Looking Back at More Roots

As I mentioned in the previous blog post, although I worked a fair bit during the month of May, it kind of seems like the month has been a perpetual vacation. Memorial Day weekend was no different. I had the weekend off, so I headed off with some friends to a church conference in Kirtland, Ohio. This was my first time going to Kirtland, and my second time ever in Ohio, so I was excited to see a lot of the historical sites there.

I don't have much to say about the conference itself, but there were two things that kind of stuck out. The first is that it was fun to meet members of the church from all over. I was surprised at how far people were willing to come for the event. I met people from Utah, Florida, New York, Michigan, Virginia, all over Ohio, and from many other places. Some of these people had been coming for four or five years.

The most interesting thing that happened during the conference was when I attended a workshop by a man who has been nicknamed "Mr. Kirtland" for all of the efforts he has gone to in order to re-establish the church in that area. Mr. Kirtland told us a story that is pretty nicely summed by this article. I think my brother at least will find it interesting.

Sunday is the day that sticks out most in my memory. It started out with a church service in this building.


That's right, I can now say that I have attended church in the Kirtland Temple. Our speakers were John H. Groberg and his wife. There were also some amazing musical numbers. The choir's version of the children's hymn Love One Another was particularly moving.

Before church started I wandered around the temple for a little bit. Here are the gardens in the back of the temple.


And here's my favorite picture. Let's see if you can tell what's wrong with it.


After lunch, we finally were free to do what I had wanted to do the entire time we were at the conference. They only gave us three hours to see all of the historical sites, but we still tried to see as many of them as we could. Because of the rush I wasn't able to take that many pictures.

Here's the John Johnson farm. Joseph and Emma stayed here (which would be about a 2-3 day journey from Kirtland in the 1830's) while Joseph studied the Bible.


And here's the Bible Joseph Smith studied from and a page of the notes he took.



I also toured the Newel K. Whitney Store, which Joseph Smith also lived in for awhile. This site actually received the 1988 Presidential Historic Preservation Award from President Ronald Reagan for the historical accuracy of the site.

Checkers anyone?

The John Johnson Inn. This is where they show Joseph Smith's personal copy of the Bible and a first edition Doctrine and Covenants. This was also the place where a printing press was kept for awhile. If you know anything about me, you know I like printing presses!


We ended the day at the Isaac Morley Farm. It's the place where most of the Saints settled when they first arrived in Kirtland. It's basically just a field now, but I did get one picture there. For some reason I really liked these chairs. It reminded me of the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.


Like I said, the pictures are random. But the conference was fun. I'm glad I went. I wish they would have dedicated a lot more time to church history, but you can't have everything in life, can you? Now to get back to normal life again.