the prophecies of upcoming events yet to occur there.  We followed that up with stops in Gallatin, Far West, Richmond, and Liberty.  We saw where the jail was where Joseph stood in majesty when he rebuked the guards in Richmond.  We saw the “temple-prison” or the jail where the prophet remained for four months through the dead of winter in Liberty.  On the way from Gallatin to Liberty, we also drove within a short distance of where the battle of Crooked River occurred and the location on Fishing River where Zion’s Camp was miraculously preserved and again where many of their group died of Cholera.  We were able to arrange for our daughter, Kristy and her family, who live in the area, to dine with us at Liberty. Over all it was a delightful day.  The next day we went to Independence, where we sought out the markers indicating where the corners of the main temple will someday be built and we also went to the visitor’s centers in the area.  We saw where Gov. Boggs was living when an attempt was made on his life.  Then we headed back to Liberty where we attended the Kansas City Temple before heading back home. 

We needed to hurry back as the new missionaries were to arrive on Friday.  Now, this week, we will be helping to train them and be ready to re-open the temple next week.  More on that next time.