Day Eleven: Thursday, the 10th of July, 2014

This morning we visited the Kirtland temple. This temple is open to the public, since it is owned by the Community of Christ.

I would say it was beautiful, but I think I say that too often. It was a lovely building consecrated by human tears. This temple required the greatest sacrifice of any of our temples. 

It required everything, from their dishes to their time. Many of the men worked on the temple instead of houses, their families living in tents. They built the temple instead of their own houses. This temple was the most expensive. It was the first temple in latter days. It was the place where the sealing keys were restored.

We were allowed to sing (there was enough time) in the temple. As the solemn, soul-thrilling strains of “The Spirit of God” rang through the white halls, the sound was amplified. I could almost see the temple dedication, when that song was sung for the first time. 

I could almost see the saints, tears streaming down their faces as the Spirit testified to them that the Lord accepted their sacrifice. 

In our singing, I could hear their jubilee, echoing through the halls of time.

I was very grateful to the Community of Christ, who have cared for this temple over the years. We also learned that Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses of the gold plates, cared for the temple for many years after the Saints left.

Next we went to the cemetery across the way, seeing several important graves.

After lunch, we headed to old Kirtland.

We saw the sawmill that provided many of the boards that built Kirtland. We visited the Newel K. Whitney house and store.

My favorite was the ashery, where they made Pearl Ash and Pot Ash. I have read accounts of how these worked, and it was validating to finally see one.

We finished the tours and headed over to the John Johnson home, on the outskirts of Kirtland.

I think that was my most favoritest (That word is in the dictionary…the Emma Dictionary) of the old homes we have visited. Sister Johnson had a love for colors. 

When they scraped down to the earliest layers of paint, they found some startling 

colors.

Ok, so listen to this. Look at this tool:

Sitting on the table...kind of hard to see, sorry.

Not that cool, right?

However it made part of my life make more sense.

This is a tool that is used on the beds. The beds, instead of using box springs, had ropes that went back and forth under the bed to hold the mattress. They would sometimes come loose. This tool was used to tighten those ropes. You had to do this frequently. This was the birth of the saying, “Sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite.” Cool, huh?

Also, another ‘ah ha!’ moment came in this home. Have you ever noticed that all of the old homes have these stairs that seem to be designed to make you fall and break your neck? (if you haven’t noticed, you will have to take my word for it; they do)

Do you know why?

The fault lies (big surprise) with Washington D.C. Apparently at that time, they taxed people for every stair. So the whole goal was to eliminate every stair possible. The result? Really, REALLY, steep and narrow stairs.

After this we left the group and went to meet some of our Syrian relatives.

This was definitely my favorite part of the day. They were so nice!

They are first generation Americans, straight from Syria.

I felt like I was stepping in to a different world. They all spoke Syrian. The house was decorated in a Catholic/Syrian way. Beautiful.

They gave us a lot of some delicious, delicious Syrian food.

They highlight of this trip was meeting one of the gentleman (my great-grandmother's cousin), who was an Arch-Bishop for the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church has been very influential through the ages, and so I was properly honored to meet an Arch-Bishop.

All of my relatives, though some of them tried to hide it behind blustery behaviors, were very loving and kind.

Maybe I was a little premature as naming this as my favorite part of the day, for the next part gave it a run for its money. Next, we bade farewell to our relatives, and headed to the airport where we picked up dad (Employed). Hooray!