We stopped over at Kirtland. It was super hot, but it was awesome timing. We've been reading in the Saints book about their time in Kirtland so the kids at least recognized names and places as we went. We didn't take the official tour because of time constraints, but I loved Jer telling the kids about the school for prophets and reading the plaques in front of the different buildings. We were going to take the tour of the Kirtland temple, but there was a one hour wait and we didn't want to put off getting to our cousins too late, so we just walked around it and tried looking in windows. When I was little, we did go in and it looked like a tabernacle with two ends instead of one. Now as an adult, two things struck me. One was that it was like a practice temple. The craftsmanship and the materials of the second temple are so much superior. I know that they had more craftsmen and more resources for the second, but the Kirtland temple gave them a chance to practice what they would go on to improve. The second thing is that the sacrifice of the early saints is not cheapened by the fact that there is no spirit left on the grounds. We went to the Community of Christ visitors center and it was interested to read about all the saints that had left the church and stayed. It was also surreal to see all the things that the break off churches still treasure.... like Emma's collection of hymns and the Book of Mormon that they've edited and reprinted differently. It was weird to see and talk about these things and not have the spirit present.
No comments:
Post a Comment