Misc.

There is a place called Holden Arboretum near where we live. It is something along the lines of Thanksgiving Point.  Well, sort of.

This place is 3400 acres big. Not kidding; 3400 acres!  And it is full of trees and shrubs.  They have sectioned it off and have groupings of different types of tress.  You know, this is the Linden collection and this is the Spruce collection and this is the Crab Apple collection, etc.  Except that each ‘collection’ is probably an acre or two in size.

It is really something!  There are paths but only through a small portion of it.

And we went to visit the Azalea and Rhododendron area the other day.  It was gorgeous! The Azalea’s were at their peak but the Rhododendron’s were just getting started.

The stump Sister Caldwell is standing next to, was a 150 year old Maple tree that fell down a couple of years ago. Local artists have carved figures into the exposed root/trunk portions and it really looks neat!  




We also got a chance to go see Lake Erie.  Like Lake Michigan,
it looks more like a sea than a lake.  Pretty awesome!

Flowers Planted!!

Well, we did it!  All of the flowers are planted! And we couldn't have asked for better weather.  The sky was overcast, but it was warm and there was no rain!

We started at 6:00 am Monday morning.  As you can see, we had a lot of good help!  Some of the seniors assigned to site hosting were there as well as all of the young Sister missionaries.  They were awesome! We had a breakfast muffin treat in front of the Facilities Management office which we work out of and then started digging in the dirt.The site missionaries had to leave when time came to welcome visitors for the day, but they did a terrific job while they were there.


Sunday it rained in the morning but was a nice weather day for the rest of the day so things had a chance to dry out a bit. Then Monday morning stayed dry and we didn't have to dig in the mud.  We prayed hard for that!  It started to sprinkle just as we finished planting the last of the flowers.

And you can see the end result!  It is beautiful! That's the visitor's center in the background.

We had them all planted by about lunch time.  Last year they spent a day and a half to get it all done.

The picture to the left is the door of the visitors center.  Those were much larger plants, obviously and are very impressive; impatiens, if you are wondering.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) Sister Caldwell and I get to drive out to Grandpa Johnson's farm and plant flowers out there.  That should be a real treat for us. We might get some help from the young Sister missionaries assigned out there or we may just be on our own.  We'll see!

Oh, and today (Tuesday) it rained a bit in the morning but was gorgeous this afternoon.  We'll post about where we went today in our next post.

Ahhhh! Spring!

Just a quick post to show some of the beauty we do have here.  Not only are there a lot of trees around here, but there are a much larger variety of them than we see in Utah.

This is what used to be the main street of old Kirtland.  The paved surface was the old dirt road that lead right through town.  The historic sites are on both sides of that street, though they are obstructed by the beautiful trees lining part of that street.

We've had to walk down that street multiple times each day, staring at those beautiful trees.  The work can sometimes be difficult but the perks are tremendous!

Flowers!

Today, a big truck pulled into the Maintenance Yard.  We spent the next 30 minutes or so unloading these flowers. Over two hundred flats -- but whose counting!!

Guess what we will be doing come Monday morning.  At 6 o'clock am.  And all the rest of the day, too!

But the historic sites are sure going to be gorgeous when we are done!

Look closely at the pictures.  That back trailer is a double decker. And both trailers are large to begin with. 

Took these pics with our new 'Droid!


Will post some pics of the aftermath!

Historic Kirtland - Part 2

We finally have a new phone and a steady, dependable internet connection!  Thanks Julie and Dean for helping us so much with this!

But now we have a lot of catching up to do, so, our intention is to post every couple of days for a while.  And first on the list, Historic Kirtland - Part 2.

There is much that is special about Kirtland.

Kirtland is the one and only place where the Church owns an original structure in which appeared together Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. That structure is not, of course, the Kirtland Temple. The Father and Son did appear there but we don’t own that.  However, the Father and Son actually appeared here in Kirtland together, four times.  We have no record of a place where the Father and Son appeared more times.  Ever.  And one of those times was in the School of the Prophets on the upper floor of the Whitney Store.  The Church does own that structure and we help care for it. This is a picture of that room - the School of the Prophets room.

Our ancestor, Luke Johnson, was one of 24 invited to attend there. He missed the first session, being out of town serving a mission.  We assume that he attended the remaining classes.

We held a meeting there with Brother Anderson (Mr. Kirtland).  It was a very special opportunity and we felt the Spirit there very strongly.  Not only did the Father and the Son appear here together, but the Savior appeared here multiple times in addition to that appearance.

The 88th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants refers to that room as “the house of God”, “the house of the Lord”, and “mine house” and also describes ordinances which were to be administered there. In other words, that room was considered as a temple for a limited time and for limited purposes. A very special room, indeed.

But, the most special place, of course, is the temple, despite the fact that we do not own it,. What a unique and wonderful place!

