Kirtland, Ohio

If you've been reading these posts with any kind of regularity, you'll remember that my family took a little LDS History road trip over a month ago (see here).  It was a chance to see some of the sacred places that hold a special place in the history of the LDS church.  I forgot to create the last post in that series, as we moved from Boston to Austin, and things just became crazy.  So, I give you the last in the series...for our visit to Kirtland, Ohio.

As you may remember, we had just left Niagra Falls, right on the border of the U.S. and Canada.  We drove about 3 hours to reach the northern part of Ohio, right along the banks of Lake Erie.  Our main goal was to reach the Kirtland Temple.  This was the very first temple created by the newly-formed LDS church, at great sacrifice to the early members:

Several significant events took place in this temple, as the Gospel of Jesus Christ was being restored to the Earth.  Priesthood keys were restored and a great deal of spiritual knowledge was gained within these walls.  We took a tour of the facility, as it is no longer a consecrated, working temple.  The tour guide was delightful, and we were the only members of the tour.  He tried to take a photograph of our family, on the steps...

From there, we traveled to the LDS Kirtland Visitor's Center.  This was a beautiful site, one that the Church has spent time and resources in restoring and preserving.  We took a tour through several buildings that were built when Kirtland was the epicenter of church life.  The most dramatic, to me, is the Newel K. Whitney general store.

The Whitneys, who were converts to the Church, welcomed the Prophet Joseph Smith and his wife to their home in 1831.  The store has been amazingly preserved - it was fun to see original store merchandise, mixed with recreations of some of the goods.  Part of the general store was used as an office for Joseph.  They also used an upstairs room to house the School of the Prophets - allowing leaders of the Church to study the Gospel together.

This room is where several sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were received.  On one occasion, leaders there saw a heavenly vision of the Savior.  This was recorded by each man in attendance, in various journals and books.  I can't tell you how amazing it was to stand in this very room.  Emotions ran high, that's for sure.  It was a deeply moving experience to try and understand what that must have been like for those men.  The persecution they experienced, but also the strength they received from prayer and study with Joseph.

From there, we took a long drive to the Johnson Family Farm.  This was about 45 minutes away from central Kirtland.  Most people don't make the trip out to see this site.  That's too bad, as we met with some wonderful sister missionaries that were eager to share the stories of what happened at this location:

Joseph moved out here to live with the Johnsons in late 1831.  A number of revelations were received here, as well as a vision of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  Again, to be able to stand in the room where this occurred, was intense and uplifting:

In addition to the uplifting experiences, there was a particularly horrific event that took place here.  In March of 1832, Joseph was attacked by a mob in the middle of the night, dragged from the home and tarred & feathered.  I don't want to go into detail of how badly that must have hurt.  The silver lining was Joseph's determination to continue preaching the next day, despite his injuries.  Some in the audience were part of the group that attacked him the evening prior.  I don't think I would have had the fortitude to stand there are forgive those men, in that way.

That was the end of our time in Kirtland.  We spent the next day driving the 10 hours to return to the Boston area.  While I truly hate long car rides, the trip was completely worth it.  In many ways, I wish we could have pushed on to Nauvoo, Illinois - another deeply sacred place in LDS history.  I will keep these memories with me for a long time...and can't wait to take G-Man back, when he's a little older and can appreciate the spiritual significance of a trip like this ; )