Our Journey to the New Jerusalem

Over Memorial Day weekend Katie and I decided to take an extra day off and have a 4-day weekend up in Kansas City. I am sure Katie will blog about all the details and inform everyone what exactly we did but I wanted to post some pictures of the Church history sites that we were able to visit. Kansas City is only like a 3-hour drive from NW Arkansas and just outside Kansas City is Independence Missouri, Liberty Missouri, and Far West. We started with Independence. I will spare most of the details and make this more of a photo documentary. :)



This is the LDS Visitors Center. It is exactly opposite the Community of Christ (RLDS) Temple. They have several artifacts and other information about the area. Did you know that there are 25 different "break-offs" from the church restored by Joseph Smith here?

This is where 63 acres of land was dedicated for the Saints to settle and build a temple. Now only 20 is owned by the LDS Church. In the background is the "assembly hall" build by the RLDS in the 50's or 60's. It holds almost 6000 people. Below is their seal on the side.


Yet another break off from the LDS Church. Note the date it was restored. There were so many similarities to the number of various religious groups that claimed this area to be important as with the various faiths that claim Israel today.
Here is the Community of Christ Temple dedicated in 1994. It was closed while we were here at the visitors center but I convinced Katie to let me drive back the next day to do a self guided tour. (She was very reluctant)



This is from the center of the RLDS Temple looking up into the ceiling. To get inside we actually had to walk around the outside of the temple in this snail shape and angle.

This is from the balcony and shows the organ and pulpit down in the front.


This is the biggest smile that I could get out of Katie. Let's just say she was a real trooper for coming inside with me but she wasn't happy to be there. They had rooms were we couldn't take pictures where they had everything from men and women giving blessings, the original oil paintings of Emma and Joseph from Emma after her death, the original Liberty Jail door, and pictures of their 12 apostles, presiding bishopric, and first presidency.

This is from the bottom back. Just above Katie's head are translation booths. They have members in 50 countries and so they need to translate the services into different languages.

All in all it was a very interesting experience. It is amazing how close to the truth many people are but as the years pass by they is a greater and greater divide between truth and philosophies of man.