LIVING THE LEGACY: CARTHAGE JAIL & WINTER QUARTERS

Are you wondering if this trip will ever end? It's starting to feel like we've been living this legacy forever.  So I'm going to give you a brief synopsis of days four and five.  Then you're really in for a treat!  Before we left, the kids recorded a music CD.  And they sounded amazing! And I'm going to share one of the songs with you.

On day four of our trip, we visited Carthage Jail, where Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were shot and killed on June 27, 1844.

On day five, we stopped at Winter Quarters, Nebraska.  Early Mormon pioneers set up a temporary settlement here when they realized they weren't going to make it all the way to Utah before winter set in.  As you can see, we learned a lot about pioneer life, and even got to try on some pioneer clothes.

I have about 900 photos of the trip.  Aren't you glad I didn't share them all?  But I am going to share a few more here, accompanied by the beautiful voices of the most amazing group of teenagers I've ever had the pleasure of road-tripping with!

*Musical arrangement courtesy of Jason Robison-www.wardchoirguy.com

LIVING THE LEGACY: NAUVOO

On day three of our youth trip we arrived in Nauvoo, where we spent two nights.  This was one of my favorites stops on our tour.  We began Thursday morning with a visit to the Nauvoo temple.  The original temple was never fully finished, and was set on fire by arsonists on October 9, 1848.  The temple as it stands today was completed in 2002 and, as much as possible, is an exact replica of the original.

After our visit to the temple, we toured the sites in Nauvoo and learned quite a bit about 17th century American life.  According to the official website, Nauvoo is a National Historic Landmark District, and many of the early homes, shops and public buildings have been restored or rebuilt and are open for guided tours.

At the blacksmith and wagon shop, we learned all about how covered wagons were built.  Things got pretty busy here when early Latter-day Saints prepared to move west.

Funny story about our blacksmith.  All of the people who do tours and demonstrations in Nauvoo are missionaries--usually retired couples--which means they wear name tags, just like the ones you see on those white-shirted missionaries that show up on your door step from time to time. 

Our blacksmith's name was familiar.  My first college boyfriend had the same last name.  The longer I looked at our blacksmith, the more familiar he seemed.  By the end of the tour, I was pretty sure he was the father of my old boyfriend.  So I asked him.  Turns out, it wasn't my ex-boyfriend's dad after all.  It was his dad's twin brother!

Like I said, the adorable senior citizens running the tours in Nauvoo are missionaries.  They don't get paid.  In fact, they pay their own expenses while they are there.  And they don't just go to Nauvoo.  They go all over the world, helping and serving others.  Wouldn't they rather be golfing, or travelling, or sitting on their front porches in rocking chairs?  Well, rumor has it, there is a waiting list to serve a mission in Nauvoo.  Just look at those two fellows telling us all about boot making.  Don't they look like they're having fun?

Having worked at my college newspaper, my favorite stop in Nauvoo was the printing press.  Back then, all type was set by hand, and documents were printed one copy at a time.  Many of the expressions we use today came from early printing practices.

Like "mind your p's and q's."  Because type had to be set backwards, you really had to be careful with those p's and q's. 

The gunsmith shop was very popular with the young men in our group.  And who knew that Jonathan Browning, inventor of one of the first repeating rifles, was a Mormon?  We also visited the bakery (free samples), and saw demonstrations on making barrels, rope, candles, wool and bread. 

In February 1846, these Latter-day Saints left their homes behind for the final time and headed west, hoping to find a place where they could practice their religion without persecution. When we left Nauvoo on Friday morning, we went by way of Parley street--the same way the people of Nauvoo left in 1846.  Some were fortunate enough to own a wagon and were able to cross the Mississippi River on ferry boats.  Others walked across the frozen Mississippi, never to return. 

 From their journals, we learn how many of them felt about leaving behind their beautiful city.

My last act in that precious spot was to tidy the rooms, sweep up the floor, and set the broom in its accustomed place behind the door. Then with emotions in my heart…I gently closed the door and faced unknown future. - Bathsheba Smith

LIVING THE LEGACY: LIBERTY JAIL & FAR WEST

On day two of our fabulous journey, we visited to Far West, Missouri and Liberty Jail. 

We enjoyed a short program where we learned more about the Far West area.  Early Mormons began settling there when they were ordered to leave Independence.  By the summer of 1838 Far West had 150 homes, four dry goods stores, three family grocery stores, several blacksmith shops, two hotels, a printing shop, and a large schoolhouse that doubled as a church and courthouse.

None of that is there anymore.  Mormons were eventually driven from Far West too.  During the last week of October, 1838, mobs burned houses and crops, rustled cattle, detained prisoners, and threatened the Latter-day Saints with death.  The governor of Missouri declared that "the Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state, if necessary for the public good."

Still, it was a lovely day, and a beautiful setting to enjoy our brown bag lunches.

In December of 1838, while church members continued to suffer at the hands of mobs, Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum and several other men were imprisoned in Liberty Jail.  Ironic name for a jail, isn't it?  They would spend four months there, awaiting trial on false charges.

Liberty Jail was divided into an upper room and a 14-foot-square lower dungeon, where the prisoners were kept.  The room was not tall enough to allow the men to stand upright, and Alexander McRae, one of the prisoners, said the food was “very coarse, and so filthy that we could not eat it until we were driven to it by hunger."   It was one of the coldest winters on record in Missouri.  In fact, after the jail was no longer used for housing prisoners, the lower level served for a time as an ice storage plant,  Yeah, it was cold in there.