It was also impressed upon us the joy that was felt when the Temple building itself was completed and then dedicated in 1836. We figure that it had been approximately 1400 to 1500 years since there had been a temple on the earth – fourteen to fifteen hundred years!  That’s a long time.  It is no wonder that Heavenly Father and His Son were very pleased and that the angels shouted with joy, when a Temple - the Kirtland Temple - could once again be found on the earth.

And many manifestations were experienced when that temple was dedicated.  Many saw and heard marvelous things and the event has often been compared to the Day of Pentecost written of in the New Testament.

Brother Anderson helped us understand that the Spirit can still be felt there, and we did.

And the Community of Christ Church does a good job of caring for that old building.  We have a good relationship with them and work together on many things.

President Sorensen (the Mission President here) was with us and shared his feelings about serving here.  And there doesn’t seem to be a better way to say it.  “Sometimes I have to pinch myself and say, ‘Hey, you get to be a missionary here!’”.

Historic Kirtland - Part 1

Posted this once, but it stayed for one day and then disappeared! ????

Had to get online today at the FM office as part of our responsibilities in order to order sprinkler parts. So, prepared this post last night to upload while I was at it. Still working on resolving our personal phone and internet access problem.

We are having a wonderful experience here in Kirtland. We are coming to think of Kirtland as the cradle of the Church. Much transpired here to build and strengthen that new organization (as we very briefly touched upon in our May 5th post).

Wednesday of this week, we spent much of the morning with Karl Anderson. Brother Anderson wrote a book called, “Joseph Smith’s Kirtland”, having been asked to do so by the Church. Brother Anderson has served as a Stake President, a Regional Representative and is currently a Patriarch. He was wonderful and we really enjoyed our time with him. He is the one in the middle of the picture between the two Sister Missionaries.

We began in the Kirtland Temple with him and the director of the Community of Christ Visitors Center (Ron) as our guides. The Community of Christ is, of course, the current owner of the temple here. And Ron was wonderful and very cordial. Needless to say, our time in that temple was as wonderful as it likely sounds to you as we try to write of it here. It is a temple and we felt the spirit there very much.

Brother Anderson shook hands with all of us as we stood inside the temple in what was called the outer court (we might call it a foyer). Then, Ron (our Community of Christ guide) spoke. He started but then went over to the stairs so he could climb up them a ways. He said he wanted to see us all better. Brother Anderson scoffed and said, “They aren’t worth it, Ron. I’ve already seen them all!”

Brother Anderson is extremely knowledgeable, not only about the history of the area, but also about the Lord’s dealings with this area and the early members who lived here, who built the temple and who lived and worked in the historic sites we are caring for. And we learned many things from him about this place and how special it is.

As the saints were forced out of Kirtland in the late 1830's, the Lord apparently placed a scourge on the ‘inhabitants of Kirtland’ (D & C 124:83). Writing of that scourge, Hyrum Smith (the Prophet’s brother) wrote: “Thus saith the Lord, . . . [Kirtland] shall . . . be scourged with a sore scourge; yet your children may posses [Kirtland] . . But not until many years shall pass away; . . . and then I [the Lord] will send forth [brother Anderson suggest we insert our names at this point] and build up Kirtland, and it shall be polished and refined according to my word. (Emphasis added: History of the Church 4: 443-44)

Part of that scourge may have been that Kirtland would not prosper after the saints were driven out, and it did not. But the major and more important portion of the ‘scourge’ was likely that it would be left without a Prophet or the Gospel.

In 1840 after the saints had all left Kirtland, Joseph Smith said, “[Kirtland] will yet see good and glorious days.” (History of the Church 4:226)   Then, the night before his martyrdom, he found himself in vision. Says he, “[I] was back in Kirtland, Ohio . . . and was contemplating how it might be recovered from the curse upon it.” (History of the Church 6:609)  He apparently considered it a future event as he contemplated this during the final hours of his life.

Earlier, Joseph also said, “ . . . that it [the Kirtland Stake] would be one of the principle ones in Zion . . . and its inhabitants should be the posterity of those now composing that city.” (Quoted in a letter by Joseph Young Sr. To Lewis Harvey, November 16, 1880)

In 1979, Elder Benson (then President of the Quorum of the Twelve) came to Kirtland by assignment to dedicate the new Stake Center here - something the Twelve do not usually do today and did not usually do then, either. But he came. Karl Anderson was the Stake President. Elder Benson asked President Anderson if the scourge spoken of in the 124th section, had ever been lifted. President Anderson answered that he did not think so. Elder Benson asked if President Anderson thought he should lift that scourge during his dedication of the building. President said he thought that would be great.  So he did so.

At the time, the Church owned virtually none of the historic sites in Kirtland itself and was not a strong presence here. That is changing. And the part of section 124 verse 83 which reads “. . . I the Lord, will build up Kirtland, . . .” is now happening. And we feel very privileged to be a part of it.

We will try to write more about our time with Brother Anderson in Part 2. Presuming we can come up with another Internet connection again!