The Rest of our Church Site Visits

Here is the rest of the Church sites that we were able to visit. Having never been to these places myself I had no idea what to expect. This is certainly a spirit about these areas and many of them seemed different than I have always imagined after all these years of hearing about them.

So we walked into the visitors center and I kept thinking that it was such a weird design for a building. I kept thinking that we would look at some pictures and hear about the history and then walk down the street and see the jail. It took me until I was sitting there reading about the visitors center to realize that the visitors center is actual built around the jail!


This is a replica of the Liberty jail. It was made from the original rock and it is cut away on the back side so that you can see the thickness of the walls and how it is laid out inside.


This is the front door (The real one is in the RLDS Temple).
Joseph Smith is the feet you see on the left side of the picture. It was such a small amount of space...about the size of the key on the basketball court and the ceiling was too short for anyone to stand up. Needless to say very uncomfortable

Far West is literally in the middle of nowhere! I couldn't help but think about what this area would look like today if the Saints had never left. This site is just off the road and its cut out of some fields. Across the street is a Community of Christ chapel.

This is the monument at Far West, unfortunately the top of it is cut off.

Each of the four corner stones are covered with a glass case and they each are dedicated to something different (lower priesthood, higher priesthood, etc).

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.

it's gonna be a busy week

and here's why:

2 hour season finale

2 hour season premiere

2 night finale

and there's the line-up, folks.

ok, so our lives don't really revolve around tv, but we sure do enjoy our shows.

today

this was supposed to arrive in the mail:



and hence these were the texts I received today while Colby was at work:

*Did my bike come today? I love you.

*Congrats, you are done with work! Enjoy your afternoon. Xoxo.

(sent at 2:02, I was off at 2:00. I think someone was watching the clock to see when I was off so I could check the MAIL!!)

*Hey could you also make sure to check the mail and see if my bike came slash pick it up?! Thank you so much.

(sent at 2:09. Good thing he sent me a text reminder ;) just in case the other hints and words from the night before and this morning were not enough.)

*Anything?

(sent at 2:39, minutes after I actually got home.)

*My reply: The mail doesn't come this early. Sorry
*C: Oh my heart started racing. Shoot.

*Anything??? You are killing me.

(sent at 3:38)

results: I checked the mail at 4:00 and found the package slip to go pick it up at the post office. I went and picked it up, payed the extra $30 postage that wasn't charged at the other end, and brought it home. Colby is currently assembling his beaut. I am sure pics of his outings with it will come. I have a happy, happy hubby

I squeezed out some of my creative juices

and came up with these ideas/projects for our seaside themed guest bathroom:


close-ups:

{sand dollar from family trip to Cancun}

I know these aren't a-maz-ing...but, considering I have spent the last 4 years of my life studying business, I think I did pretty well on pulling out my creative side. It was fun to do and great to have complete! I think they are a nice finishing touch to our bathroom that has been sitting completely bare. Colby mentioned today that it doesn't echo in there anymore. ha.

We did it!

I know this seems late, considering we actually finished school back in December, but we made it OFFICIAL by going back to Provo last week end to walk in the graduation ceremony. It was so fun to be able to graduate in the same school as my husband. Colby graduated in Business Management: Finance, I graduated in Business Management: Marketing. I even moved up in the alphabet...J to H. The best part of it all was being able to see family! Both the Jergensen and Heiner families were there to support us. Thanks!

Easter

I love celebrating holidays, and Easter is no different. I love the significance of each (the resurrection of our Savior) but also the festivities of them. Because I have younger siblings, holidays are always fun because we have always had a child who "still believes" {in the Easter bunny, Santa, etc.} so we take the extra effort to make things exciting for them. Now that Colby and I are on our own, we aren't with little ones who still struggle to fall asleep due to excitement of the Easter bunny's visit. Not ready to give up the traditions, the Easter bunny still came. ;) After setting up a small egg hunt, I found out Colby had never had an egg hunt growing up and it was fun to see his child side come out as he search for 12 candy filled eggs. You would have thought they had a hundred dollars each in them seeing the way he searched for them.





checking the light fixture for the last two. Nope. Not there. {try behind the closed blinds:) }

Saturday adventures

Colby and I have been wanting to go check out a lot of places around us, but once the weekend rolls around we either have TONS of errands to run or the weather is no bueno. Luckily, the sun came out of hiding for Saturday (and only Saturday) and we had a fabulous day trip down to Devil's Den, a national park just 45 minutes South of us. It was beautiful. Hiking, caves, crevices, waterfalls and creeks. Check out the pics.

cave entrance

look closely...all those little dots are bats!!

this was the part of the cave you had to walk through sideways and carry the backpack. Good things we aren't claustrophobic.

caterpillar cacoon...these were everywhere. I was relieved to figure out they didn't have anything to do with spiders.

