Kirtland

In the past, when I've thought about the Kirtland period of the church, I didn't think much. I knew there was a temple, but it was kind of "introductory," without the full ordinances, and the church doesn't even own it any more! I also knew that some church history stuff happened here. But that was about all the thought I gave it. But after listening to the podcast about Kirtland from the Mormon Channel, and now that I've been here, I have a much greater appreciation of this place.

One of church historians in the podcast, Jenny Lund, likened the periods of church history to growing up, with Palmyra being the infancy and Kirtland the childhood. I extrapolate to make Missouri the middle-school years, and Nauvoo as young adulthood. After leaving Palmyra, Joseph Smith lived here longer than any other place: 7 years. A great many key revelations were given here, the work of translating the bible happened mostly here, the school of the prophets was conducted, 65 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were recorded in this area, and so on. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, as well as angelic messengers appeared. And, of course, the first temple in this dispensation was constructed.

As we visited the upper room of the Kirtland temple, I was very moved when I contemplated the heavenly visitors that appeared there. What an amazing blessing to have been there.

I was impressed with the number of important figures who joined the church in this area, including Newell K. Whitney and Sidney Rigdon. I was amazed at how some the leaders of the church, who enjoyed such incredible manifestations, could have parted ways with the church later. I learned, from the podcast, that Joseph Smith, when he was dragged from his bed, beaten and tarred and feathered, actually died -- had an out-of-body experience -- but recovered, although he always had scars because of it. As I stood in the bedroom of the Johnson farmhouse, from which he was dragged, and where his sick baby was made worse by the night air and died a few days later, I sought to try to understand that level of hatred, as well as the contrasting level of forgiveness and compassion by the prophet.

After visiting the church's Historic Kirtland visitors center and touring the grounds, including the Newell K. Whitney store (and site of the School of the Prophets), we then visited the Community of Christ (formerly Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) visitors center and toured the Kirtland Temple. A very special place, with fascinating design and interesting history. From there we went to the Johnson Farm in Hiram, Ohio, where the mob event I mentioned took place, but where also a great number of revelations were received.

On recommendation of the missionary couple at the farm, and a local visitor, we finished up the day at Mary Yoder's Amish Kitchen for good old-fashioned comfort food dinner. The restaurant and gift shop were larger than we expected, but the food was quite good, and yes, run by Amish and Mennonites. It turns out the township of Middlefield is the fourth largest center of Amish in the world. Yep, we even saw Amish buggies on the road. In addition to dinner, desert, and some cookies, I bought a book about the most common questions about the Amish and Mennonites. Mary read part of it to me on the drive back to the hotel. Very interesting.

We finished the evening reading section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants together. Nice day.