Christian Homestead

Nice! New bathrooms at Hawn's Mill. This is really good because Hawn's Mill is way out in the country. All the other main sites have their own facilities except for Richmond, but that isn't a problem because the Richmond sites are right there in town near gas stations and such.

6 hours ago | [YT] | 42

View 3 replies

Christian Homestead

I knew the Church purchased Hawn's Mill in 2012, but I had no idea until recently that they bought it from Community of Christ. So far, there have been three major transfers of property from Community of Christ to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

(1) May 5, 2012:

- Hawn's Mill
- Far West Burial Ground
- Joseph Smith Sr. home in Kirtland, Ohio
- 6,000 acres of Missouri farmland

(2) September 18, 2017:

- The printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon

*$35 million is the most ever paid for a manuscript.

(3) March 5, 2024:

Historic buildings in Kirtland, Ohio:

Kirtland Temple

Historic buildings in Nauvoo, Illinois:

Smith Family Homestead and Summer Kitchen, 935 South Main Street.
Joseph and Emma Smith Mansion House, 890 South Main Street.
Red Brick Store (reconstructed), 610 Water Street. This is where the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-days Saints was formed in 1842.
Nauvoo House, 950 South Main Street.

Historical Artifacts:

Portraits of Joseph and Emma Smith, circa 1842, attributed to David Rogers.
Original door of Liberty Jail, circa 1833.

Manuscripts and documents:

Book of Mormon “Caractors” document.
Four pages from Revelation Book 1, including portions of revelations now known as Doctrine and Covenants 64, 65, 66, 76, 81 and 133.
Seven letters from Joseph to Emma Smith, including letters written on Oct. 13, 1832; May 18, 1834; Nov. 4, 1838; Nov. 12, 1838; Nov. 9, 1839; June 23, 1844; and June 27, 1844.
A history of the church, written by John Whitmer.
Manuscript notes of an 1879 interview with Emma Smith by Joseph Smith III.
Joseph Smith’s printed “Phinney” Bible (Cooperstown, New York, 1828) with his numerous markings as part of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible.

Manuscripts of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible:

Old Testament manuscript 1 (June 1830–March 7, 1831).
Old Testament manuscript 2, first part (March 8–April 5, 1831).
Old Testament manuscript 2, second part (July 20, 1832–July 2, 1833).
Old Testament manuscript 3 (ca. late 1830–early 1831).
New Testament manuscript 1 (March 8–June 1831).
New Testament manuscript 2, Folio 1 (April 4, 1831–Sept. 26, 1831).
New Testament manuscript 2, Folio 2 (Sept. 26, 1831–late 1831).
New Testament manuscript 2, Folio 3 (winter 1831–1832).
New Testament manuscript 2, Folio 4 (January/February 1832–July 31, 1832).
Publication committee manuscripts for the first complete edition of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible as The Holy Scriptures (1867).

Kirtland Temple furniture:

Joseph Smith writing desk.
1820s couch associated with the Whitney family.

Original elements of the Kirtland Temple:

Oval window frame.
Front door keystone and frame.
Stone arch.
Windows.
Pieces of original stucco and sandstone.

Nauvoo items and artifacts:

Nauvoo Temple Sunstone.
Two Nauvoo Temple Moonstones.
Nauvoo House cornerstone, which housed the Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon.
Joseph Smith desk (Mansion House).
Emma Smith trunk (Mansion House).
Lucy Mack Smith rocking chair (Mansion House).
Two Smith family chairs (Mansion House).
Emma Smith walking stick (Homestead).
Washstand associated with Hawn’s Mill (Homestead).
Sampler (Homestead).
Bowl (Homestead).
Three inkwells (Red Brick Store).

Non-historic buildings in Kirtland:

Temple Visitors’ Center, 9076 Chillicothe Road.
Private residence and shop, 7788 Maple Street.
Private residence, 7799 Joseph Street.
Private residence, 9120 Timothy Lane.

Small undeveloped lots in Kirtland:

(Unnumbered) Joseph Street.
9080 Chillicothe Road.

