Epilogue 2 (Week 104) - Dwight

 As we visited multiple Church History sites and temples this week, we have experienced all sorts of emotions.  At the Carthage Jail, the site where Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum and others were awaiting trial on bogus charges and where a mob of 100 men broke into and killed Joseph and Hyrum, we felt pain and peace and determination.  We watched a portion of a talk given by Elder Jeffrey R Holland, one of the 12 apostles, in which he testified:

"In this their greatest—and last—hour of need, I ask you: would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for eternal salvation on a book (and by implication a church and a ministry) they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth?

Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless. Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be “houseless, friendless, and homeless” and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor. Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon."

We visited several other sites before leaving Nauvoo.  Then, on Tuesday morning we left the Mississippi River and Nauvoo behind, passing through a corner of Iowa before entering Missouri.  We stayed in Independence MO for a couple of days and went to the Kansas City temple.

The Liberty Jail was another location where Joseph and several other Church leaders were incarcerated and where several revelations were received, including Sections 121 and 122 in the Doctrine and Covenants. 

D&C 122

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

We took a day and went to Adam-Ondi-Ahman, Hawn's Mill and Far West - which had all been former Church member settlements and where significant events took place and where significant future events are prophesied to happen in the future, including the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.  Leaving Independence, we headed to the Omaha Nebraska area and Winter Quarters, where the members of the Church stayed the winter of 1846-47 after having been bitterly persecuted in Illinois and told they had to leave their temple, property and lovely city Nauvoo.  We wept as we considered some of the suffering and pain they had to go through.  We loved our visit in the Winter Quarters temple.

Finally we left Omaha and traveled along the Mormon/Oregon trail and stopped by the most famous landmark along this trail - Chimney Rock.  Now we're in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Carthage Jail

Nauvoo - Browning Gunsmith Shop and Home

Nauvoo - Red Brick Store

Saying Goodbye to the Mississippi

Hello Iowa

Missouri

Liberty Jail - Liberty, MO

Kansas City Temple

Entrance at Adam-Ondi-Ahman

Adam-Ondi-Ahman

Hawn's Mill - site where many Church members were mascaraed

Far West

Welcome to Nebraska

Winter Quarters Temple

Chimney Rock

Chimney Rock

The Wild West - Wyoming

Tomorrow we'll get to Utah and get to see many family members over the next few days.  This has been an amazing road trip and we feel closer to the Mormon Pioneers that did all that they did to give us the blessings we have today as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  We're grateful for their sacrifices and thankful we could serve this mission and contribute, in our own small way, to the work they started.  We add our testimony to theirs.  God lives!  He is our loving Father.  Jesus Christ is His son and our Savior.  The Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith was God's prophet who restored the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth.

We're almost home!  Love you all!