Kirtland, Ohio Travel
Posted on July 14, 2009 by Jamie Larsen, under Family Trips.
Those that are familiar with the Church that I belong to may know that Kirtland, Ohio is a historic city for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). It is in Kirtland where the saints gathered for a few years after leaving New York. It is also where the first Temple was built by the Saints.
My family had the opportunity to travel to Kirtland this past weekend and spend a couple of days there. We first went to the Kirtland Temple which is owned by the Community of Christ church (formerly known as the Re-organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). This church follows similar beliefs of the Mormons, but believed after Joseph Smith was martyred that the next prophet should be a descendant of Joseph. They still believe in the Book of Mormon and most of the Doctrine & Covenants. The Temple tour was really neat to take, but not very spiritual. It left me and my wife thinking a bit about it and we went back to the hotel to do a bit of research regarding the history of it. However, it was really neat to be able to go inside the temple and see the beautiful workmanship that they did all by hand over 180 years ago. It did cost $2.00 per person to take the tour and the last tour that they did was at 4:30. The tour lasted approximately 1 hour.
The next day we went to “Historic Kirtland” where the church has a visitor center and tours of some of the old buildings (including the Newel K. Whitney store). This tour seemed to follow the spirit of the saints much better. We watched a movie of some of the early saints that lived there and then got to tour through some of their houses. It was a great experience to be able to see this site. For example, we got to sit in a room where the Prophet sat with many others and received revelations about the church. We sat in the room where the missionaries were taught how to be missionaries (the old MTC – Missionary Training Center). It was a great experience. This tour was free of charge and we also caught the last tour here at around 5:30. The tour lasted close to two hours.
Now one thing that I did before we left for Kirtland, was research where to stay while we were there. This seemed much more difficult than I imagined. However, we found a great little place in Mentor, OH at the Best Western. We had a king size bed with a pull out couch bed. It also had a refrigerator & microwave in the room, free continental breakfast, and a small outdoor pool. This place was only 6 minutes away from Kirtland.
Overall, we loved Kirtland… It was a wonderful experience to have with our family. I enjoyed the spirit there and would recommend to anyone.
Anne on August 2, 2009
Hey! I just have been reading on your blog since long. I am happy for you and your great holiday. I am now just in the proces of moving back to the Netherlands. Lots of work, but it will be nice too
xoxo
Anne