Day 11 - 7/1

Today we woke up early to a great breakfast. Julia especially enjoyed the omelets. After taking off, we headed to Kirtland, Ohio. This is a special place to our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This was the place where Joseph Smith and the early Saints built the Kirtland Temple from 1833-1836. Here they had church services and conducted ordinances and administrative work. The Saints at this time had been persecuted and run out of their homes. They settled in Eastern Ohio and built up a community. They were very poor and made many sacrifices of their worldly belongings to help build the temple. Many of the women crushed up their fine china to put on the outside of the temple to make it more beautiful.  The Kirtland Temple became a National Landmark in 1977. We took some pictures and admired its beauty.

After leaving Kirtland, we continued on our eleven hour car trip. We came to Palmyra, New York. Here we toured Joseph Smith's home and farm. It was here where Joseph prayed to know which church to join. He then was visited by Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ . They told him to not join any of the churches because the true gospel was taken from the earth and needed to be restored. Just down the road we also visited the Hill Cumorah where Joseph Smith was given the Golden Plates. He used these plates to transcribe the Book of Mormon and restore the Gospel. It was great seeing the actual places where these sacred events occurred. The sites were beautiful and the peace it brought was nice to dwell in. It was nice to spend Sunday touring these places.

After the church sites, we continued on. On the way we passed by Cooperstown, which has the Hall of Baseball. We also passed by the Erie Canal. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but it was still amazing  to think that man handmade it. Mom also got four tickets...toll tickets! In the East there are many tolls in which we have to spend time going through. Each time we pass through one I become more appreciative of the West Coast. We also saw this crazy car that was covered in graffiti. It was pretty fun to look at.