Day 3: Adam-ondi-Ahman, Far West, Liberty Jail, and Smartie Searching

Today was the first day we really got into site-seeing and delving into Church History. Our first stop was Adam-ondi-Ahman, which is basically a HUGE (1.5 miles by 4 miles) piece of land owned by the church. It has important meaning on many levels.

First, it was the place Adam was sent to after he was cast out of the Garden of Eden (which is where I'm sleeping tonight in Independence, Missouri); the Nephites stayed there for a time; Joseph Smith dedicated it as an outdoor temple, which is why all the barbed wire fences are painted white;

and it is the place where the worthy will be called to gather when the Lord comes for the Second Coming.

It was so incredible when we were there; Brother Jenkins asked us what we would want future generations to know about Adam-ondi-Ahman and I just thought, if they don't understand anything else, they need to live worthily to be there when the Lord presides over His Sacrament Meeting. It was beautiful, and very much enjoyable besides the paranoia of being eaten alive by ticks like the guy was by ants in Indiana Jones.


After we finished there, we were able to go visit the Preachers Rock and it was neat to see how the acoustics in the valley work. It was better than the exhibits at the Tabernacle!

After we finished up at Preacher Rock, we got to visit the area known as Far West.

Not much was there other than a memorial and the cornerstones. I have I feeling I have been there sometime before. It was cool to hear Bro. Monsen tell about the Battle of Crooked River, and then to see how each cornerstone represented something, the lesser priesthood, the higher priesthood, and First Presidency, and the Quorum of the Twelve. I didn't know that.
Liberty Jail was the next stop and it was seriously the craziest thing. My family came out to some of these church history sites when I was younger and my Uncle Riley lived out in Iowa, and I totally remember visiting Liberty Jail! Justin said the prayer when we were there! It was like ultimate deja vu, but it was incredible!

Not only remembering it was cool, but the Sister missionaries that were there had some awesome testimonies of what had happened there and about the revelation of the 121-123 sections of the D&C. I enjoyed it very much. I learned that after it was Liberty Jail, it fell apart, and some guy used the remains to build his house, and then died, so they reconstructed it, and now its enclosed by the visitors center.
I just thought this one was a neat view of Joseph through the small window through the 4 ft. thick wall.

It was a really cool day going to all of those sites and getting into the meat of the tour. When we finished up at Liberty, we went to dinner, and I got permission from Brother Jenkins to run to the grocery store by the restaurant so I could get some Smarties.
We had been told for FHE we would be having a talent show, so I decided to show off my Smartie trick, but after going to 2 gas stations, there were none to be found, and I was getting nervous. I even tried to do it with Ice-Breakers Mints and Tic Tacs, but to no avial. When I found the bag at the grocery store, I told the lady they were like the only place in Missouri that sells smarties, and she looked at me and said, "I thought we were the only place to sell Dark Chocolate Snickers!" I didn't even know Dark Chocolate Snickers existed! It was a good time.
The store was like Hy-Vee Food & Drug or something like that. Plus I got a Jones for a dollar and it was sweet. I was able to do my trick for FHE and I had an extra good time!

Today was also Memorial Day, and as I was thinking of people to remember, I realized its the 2 year anniversary of me witnessing the tragic jump of the fatal BASE jumper in Twin Falls, ID. Its not the most pleasant memory, but my most significant Memorial Day memory. Crazy stuff. . . Thats all for today!