Week 8

 Aug 28 - Sep 3

Institute classes began this week! So that means food prep for us - lunch on Tuesday for the BYU Devotional class and refreshments on Tuesday and Thursday nights. We absolutely love the youth that come to the classes here at the institute! It has taken us a while to get to know all their names, but we am getting better. We have over 40 Young Adults that attend the Tuesday and Thursday night classes. Then they love to stay after to eat food and visit with each other. Elder Perona and I keep "Young Adult hours". We usually get home around 11:00 PM on Monday through Thursday nights. 

The highlight of this week was being able to hear from an apostle of the Lord, Quentin L. Cook, during Stake Conference on August 28th. In his counsel he told the saints that they can live anywhere if: 

1. You build Zion in your hearts and home. We need homes that are sanctuaries of faith. We prepare to meet God by how we live in our homes. The third hour on Sunday was given to us for that purpose. 

2. Be an example where you live. There is protection in that. When people know you are a member of the church, they don't invite you to drink, etc.

 3. Make you goals and principles those that relate to the temple.  Live worthy of that, focus on Jesus Christ, build faith in Him, stay on the covenant path, do family history work.

On our preparation day, September 3rd, we went to Kirtland, OH.  We stopped first at the John Johnson farm. This is the original home that Joseph and Emma Smith lived in for a year, from September 1831-1832. Joseph was dragged down these steps in the middle of the night and tarred and feathered. After Emma and several friends cleaned all the tar off his body, he stood on these steps the next morning, being a Sunday, and preached a sermon. Many of the men who had carried out the vile act the night before were in the crowd of onlookers. His sermon was on the topic of forgiveness.

These sister missionaries were fabulous! It was such a joy to have them take us through this home. They helped us feel the Spirit as we toured this sacred space. 

The Johnson's were a prosperous family. This is the kitchen in the home.

Joseph was able to use this upstairs room as the office for the Church. Many revelations from the Doctrine and Covenants were received here. Over 60 of the revelations found in this book of scripture were given to the Church in Ohio. 

In Kirtland we toured the temple and the Church's visitor center. The last time I was in Kirtland was the summer of 1977. The Church has since done an amazing job with the restoration of the Newell K. Whitney Store, several homes, the old hotel, which has pictures and artifacts, and something we both really enjoyed; the sawmill and ? .  These were heavily used in the building of the temple and local homes. Again, the sister missionaries did an awesome job teaching us about all these historical sights. 

The Church bought the public street which used to run in front of the Whitney store. Now you can safely walk to all these sights with no traffic zooming by. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and felt such a deep love and debt of gratitude for the early Saints. 

Inside the Newell K. Whitney Store

We loved the artwork in the visitor's center. Here is Walter Raines painting of Christ appearing in the Kirtland Temple. 

Painting of Moses, Elias and Elijah appearing in the Kirtland temple.

Another Walter Raines - The ordaining of the apostles. (I think)

The missionaries who have served in Kirtland told us we had to eat here! It was an excellent recommendation! Yummy sandwiches, salads, and Mimi's meatballs were amazing!

We were only 10 minutes from Lake Erie so we drove there right at sunset. We will definitely come back to this area and spend some time at the lake.  

Another highlight of our week was finding a young man for the missionaries to teach while we were walking on campus. We stopped to talk to  some members of another church who had a display to attract people passing by. As we talked to them, a young man came and stood behind me to listen. I turned to him and asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ and if he had ever heard about The Book of Mormon. I explained what it was and he agreed to walk with us back to the institute building where we gave him one and we had a delightful 3 hour conversation with him.  The missionaries have been teaching him and he is coming to church this Sunday!

Having an apostle of the Lord in our presence who speaks for God is truly awesome. The Spirit has been so strong with us this week as we saw and heard a living prophet of God and visited the sites of the restoration. We heard testimonies of prophets, people, places, and history that the Church is true and that this is the Lord's kingdom here on earth.

We love you all and bear testimony with the numerous testimonies that we have heard, and witnessed this week, that angels and ancient prophets visited the earth, that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, he is the prophet of the restoration and that Jesus Christ stands at the head of His church here on earth today.