The Great 2013 Vacation: Kirtland

Kirtland, Ohio was 70 miles from the KOA at Erie, but church services didn't begin until 10 o'clock.  Once I learned there was a ward in Kirtland, I felt we had plenty of time to break camp, shower, eat breakfast and make it to the services.  Luckily, we were pretty efficient that morning and I was correct in my time assessment.  We arrived at the chapel and were able to change into our Sunday clothes in the restrooms.  Interestingly, here in the town where the first modern temple was erected, the topic for the Sacrament meeting talks was temple work.  The first sister who spoke had recently gone through the temple for her first time.  Having served as the temple preparation class instructor for the last seven years, I was extremely interested in her talk.  She expressed the struggles she had experienced to become worthy of a recommend and the gratitude she felt while going through the endowment session for the first time.  After a musical interlude with a sister playing a medley of hymns on the piano, the concluding speakers were couple who had been recently sealed.  I very much enjoyed listening to the insights of all the speakers.  When the meeting was over, several ward members introduced themselves and directed us to our next classes.

When the meetings had ended and we had changed back into casual clothes, we sat in the car eating lunch.  One of the members we had met earlier came over and started talking to us.  During our conversation, he asked if we had plans to visit the John Johnson home.  I had thought that all the Ohio sites where in Kirtland, so I had not made plans to leave the area.  The Johnson home is located in Hiram, Ohio, 40 miles south of Kirtland.  I was reminded that 16 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were received there, including section 76 which discusses the degrees of glory.  At first, I was intrigued by the opportunity, but as I looked at the time, considered what we wanted to see in town and talked it over with Jennifer, I decided to keep to our itinerary.

At the Historic Kirtland Visitors' Center, a sister companionship became our tour guides (unfortunately, I cannot remember their names).  We asked when the final tour of the Kirtland temple would take place.  They told us 4:30 and assured us they would have us out in time to make it.  First, we watched video presentation which focused on Newel K. and Elizabeth Ann Whitney.  They were members of Sidney Rigdon's congregation and heard the gospel preached by Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer, Jr., Ziba Peterson and Parley P. Pratt as the four missionaries stopped in Kirtland on their way to Independence, Missouri to preach to the Lamanites.  She wanted to be baptized almost immediately upon hearing the message.  When he asked her to wait for him (Newel had made up his mind yet), she politely, yet firmly told him, "No."  Since much of what can be seen in "historic" Kirtland are buildings owned by the Whitney's, this focus seemed deliberate as well as informative.  After the video, we visited the Whitney Store, the Whitney home and ashery and the John Johnson Inn.  Of all of these places, I enjoyed the store the most because of the spiritual history behind it.  In one of the upstairs rooms of the store, the school of the prophets was held.  This is were Joseph would teach the brethren concerning their priesthood duties.  The Lectures on Faith were presented here.  Because of the smoking and tobacco spitting going on during the meetings, Emma's complaints to Joseph about having to clean up afterward served as a catalyst for receiving the Word of Wisdom (section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants).  In an adjoining room, Joseph's work on the inspired translation of the Bible took place and several other Doctrine and Covenants sections were received in the store.  I was also interested to learn that after Newel K. Whitney was ordained as the second bishop of Kirtland (to replace Edward Partridge who moved to Missouri), his store became the first bishop's storehouse of the Church.

 

In front of the store (I think my eyes are closed :))

Inside the store--the ledger had purchases from people who lived in Kirtland at the time

School of the Prophets room



Whitney home

 

The other place I found interesting was the Ashery.  People would sell the ashes from their fireplace to the ashery.  Here the ashes would be converted into lye and made into soap, or the ashes would be turned into pot ash or pearl ash.  I don't recall what pot ash was good for, but pearl ash (which was pot ash heated at very high temperatures to burn out the impurities) was sold to make ceramic dishes and glass.  The ashery was one of the major contributors in helping to finance the building of the temple.  We had a very nice time on our tour.  The sisters were very patient with us, answered all our questions and made sure we were able to make it to the temple on time for our tour there.

 

Ben & Isaac ready to work at the Ashery

 

A three minute drive from the historic Kirtland sites brought us to the parking lot of the visitor's center of the Kirtland Temple.  The temple is owned and operated by the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).  A $3 per person donation was charged for us to enter (used to help preserve the building).  A 20-something young woman (again, I have forgotten her name) was our guide.  Before the tour, we were specifically asked not to take pictures inside the building, but I found  this video that offers a view of some of what is inside the temple.  I will admit to being bummed by that request, but I honored it.  We watched a 10 to 15 minute video presentation talking about the Kirtland temple and the Community of Christ.  At the end of the video, a curtain opened up in front of us to uncover a picture window that showed the temple--it was a nice touch.

Once inside the temple, we were told that the walls were so thick that when the doors were shut, no sound from the outside could be heard by the congregation, even when the bell in the top tower is rung, it cannot be heard inside the temple.  We were taken to the top floor and shown rooms used for schools.  The room on the west side of the third floor was Joseph Smith's office and was also used for the school of the prophets.  A book written in Hebrew was passed around the group taking the tour as we were told that those attending the school learned Hebrew and Greek.  On a marked page, the word "Nauvoo" meaning "beautiful" was underlined.  We were taken to the first floor and had the opportunity to sit in one of the box pews.  The pews were designed in such a way so that one could face either end of the building.  On the east end of the building were the rostrum for the Aaronic Priesthood presidencies and on the west end was the same for the Melchizedek Priesthood.  It was pointed out to us how a curtain (or veil) could be dropped in front of the Melchizedek Priesthood rostrum and how curtains could partition off the pews.  The tour was informative and our guide did a good job (more so then 30 years earlier when my father would deliberately hold us back and describe in detail much more than the tour guide had said--it got to the point where other tour member would stay behind to listen to him before continuing on), but as we talked about it afterward, we all felt that the missing component was the Spirit.  The Sister missionaries had given us plenty of good information as well, but they had also borne their testimony of the things that had happened in the places we visited.  Their testimonies had made our visit with them much more spiritually personal.

 

          

 

 

Kirtland Temple view and us after the tour

 

From Kirtland, we traveled to a KOA outside of Toledo for our stopping point of the day.  After passing through Cleveland, I had my only close encounter with a state trooper.  One pulled in behind me as we traveled through a road construction area.  I had been talking to Isaac (Jen and Ben were asleep) about Nauvoo.  When I did a mirror check, there he was (quite slick, didn't see it happen)  After the construction ended and the road opened to three lanes again, I moved over to let the trooper pass but he decided to pull in behind me again.  I don't know what was suspicious about a family of four driving down an Ohio highway other than the California plates.  I guess he seemed to think I was on the verge of doing something criminal at any moment (or maybe he thought we were drug runners, who knows).  I calmly set the cruise control to exactly 70 (the posted speed limit) and continued my conversation with Isaac (the other two woke up and joined in not long afterward).  The trooper followed us for a good 10 miles (at least, it seemed that way) before finally deciding we weren't worth the trouble and zoomed away--I considered waving, but thought better of it.  This was the only time we arrived at the KOA in daylight before the office had closed.