We are Finally in the Saddle

 Our son and daughter-in-law, Micah and Camille kindly gave us the newly appointed guest bedroom in Provo where we stayed until we left for the MTC.

We laid down the back seats and packed our car to the roof. When we were getting ready to leave the MTC, we rearranged so I had a small tunnel from the rearview mirror to the back window.

We are glad we took as much as we did. It is all being put to use (almost - a few things could have remained at home, but don't tell Olivia I said so).

Tradition requires that we point out our mission on the huge map in the main MTC hallway.

This is the entire senior missionary class that entered the MTC on the same day. We are in the back, 4th and 5th to the left of the brick wall.

This is our MTC district. All of these couples are going to serve as Welfare Self Reliance missionaries. In this picture is Elder and Sister Hinkson who are serving in Fiji for the second time. Our afternoon instructor, Ashley Castro, The Tidwells are serving in the Philippines. Elder Tidwell is a former Scottish missionary, but about a decade after I served there, the Halls are serving in McAllen, Texas.

The same people in this picture, but our morning instructor was Matthew Breneman.

From the MTC, we drove for 6 hours from Provo, to Cheyenne, WY. We traveled to Omaha, NB the next day and took a few hours to tour the Winter Quarters visitors' center and cemetery. Our tour guide was President Bennett, who taught at BYU and wrote some books about the pioneer era. It was a very informative tour.

The pioneer cemetery is next to the temple and across the street from the visitor's center. The monument above is over the grave of an unknown child and seven unknown pioneers. In front of the visitors' center is the handcart monument. It is similar to the one on Temple Square in SLC. As a boy, our ward had a float in the July 4th parade in Colorado and I was a boy pushing from the back, so I had to include this. The grounds at the temple and the visitors' center are immaculate. Olivia especially enjoyed them. The temple was being cleaned, so it was closed. We noticed that the doors were brass with a raw wood behind. No one could tell us if there was some significance to that.

The next day we drove to Moline, IL, stayed the night, and then to Mentor, OH where we spent the night. The next day was Sunday and we drove a short distance to Kirtland, OH where we went to church.

The visitors' site

is much different from when we were there in 1993. Many more buildings and the grounds are very well planned and beautiful.

The Whitney store is much the same, with all the wares and side rooms. The upstairs contains the room for the School of the Prophets and the room where Joseph and Emma lived for a time.

This is the inside of the potash works. Piled up is ashes from the burned wood of the homes. It was used for the manufacture of alum, saltpeter, soap, glass, tanning leather, gunpowder, paper, bleached cotton textiles and various woolen goods, so it was a valuable cash-producing product.

By the time we got to the temple grounds, we were too tight on time to take a tour. The Community of Christ church now has a nice visitors' center and bookstore/gift shop and a lot of very nice people manning it, so we talked for a while, but didn't stay long.

On our way out of town, we were able to tour the John Johnson Farm. Lynne Hilton Wilson, PhD. who has a blog about some of the challenging questions related to the Church. Happened to be there with some of her family, so we got a little more insight. You may recognize her if you are familiar with some of the sites on You Tube.

The John Johnson family provided Joseph and Emma a home following their move to Kirtland. It is about 30 miles out of Kirtland, so about a day's ride with a wagon and oxen. It was here that Joseph was torn from the home, beaten, tarred and feathered. As a result of the exposure to the elements suffered by the family, their adopted son, who was sick with measles died. Joseph was cleaned and his burns and wounds tended to that night. He preached the next morning, recognizing some of the members of the mob in the audience.

We spent the last night in DuBois, PA and drove from there to New York City the next day.

Travelling to NY was an adventure. Still in PA we experienced a congested highway that put us behind an hour or more. Then in New York we saw toll roads on steroids. They charge an arm and a leg for every bridge and tunnel. If you happen to be a local, you can buy a device that sits on the windshield and automatically deducts from your account. The mission picks up those charges, now that we have such a device. I think we went a couple of places before that, so they send a bill to our home, with a fine. The mission will pay that, too, we are told.

Our route took us through the Lincoln Tunnel and through the heart of downtown Manhattan. Then we went onto the freeway that leads to LaGuardia Airport, one way and to Queens the other. When we got close to our apartment, the GPS took us the wrong way, so we stopped it and used the one in the car. We were happy and relieved to see the missionaries and Elder and Sister Sturgill standing near the window by the garage, looking out for us.

More in the next post.