Day in Kirtland, Ohio

Today we went to Kirtland with the other new missionaries and President Vellinga and his wife and the mission office staff.  We drove ourselves, as did the other groups.  Arriving at the temple by 8 a.m., we were given a tour of it and learned many things that we had never known about it.  The main meeting room (one on 1^st and one on 2^nd floor) had the pulpits for the seating of the different levels of priesthood, Aaronic and Melchizedek.  There were lines in the ceiling where veils were dropped to divide the large room into 4 smaller ones.  I never knew that.  So when Joseph had the vision of the Savior and Moses, Elias and Elijah, there was a veil that was dropped down to separate them from the other people in the room.  At the close of the temple tour, our group sang “The Spirit of God Like A Fire Is Burning” and I got to be the pianist for it.  What a thrill!  I have now accompanied hymn singing in the Kirtland Temple and in the Sacred Grove (back in 1966 when the Minnesota stake went to Palmyra).

The Newell K. Whitney store was extra special.  We went to the translation room where Joseph worked on the Bible translation, and where he received 20 of the revelations now in the Doctrine and Covenants.  We also went to the room where the School of the Prophets was held, and the Father and the Son appeared there to him numerous times, as well as concourses of angels.  President Vellinga asked each of us to kneel and pray in that room about our commitments to our mission.  Then when we go there again at the end of our missions, we are to report back to the Lord about how well we kept our commitments.  It was an extremely spiritual morning!

                                                                                    

temple at night

Kirtland temple

Newell K. Whitney store

Us at Kirtland temple