Liberty/Independence MO

We recently had a chance to spend a week with Jeremy, Megan, Hyrum, Hunter, Emma, and Justin Shakespear!  We met in Kansas City and spent a couple of days in that area before driving to their home in Springfield and spent the rest of the week there.  We had a wonderful time and here are some of the highlights the first day.

We had adjoining rooms at the hotel in KC - Hunter and Hyrum slept in our room.  Here's a typical scene!

We spent our first morning together at the Liberty Jail - luckily for us our hotel was less than 3 miles away.  The church has built a beautiful visitor's center around the re-built jail.  Here's the replica.

Gave us a real feel for how thick the prison walls were, and how cold and dark!

The Original Key to the Liberty Jail

Hyrum and Hunter sitting in front of the jail

We loved these paintings side by side - the Savior and His prophet in the latter-days

Hyrum and Darlin enjoying the beautiful sunshine - and the night before there was a tornado watch in the area!

All of us in front of the Liberty Jail visitor's center

We then drove about a half hour south to Independence - before visiting the Visitor's Center there, we stopped by the Community of Christ headquarters - we found a beautiful wood carving of the Last Supper

As we walked to the LDS Visitor's Center, this picture of Megan holding two little hands coming from the stroller caught our attention!

There was a cabin downstairs at the Visitor's Center - the kids had a blast playing here

On the way back to the hotel we stopped and looked at the new Kansas City temple - you can see that the outside is nearly complete

After a nice dinner in Liberty we enjoyed a cold swim before retiring for the evening

We loved this day in Liberty and Independence.  There is so much of church history in this area and we felt a special spirit here, especially at Liberty Jail, of which the prophet often referred to as his prison/temple.  Of the jail Elder Neal Maxwell stated:  "It wasn't until the prophet was physically confined that his mind was fully liberated...The double walls, four feet thick, kept Joseph and his companions in, but they could not keep the spirit and revelation out."

We certainly felt that.