After Nauvoo, we drove down to the Missouri area and visited Adam-ondi-Ahman the next day. Adam-ondi-Ahman is located in Daviess County and is another Church historical site. You can read more about it here.
It is predominately used as farmland for the church and is such a beautiful little spot.
It is predominately used as farmland for the church and is such a beautiful little spot.
It was fun to walk around and explain the significance of this spot to our kiddos. It was also nice to let them run around and get as much energy out as they could!
I'm so glad that the nice guy who took our picture thought to just get Justin and I. These kind of pictures are usually few and far between.
Ethan saw this piece of fruit on the ground and sincerely asked, "Hey Mom, do you think that this is the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil?" I'm always amazed at what he can remember!
On our way to the Haun's Mill site, we met up with this gigantic snapping turtle on the side of the road. These guys are SO mean and can take a finger off of you like nothing . Instead of curling up in it's shell when we drove up, it turned around and faced us ready to fight!
There is really not much to see at Haun's Mill but word is that our Church just bought this property from the Community of Christ and are making plans to recreate it. For those of you who may not be familiar with the story, this is the site where a Missouri mob attack Mormon settlers here and brutally killed 17 people, women and children included.
After that we headed on over to Far West.
Far West was originally settled by Mormons but were later driven out by the Missouri mobs and the Extermination Order. It became a ghost town after that. This is the site where a temple was to be constructed and the land was even dedicated for it. Maybe someday there will be a temple built here.
It is a beautiful little property.
We visited Liberty Jail where the Prophet Joseph Smith was incarcerated for about 5 months. Even though the living conditions there were horrendous, this jail is known as a Prison Temple because of the remarkable revelations that were received here and the growth and experiences that the Prophet went through.
After Liberty Jail, we stopped by the Visitor's Center in Independence, MO. You can read more about it's history by clicking the link.
We saw the Community of Christ's temple, which is right across from the Visitor's center. We would've actually loved to go through and tour their temple but we arrived too late and tours were done for the day. That seems to happen to us quite frequently :)
By this point in the day, Ellie and Mason were DONE, (we couldn't really blame them either). I was lucky enough to go through the visitor's center tour with Ethan while Justin watched the other two kids roam wild.
It was so cool to hear Ethan talking to this sister missionary about church history. They were just easily chatting about different scripture stories and their significance and their thought s and feelings about it. Again, I'm amazed at what he can remember!!! It truly blows my mind. He makes us look good, that's for sure.
We snapped this picture in front of the Christus Statue as we were heading out the door to make the LONG drive back to Phoenix.
I love my eternal family. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of how families can truly be sealed to each other for forever. I am grateful that I have an amazing husband who helps us work towards that goal everyday. I am grateful that our loving Heavenly Father has entrusted us with His precious little ones here on this earth. They are pretty special kids.
I am so glad that we got to take our kids to such special places and I hope that their sweet little testimonies were somehow touched by it. I know Justin's and I's were.
Needless to say, our kids crashed hard when we got to our hotel room. They were such good troopers to go through the whirlwind of a summer that we put them through!
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