youth conference

 

Brian and I were asked to be chaperones for our Stake's youth conference. We were so excited! We've never been to Kirtland before. I was last weekend. We left on Thursday and visited the Temple that night. On Friday we visited the other Church sites then drove home Saturday. A cram packed few days. Loved it!!

 

 The temple is beautiful! I love the stone around the windows.

 Karlee noticed I was taking pictures. She was the only one.

After we finished taking group pictures we went inside for a fireside. We weren't able to take any pictures inside. :( I understood, I still wanted some though. President Boswell spoke first. This was the first time I've heard him speak since he'd been called as our Stake President.  The Spirit was very strong for me while he spoke. We then had a Brother Anderson that was from the area. Very knowledgeable about Kirtland. Did you know Christ visited them 8 times?  I didn't. Did you know the Father and Son visited 4 times? I didn't know that either. To be honest I had no idea so many amazing things happened here. The Spirit was strong at every site we visited.

 

The Isaac Morley Farm was probably my favorite. I felt the Spirit the strongest here. I never realized all the revelations that were given in Kirtland. So many people followed the promptings of the Spirit to further Christ's Church. All of it was amazing!

 

 To see their chisel marks was cool. Such difficult work.

 Above and below is the ashery. I had no idea what that was. They would take ash from hardwood and soak it first then boil it down to the stage they wanted. Eventually it was sold to make glassware. The money earned from this was used for the temple.

This was the home of Newel K. Whitney and his store.

 

 Here is our group/family. All but one girl was from our Ward. I kept trying to learn the boys names. There were two that from our Ward. All of them were great! Our entire Stake of youth are amazing!!

 

This is the John Johnson farm. Such a large home for that time.

 

 Notice the checkerboard floor! And the feather painting on the mantel and doors! All of this is original. A little over the top but fun! They had an extremely large kitchen.

Off of the kitchen, near an exterior door, President Boswell pointed out to Brian a handle. It was original to the house...Joseph Smith used that door... Kind of cool when you think about it.

We didn't see much of Karlee. We were in different groups and buses. Just before we headed in for the testimony meeting Friday night I grabbed her for a quick picture. I'm glad we could experience Kirtland together, kind of together. It was fun seeing her with her friends and watching her make many more friends in our Stake.

Now we need to bring our boys here to visit.