It's probably safe to say that Liberty Jail was one of the most difficult challenges Joseph Smith ever faced.  But like all challenges in life, there were lessons to be learned. 

In one way or another, great or small, dramatic or incidental, every one of us is going to spend a little time in Liberty Jail—spiritually speaking. We will face things we do not want to face for reasons that may not be our fault . . . we may face persecution, we may endure heartache and separation from loved ones, we may be hungry and cold and forlorn.

But the lessons of the winter of 1838–39 teach us that every experience can become a redemptive experience if we remain bonded to our Father in Heaven through it. These difficult lessons teach us that man’s extremity is God’s opportunity, and if we will be humble and faithful, if we will be believing and not curse God for our problems, He can turn the unfair and inhumane and debilitating prisons of our lives into temples—or at least into a circumstance that can bring comfort and revelation, divine companionship and peace. - Jeffrey R. Holland

LIVING THE LEGACY: COLORADO TO INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI

I have so much to tell you about my trip to Missouri and Illinois with our church's youth group.  It's hard to know where to begin.  I suppose 4:00 am last Tuesday would be a good place to start.  That's when we boarded these buses and set off for Missouri.



There were roughly 45 kids and 5 adults per bus, for a grand total of 200 something people.  That's a lot of Mormons!  And you are probably wondering what, exactly, all of this has to do with living a legacy. 

Well, back in the 1800's, early members of our church (many of them were our ancestors) made the same journey--except in reverse, going much of the way by handcart or covered wagon.  They were faithful, strong, hard working people.  They made incredible sacrifices for what they believed in.  And we wanted to learn more about them so we could try and be more like them.

I'm pretty sure those wagons didn't have air conditioning.  Whenever we got tired of being on the bus, we reminded ourselves that at least we weren't being pulled by a team of oxen.  And thank goodness, because it would have taken us 12 weeks (instead of 12 hours) to reach our first destination.  Independence, Missouri. 

When we arrived, our fabulous food committee had dinner all prepared.  There were four members of the food committee.  Everywhere we went, they went ahead of us and prepared our meals.  They are kind-of my heroes.  Driving all over Missouri and Illinois and Nebraska feeding 200 people out of the back of a truck. 

I'm not going to lie.  I thought I would be eating sandwiches for 5 days straight.  Instead I ate pulled pork, pizza, taco salad, Kentucky Fried chicken...and a few sandwiches.  And everywhere we went, the food committee was happy to see us.  Like there was nothing in the world they would rather be doing than driving around the mid-west feeding a bunch of hungry kids. 

While you're marvelling over the food committee, you might also want to consider the other adults who planned this trip.  Can you imagine?  They took what could have been a logistical nightmare and turned it into one of the most smooth running operations I've ever come across.  Seriously, they ought to go into business planning bus tours. Of course, they didn't get paid.  They did it because they love all those kids.

And speaking of the kids...most of them had jobs to do too.  After all, we were living the legacy, and those early Mormon pioneer children didn't get to sit around all day playing video games and updating their Facebook status.

This photo was actually taken on day four of our trip, on the steps of the Mormon temple in Nauvoo, Illinois.  I just wanted you to see what a fine group of young people we were travelling with.

Would you be surprised to learn that the kids on the trip were just as awesome as the adults?  They are the best young people you could ever meet.  Smart, funny, hard working . . . they helped out and looked after each other.  We even kept them all in hotels for four nights and nobody got kicked out!

Wait, didn't I start telling you about Independence, Missouri about five paragraphs back?  Early Latter-day Saints fled to Independence after being driven out of Kirtland, Ohio.  In June 1832, W.W. Phelps began publishing the Evening and Morning Star newspaper there.  Being the only paper published in the county at that time, it was read by local people of all faiths.

From early 1832 until July 1833, the Mormons enjoyed relative peace in Jackson County. However, their increasing numbers made people uncomfortable.  A town meeting was held in which all Mormons were ordered to leave their new homes or be killed.  Mormon leaders called to the meeting were told they had 15 minutes to move out.

Before the 15 minutes had passed, a mob broke into the home of W.W. Phelps.

His wife was home alone with the children so she quickly took her sick baby in her arms and hurried with the other children ... to safety in the woods close by.

Concealed in a corner of a nearby fence, fifteen-year-old Mary Elizabeth Rollins and her thirteen-year old sister Caroline watched with horror as the angry men rushed into the house and threw the family's things into the street. Upstairs the mob found the valuable press and ... eagerly they hurled the printing press and type out the window to the street below.

Someone said, "So much for the Mormon commandments," and then dumped the huge sheets of printed pages into the street. Mary Elizabeth decided to try and save the pages, and her sister agreed to help. When the mob had their backs turned, the girls ran into the street and filled their arms with the pages.

They were just turning away when some of the mob spotted them. Squeezing through a gap in the fence, the girls found themselves in a cornfield.  The men searched through the corn but could not find the girls, who had placed the printed sheets on the ground and covered them with their bodies. 

That's one of my favorite stories about Independence.  And after spending five days with our wonderful youth group, I can assure you that they are just as brave and amazing as Mary Elizabeth and her sister Caroline.

After being ordered to leave Independence, the early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fled to Far West, Missouri.    And that's were I'll continue the story of our trip in my next post . . .