Historic buildings with modernized interiors in Nauvoo (private use):

Hiram and Thankful Clark home, 790 South Hyde Street.
Aaron and Polly Johnson home, 475 Water Street.
William and Rosannah Marks home, 575 Water Street.
Sidney and Phebe Rigdon home, 860 South Main Street.
Jonathan and Rebecca Wright home, 455 Water Street.
The First Hotel, 795 South Main Street.
A stone stable built by Lewis Bidamon, 940 South Main Street.

Non-historic building in Nauvoo:

Maintenance Shop, Bain Street.

Nauvoo blocks and lots:
(As indexed by the 1842 map of the City of Nauvoo.)

Block 137, Lot 4 — no structures.
Block 138 — no structures.
Block 139, lots 3-4 — includes the First Hotel.
Block 140, lots 3-4 — no structures.
Block 145 — no structures.
Block 146 — includes the Joseph Smith Historic Site Visitor’s Center (initially leased by the Church and subject to a secondary closing at a later date), James and Sally Brinkerhoff former home site and Levi and Clarissa Hancock former home site.
Block 147 — includes the Mansion House, Rigdon home, Clark home, Samuel and Levira Smith former home site and Theodore and Frances Turley former home site.
Block 148 — includes the William Law store former site.
Block 149 — includes the Marks home, public restrooms, a Hyrum Smith office former site and the Times and Seasons newspaper office former site.
Block 150 — includes the Johnson home, Wright home, maintenance shop.
Block 153 — no structures.
Block 154 — includes a Hyrum Smith office former site.
Block 155 — includes the Red Brick Store and the Smith Homestead and summer kitchen; does not include the Smith Family Cemetery.
Block 156 — includes the Nauvoo House, Bidamon stable, Joseph Smith red brick stable former home site, Joseph Sr. and Lucy Smith former home site, Porter Rockwell former home site and a parking area.
Block 157 — no structures.
Block 158, lots 2-3 — includes private residence (960 South Partridge Street).
Block 161 — no structures.
Block 162 — no structures.

Community of Christ photo courtesy of Americasroof
Wikimedia Commons share.google/rynwMzExjohqzPSK5

2 days ago | [YT] | 134

View 7 replies

Christian Homestead

The plaque on the back side of the Brigham Young Monument is missing. I hope it's just for cleaning or maintenance. This plaque is special to me because it commemorates the first vanguard company to enter the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. My great-grandfather's great-grandfather, Levi Jackman, was a part of this company.

I actually found out last year that his name is on the Eight Witnesses monument in Liberty, Missouri. One side of the monument commemorates the first Missouri stake presidency and high council. Levi Jackman was a member of the high council.

Photo of the missing plaque courtesy of Bryan Kramer.

3 days ago (edited) | [YT] | 76

View 7 replies

Christian Homestead

More beautification at Adam-ondi-Ahman? My guess is that those rocks are going to line each side of the dirt road. It would match the connecting pathway at the top of the hill. We'll find out the next time I go up there. This is the farm road by Preacher's Rock that goes down to the crop field. Right now they're growing corn.

4 days ago | [YT] | 113

View 4 replies

Christian Homestead

"Yellow Dog" Prophecy? Two major Civil War battles were fought in Independence, Missouri. Bullet holes can still be seen in the walls of the house in which the Temple Lot was purchased (Flournoy House). Consider what was published in the April 1979 issue of the Ensign:

Graham Doxey
First Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency
Former president of the Missouri Independence Mission

Myth #3: But won’t there be immense destructions in Missouri preceding the Second Coming, so extensive that “not a yellow dog will be left to wag his tail”? It’s true that destruction throughout the earth is one of the conditions prior to the Second Coming. Yet as far as destruction in Missouri is concerned there are two schools of thought among members.

