Kirtland

After our super-crappy week last week, I REALLY needed to get the heck out of here for a few days. Brian had to go to a conference in Cleveland on Thursday and Friday, so I packed up myself and the girls and headed up there to meet him on Friday. We stayed in a hotel that night, and then we spent all day Saturday at Kirtland. We've been wanting to go for awhile, so this was the perfect excuse. The town was even more beautiful than I thought it would be, and we really enjoyed all the sites and tours. I was so glad we went - it was so nice being in a place where so many important and wonderful things happened in the history of our church. A lot of our pictures turned out blurry - probably because of the rain - but here's a few:

The Kirtland Temple

A memorial to the members of the Smith family who died in Kirtland.

The original Newel K. Whitney store. Joseph and Emma's family lived in the top of the store for 6 months.

This was basically the Smith's living room at the top of the Whitney store, where many revelations were received by Joseph, such as the Word of Wisdom.

The sawmill and ashery-important for building the temple and commerce for the Saints.

The Johnson farm, about 30 miles outside of Kirtland, where Joseph and Emma's family lived for about a year. Many important revelations were also received here, such as the vision Joseph and Sidney Rigdon had of the 3 degrees of glory (D&C 76).

I wasn't going to put this picture in because it's so blurry, but this is us standing on the front steps of the Johnson farm. These are the very steps that Joseph stood on to preach from, the morning after he was dragged out of his bed by a mob and tarred and feathered.

This farm was one of our favorite places we visited - there was such a great spirit there.