Day 3

Today we drove from Topeka, Kansas to St. Louis, Missouri. Since we had a shorter drive and were going right through Kansas City, we decided to make a few pitstops along the way. One of the places we stopped was the LDS Visitor's Center at Independence, Missouri. As we drove up the street, we saw two very large buildings from afar. Here are pictures of the two buildings:

The first building was on the far corner, the "Tall and spacious" building was right across the street from the visitor's center. The LDS visitor's center is pictured below. What a contrast!
The first two buildings, and 40 acres, are owned by the Community of Christ Church, also known as the RLDS. The LDS Church owns 20 acres in this area, including the visitors center which is surrounded by these other buildings. The tall building is the RLDS Temple. We equated this area to be similar to our Temple Square. What a completely different feeling you get there though!

The other site we went to was Liberty Jail. On the outside, you cannot tell you are at an old jail site at all. It is a beautiful gray marble building, that looks more like a visitors center on Temple Square. As you go in, there is a room which explains some of the significance of this site, and a sister missionary gave us some history. Then we were taken into the jail area. The old jail crumbled years ago, but the original floor still exists. The Church used reliable information and some of the original stones to recreate the jail.

The sister giving the tour talked about the many blessings the Saints (and us) received while Joseph was imprisoned here. I didn't realize that the winter he spent in Liberty Jail was one of the coldest on record! There have only been two recorded times that both the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers completely iced over, and that was one of them. (Even now, the temperature is cooler down by the jail cell than anywhere else in the building.) The cold temperatures actually were a blessing to the Saints who were able to walk across the river as they were driven out of their homes instead of crossing through it. There is a large painting in one of the rooms there. It is one of my favorites. It is a picture of Emma walking across the frozen river, babe in arms, with her other children hanging on to her skirts. We know that she was carrying the precious record underneath her skirts as well.

The missionaries talk about Liberty Jail being a lesson in faith. I found it interesting that Joseph was in the jail for 4 months and 6 days. He felt abandoned by the Lord at one point, and prayed for answers. According to our guide, those answers came on his 110th day in prison. He was released 10 days later. Truly it was a lesson in faith for Joseph and those with him. But as usual, my thoughts turn to Emma. It must have been a lesson in faith for her as well. And as she always did, she met the task with grace and fortitude, never wavering in her love for Joseph or the Lord, never wavering in her testimony of his calling and work. I don't think I could praise her enough for all she went through. When times are tough for me, she is a great example of a woman of faith, a woman who did what she had to do without complaint, a woman who stood beside her husband through more than most of us will ever be called upon to endure, a woman of grace and charity. I am truly thankful for Joseph and Emma Smith.