One believes that it has already taken place. Elder B. H. Roberts published a reported prophecy of Joseph Smith to Alexander Doniphan, his lawyer in Missouri. According to Doniphan’s brother-in-law, writing the incident over seventy years after it occurred, Joseph Smith warned Doniphan that ‘God’s wrath hangs over Jackson County … and you will live to see the day when it will be visited by fire and sword. The fields and farms and houses will be destroyed, and only the chimneys will be left to mark the desolation.’

“General Doniphan said to me,” his brother-in-law continued, “that the devastation of Jackson county [during the Civil War] forcibly reminded him of this remarkable prediction.” Elder Roberts cites additional descriptions of Jackson County’s role during the Civil War as fulfillment of this prophecy. (See Comprehensive History of the Church, 1:538–59; italics added.)

The other school of thought on the so-called “yellow dog” prophecy is that some members feel it is yet to occur. However, a study of the supposed source of the prophecy is helpful. It seems to have originated in a conversation between Heber C. Kimball and Amanda H. Wilcox in Salt Lake City in May 1868. She reports him as saying, “The western boundries of the State of Missouri will be swept so clean of its inhabitants that, as President Young tells us, when we return to that place, ‘There will not be left so much as a yellow dog to wag his tail.’” (Prophetic Sayings of Heber C. Kimball to Sister Amanda H. Wilcox, n.p., n.d., p. 6.)

There seem to be a number of questions about the authenticity of this account since Heber C. Kimball was apparently in Provo, not Salt Lake, during the month of May. Also, no other record exists of Brigham Young making a similar statement. However, it is sufficiently similar to Joseph Smith’s statements, except for the “yellow dog,” that someone may have remembered the original substance but in the retelling allowed embellishment to creep in.

Graham Doxey, "Missouri Myths," Ensign, April, 1979.

5 days ago | [YT] | 64

View 4 replies

Christian Homestead

The four cornerstones of the Far West Temple. Wilford Woodruff and George A. Smith were ordained apostles on the southeast cornerstone. What does each cornerstone represent?

Southeast cornerstone: First Presidency
Southwest cornerstone: High Priesthood
Northwest cornerstone: Quorum of the Twelve
Northeast cornerstone: Lesser Priesthood

6 days ago | [YT] | 69

View 3 replies

Christian Homestead

We bless others and receive many blessings ourselves with regular temple attendance. As beautiful as they are, there's more to the temple than meets the eye. In the April 2024 general conference, President Russell M. Nelson said, "We are instructed that all who worship in the temple will have the power of God and angels having “charge over them.” How much does it increase your confidence to know that, as an endowed woman or man armed with the power of God, you do not have to face life alone? What courage does it give you to know that angels really will help you?"

1 week ago | [YT] | 114

View 2 replies

Christian Homestead

The beautiful Kirtland Temple. I was there the month after the Church purchased it from Community of Christ. The Spirit was very strong. It was amazing to have our missionaries give the tour and teach about the appearance of Jesus Christ, Moses, Elias, and Elijah to the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. This literally fulfilled the prophecy of Elijah returning before the Second Coming:

Malachi 4:5-6

5 ¶ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

While the Kirtland Temple was the first temple built in this dispensation, it was not the first one announced. We're still waiting for that primary temple to be built in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri in the location currently known as the "Temple Lot." It will happen someday soon!

1 week ago | [YT] | 112

View 2 replies

Christian Homestead

Where are we at with preparations for the Lord's return?

See: Henry B. Eyring, Facebook, October 16, 2025, facebook.com/henry.b.eyring.

1 week ago | [YT] | 241

View 3 replies

Christian Homestead

On June 10th, Adam-ondi-Ahman was struck by a tornado for the first time since records were standardized in 1950. We only have the coordinates of the start and end points from the National Weather Service report. The end point was on the north side of Adam-ondi-Ahman. It's unknown whether the tornado touched Spring Hill, Tower Hill, or the valley, but there was definitely wind damage in these areas as evidenced by all the snapped trees and branches. The pictures in this post are from Spring Hill and Tower Hill.

Tornado photo courtesy of Tamara Simon of Christian & Creative

1 week ago | [YT] | 43

View 1 reply