Today, we got up early and went to the Nauvoo Temple. Wow! It's beautiful! It's very elegant-- dark woods, painted walls in the rooms, iron chandeliers... it's amazing! It made me think of all the people who waited day and night to go in to be sealed to their families before heading west. Some of my ancestors were a few of the last to get in and good thing they did because almost all of that family died before getting to Salt Lake. Across from the temple is a statue of Joseph and Hyrum on horseback as they left Nauvoo for the last time on their way to Carthage.
We went to Carthage next and had a great experience there. We saw a great little video of "clips" from Joseph's life that were taken from things people wrote about the prophet. Then, g'ma and I went with the missionary through the jail. Even though I've been to Carthage before and I know the story, it still makes me tear up when you hear the role-play tape as you sit in the room looking at the window Joseph fell through after being shot. It's so incomprehensible how people can be so utterly cruel to storm a jail, fire shots at the family who lived below where the prisoners were and then kill people in cold blood when they have no escape. I was amazed that the original door is still there-- you can still see the bullet hole that killed Hyrum. You grow up hearing "stories" but seeing bullet holes from 1844 really bring everything home and make everything you've ever been told very concrete.
We left Carthage and drove up through some state roads, small little towns and fields and fields of crops to get back up to I-80 where we went through insane construction and traffic to arrive in Morris, IL. Tomorrow, we drive all the way up Michigan to Mackinac City.
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