Adam-ondi-Ahman

On June 28, 1838 the third stake of Zion was organized here.  Today, it is a place of beauty, and quiet contemplation.  And also some people still live there, not in the valley, but inside the site - which kind of blew my mind.



When I initially arrived I was greeted by this sign, which heavily influenced the order in which I saw the site.



Do you see it?


Yes, I 100% choose the outlook with restrooms.  I had (as you'll recall) been driving all over the hinterlands of Independence for hours by this time.









D&C Section 116:1

"Spring Hill is named by the Lord Adam-ondi-Ahman, because said he, it is the place where Adam shall come to visit his people, or the Ancient of Days shall sit, as spoken of by Daniel the prophet."

I don't think I can convey exactly how verdant this valley was, I've so rarely seen that vibrant a green before.
 

Hawn's Mill

Spoiler alert:  I did not actually visit Hawn's Mill.  I got within 2 miles of it, but then had to turn down a unpaved road, and that was not ideal, but ok.  And then, there was a giant (what looked like a 90 degree) hill that I'd have to climb, and... just nope.  I turned that rental car around.

Currently, the Church owns the land, but it is simply a large open field and the website warns that during seasons of heavy rain, the site is often flooded and the roads impassable.  So yeah, I drove through BFE (with signage to prove it).  



I did also see this license plate, which kind of made me feel like I was still in redneck Texas.


Also unrelated to Hawn's Mill, but very important for the BFE portion of the day, I listened to the radio station non-stop and I would almost move to Independence just for it.


It was like the late 80s/early 90s section of iPod.  I loved it.

And finally, I ate dinner at this BBQ place by my hotel, and I actually liked it better than Arthur Bryant's.  I got the burnt ends sandwich and I loved that they'd chopped it all up so it wasn't a choking hazard.  I asked them to mix a little bbq sauce into the sandwich, but also to give me a dish on the side.  That way I could dip each bite into the sauce, which meant I could eat it without the mess.  



It came with cheesy corn, which, as it turned out...was in the same boat as weird bbq spaghetti in Memphis - not actually terrible, but also not good.

Three Witnesses Monument and Pioneer Cemetery

In Richmond, Missouri the Church maintains a small cemetery that includes the grave of Oliver Cowdery.  There is also a monument commemorating the testimony of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon.  Before the Church took over maintenance the lot was overrun by weeds and grass and most of the markers had toppled or were broken.  They were cemented as close to their original location as possible. 

JB Turner and I were born on the same day, 160 years apart.

 

Historic Liberty Jail

In the late 1830s, dissension within the Church and persecution from outside were growing. In late 1838 Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Caleb Badwin, and Alexander McRae and others were imprisoned in Liberty, Missouri for treason.  Sidney Rigdon was released in early February; the others were kept imprisoned until early April.


You cannot imagine how truly oppressive it feels and how much faith the men imprisoned here had to have in order to stave off hopelessness.




After the presentation they asked if they could pray with me and offered that the Lord had impressed them to give share a personal message.  It was an intense and special experience in such a dark and dreadful place.

Basically, these 2 cute sisters were awesome, and I especially enjoyed their matching necklaces.

Eight Witnesses Monument

The graves of two of the Eight Witnesses (Christian Whitmer and Peter Whitmer, Jr.) are at this site.  The monument gives information about the discharging of Zion's Camp and the calling of early Church leaders.

It is also far enough off the beaten path, that I thought I might be pulling into a private driveway, and thank Heaven's there was already a family there who had opened the gate or I wouldn't have known how to get in!

Temple Lot

From LDS.org:

At a certain place in Independence, Missouri, a rectangle of land is surrounded by an amphitheater, a visitor's center, a peace plaza, a mission office, hundreds of parking spaces, three meetinghouses for congregational worship, and the headquarters for an international church. 

It is 300 feet by 200 feet, and has nothing on it but grass, a few trees, six small stone markers, and a sign.

The buildings are operated by three churches: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Church of Christ, and Community of Christ.  Members of all three churches feel a special attachment to that little rectangle of land.  We believe it was once dedicated for the construction of a temple in the center place of Zion, in preparation for the Savior's millennial reign.

We do not know exactly how, when, or where the words in D&C 57:2-3 will be fulfilled, but we do know that that rectangle of land is sacred.  It has been dedicated to the Lord.  The Lord's revelations about that land - and the principles of gospel living that are woven into those revelations - are part of His people's past, present, and future.

Independence Visitor's Center

The Independence Visitor's Center is built on a portion of the land that the Church purchased to establish the center place of Zion.

I finished lunch earlier (you can read about that over at 1000Places) than expected and decided to visit here sooner than expected.  I was able to watch a couple of videos about the translation of the BoM and then had my own personal sister missionary to show me around the exhibits. 

The Church has done some amazing things with the experience here.  There is a little outside of a cabin with benches (and some sad looking mannequins) where we chatted about what I knew about that period of history (and where I confirmed that I was a member, just not a very good one).  I like these individualized tours where we can just informally chat and I don't feel like I'm being proselytized. 

Once the cabin cleared we went inside this awesome little interactive cabin.  I loved this exhibit.  First of all, the cabin is decorated in a way that totally reminded me of the cabin at Palmyra.  Second, they play a little audio clip, but the cabin windows are really screens that change to reflect the different seasons, times of day, etc.  So when they are talking about winter in Independence there are snow covered trees in the windows, while they talk about a era of city building - a barn appears in the window. 

The missionary told me that they were trying to focus on the positive aspects of the Saints time in Missouri and not only dwell on the horror that was coming.  I think it is powerful to think about how much good happened there, how many people were committed to the gospel, how they really felt this was their place and how much work and cooperation went on before things got terrible.

We also discussed about how this scenario still plays out today.  Of course, the natives were upset about a whole bunch of outsiders were moving into their community.  I see this sentiment over and over in Texas.  Don't move in and take away our status quo.  We don't want you voting together, or doing things that change our way of life, etc.  And for the early Saints in those established communities it was the same.  People are afraid of change, and when you have a lot of privilege or authority people are so afraid of losing any of that power.

After the cabin exhibit, you step out into a replica of the printing office where the first BoMs were printed.  We talked about how these things were real and how at that time the level of effort required to produce one book was so enormous that losing a printing press was devastating.  We also talked a little bit about one of my favorite quotes from Ender's Shadow which, paraphrased, it:

God takes all our actions and uses them for good.  So even the evil or unjust actions, are eventually turned and used for His purposes.  This can be incredibly uncomfortable in the meantime.

I like to re-frame Emma Smith's place in history with this in mind.  I was always taught that she turned against the Church and was to be reviled, but in actuality her staying in Nauvoo, allowed for the preservation of so many church sites and other artifacts.  We have many of these places today because Emma Smith chose to stay and her sons chose to run their own church.  Her decisions may not have been righteous, but that doesn't mean they weren't used for the Lord's purposes.

Also, I'd had fragment of a hymn stuck in my head for about a week, and could only remember one line. "And Jesus will say to all Israel, "Come home."" I figured it was stuck in my head because I constantly joke that I need to move to Independence so I don't have to walk very far in the coming apocalypse;  I'll already be at ground zero for the Saints.

Well, while we were listening to the printing press presentation the background music was this song .  THE PRINTING PRESS GUY WROTE THAT HYMN!  (W.W. Phelps, Now Let us Rejoice)

The last presentation was a quick clip of (honestly, I don't remember, but it made me all teary-eyed).  And my missionary and I started walking back upstairs.  She told me that this had been the first tour she'd done on her own, and I have to say.  A+