Come visit and we will for sure take you to Devil's Den!!

Why Tony, Why?

I liked you. Then you betrayed us all. Why Tony, why?

But I'm sure Jack will come and save the day. Just a lucky guess...Isn't that what he does everytime?

Colby's new friend

We hang out with a lot of people out here who have kids and have quickly fallen in love with them! Last weekend we got to babysit Rachel for a few hours and had so much fun with her. Colby was so adorable with her. He played with her, fed her raisins, put on her necklace and even let her watch him on his laptop.

color

A few weeks ago we painted our guest bedroom bay window walls this color


and a few days after that painted it again this color


needless to say, I was not very happy with the bright green walls. I hate how the color never turns out like the little paint sample. Colby informed me that we could fix it all for only 10 more bucks, so I agreed to the repaint! (Actually, the second time around we got smart and bought our paint at Walmart and got 4 times as much paint for half the price we paid at home depot. You think we would have thought of Walmart the first time around. oh well...)

Chartres, France

In honor of Mitch being transferred to Chartres, I thought I would post a picture from when I was there last summer. I think it is so cool that he is right where I was a few months ago. Kinda wish I could be back there right now and see the countryside and MITCH!



Picture I took of the village behind the famous cathedral. Never thought Mitch would be walking those streets.

apron giveaway

My cousin makes THE CUTEST aprons and is having an apron giveaway. Check out her Epicurean Style aprons and enter to win!

Spring has sprung

. . . at least temporarily

Yesterday it was in the low 30s and snowing, so who knows how long the good weather will stay. We decided to take a Sunday drive and explore while the weather is fabulous. Sunny, 60 degrees and not yet humid.

Blossoming trees at our condo

One of the many old barns I am obsessed with. I made Colby drive me around to at least 4 today to take pictures.

Playing by the creek behind our place.


And the best part...


Fresh, hand-picked daffodils. They are in front of me as I type and they smell fabulous! Colby found them for me. :)

In Colby's words

Lucky Day!

As we were leaving our apartment yesterday to run errands, Colby turned on the radio. He didn't like the song, so changed it to a station we rarely listen to. The radio station was over at the grand opening of Famous Footwear where they were having a sale and giving away shopping sprees every hour. It was about 10 til, so we headed over. We showed up in time for the "grand prize" spree where the winner was given 2 minutes to run around the store and grab shoes. Sadly, we didn't win, but it was fun to watch the winner get some shoes for himself, his wife, and kids. He walked away with 12 pairs, over 800 bucks. Crazy.

Well we left and ran our errands (which included a stop the cable company because they hadn't included a discount on the bill like they should have. While there, we were given a year's "free trail" of DVR. About a $150 value. sweet!) We were getting paint at Wal-mart, but needed to run home to get a paint sample and decided to swing back by Famous Footwear for the 5:00 drawing that would happen in 10 minutes. Colby and I both entered then walked around to scope out what we would grab if we happened to win. Just as they were doing the drawing, I turned to Colby and said I thought he would win. Well, what do ya know...they called out "Colby Heiner."

SWEET! Colby won a 30 second shopping spree where he was given 30 seconds to grab as many shoes as he could. The rules were he had to grab a box, not a display shoe, and bring it to the counter, one at a time, then go grab another. He didn't have to grab the right size though, because after the time was up, they would go get the right sizes for us. It was fun to cheer him on and watch him run around the store. He grabbed me a pair and then 3 for himself. In total, we walked away with over $200 worth of shoes. I thought it was pretty nice that he grabbed the super cute heels that I had pointed out as his first selection. He then went on to get some church/work shoes, work-out/tennis shoes, then some casual pumas. So how is that for a lucky day. Not only did Colby win those shoes, we also got free DVR! Yeah-yuh!

Colby with his prize! He set these up himself for the picture. :)

(Sorry this was so long and detailed. I copied and pasted from Mitch's missionary email. Tried to give him lots of details so it's what you get as well.)

bullseye

Who ever would have thought that this store would open in WalMart world? Not I, but I sure am jumping for joy because one opened 2 minutes away from us! Hallelujah!!
I was already there twice last week...yes, that was once the first day and once the second. So what--I love TARGET.