Day 2!!!!!

On Day two of our trip, since we were driving through Missouri, we decided to see some church history sites. We woke up in Omaha feeling rested and drove a short three hours to Liberty, MO to see Liberty Jail where Joseph Smith and five other men were held from December 1st to April 6 1839. I had been before when I was little and Andy had never been so it was really good to see. The missionaries at the visitor center referred to the jail as a Prison Temple, they said that although it was a horrible place with horrible conditions it was a spiritual experience where the spirit was present. It was there where Joseph Smith wrote sections 121, 122, and 123 in the Doctrine and Covenants. Some other facts that we learned were that while Joseph Smith and the other men were there the saints in Missouri were being heavily persecuted, including their own families, and they were not able to help them. They were kept in the basement of the jail that was only 6 feet tall and had two small windows that barely let any light in at all. The walls there were 4 feet thick which made it impossible to escape. The jail was so cold that it was later used as an ice cellar where they kept big blocks of ice even through the summer. Joseph Smith the third stayed the night there with his mother when he was 6 years old. Later when he was asked about his experience there he said that all he remembered from it was that it was a night of peace and singing.


From there we drove down to Independence, MO were there is a LDS visitors center. A sister missionary walked us through and told us a little more about the history in the state of MO. Our original plan was to just spend the whole day there but we realized that there wasn't a whole lot to see so we decided to drive on. We drove another five hours and spent the night in Fairview Heights, Illinois. We started to tell that we were not in Utah anymore. People had accents and we ate some good southern food at a restaurant by our hotel. Andy's burger had fried pickles on it. Yes, fried pickles. I had the best corn on the cob ever! It had the biggest and juiciest kernels ever!