Day 2: Church Services, Independence, and Visitors Center

Today, after 6 more hours on the bus, driving through beautiful Kansas,
we stepped out into the amazing humidity levels of Independence, Missouri. We were able to check into our motels before getting ready and going to our own Sacrament Meeting in the Independence Stake center, we were able to look at the Visitors Center, the outside of the Community of Christ Temple and Auditorium (RLDS)


and the Church of Christ Temple Lot Chapel, which is next to the area Joseph Smith dedicated for the Independence Temple, which will be the final temple built before the Second Coming. (Like the plaque says in this picture.)

It was really cool to see it, its really small, and its surrounded by 3 different churches buildings. These are the corner stones that are on the ground, but they aren't the original ones, of course, and I'm sorry the one is upside down, but its the best I could do with my camera.


We learned that the RLDS people don't believe in anything Joseph Smith taught after Liberty Jail, they claim that was when he became a fallen prophet, yet they believe everything before that. This is strange, because before that he taught about the building of temples to worship the Lord and receive special blessings, but it wasn't until after Liberty Jail when he taught about Baptisms for the Dead, Endownments and Sealings, so the RLDS people don't believe in that. Since they don't know what to do in their temple, they use it to pray for world peace. Pretty interesting, at least its something positive. Their temple is also open to the public, just not on Sunday. This is the picture on one wall of the temple.


One super funny thing that happened today was at lunch we were at Golden Corral, and I was having some ice cream with caramel on it, but I decided I wanted some gummi bears too, so I put them on the side of the ice cream. After a few spoonfuls of ice cream, I decided I wanted a gummi bear, so I grabbed one, and it just so happened that it had a clump of caramel on its head, so I sang "Gummi Bear, with Caramel Hair" and ate it. I laughed after that one. For dinner I went to McDonalds, and after eating, we were able to play MarioKart and Dance Dance Revolution. It was a very good time. Other than that I was able to meet the super cool kids from Arizona and have a good time with them. This trip is pretty much amazing.

Right now theres an intense rainstorm going on with lightning and everything. Elysha is freaked out and asking lots of questions about tornadoes and lightning, and flying away and lots of stuff. Especially the ticks we've been warned about for tomorrow's journeys. Heres a sample of how big they are:
This bugger was on the window of the Visitors Center and was seriously an inch or inch and a half long. Way bigger than the ones I've seen in Glenwood. Anyways, thats all I have for today! Until tomorrow. . . leave me some comments!