Marcums Come to Missouri

The Friday night before Marcum's arrival, we were asked by the sister missionaries to pick up an almost 16 year-old investigator named Shilo and take her to the Visitor's Center for the stake president's investigator's fireside chat.  We did and that proved to be a very humbling experience.  This poor girl has had an unbelievably abusive past from living in the foster care system. It really breaks your heart.  She is hungry for truth and someone/something she can believe in. She is seriously reading the Book of Mormon and takes notes at every meeting.  The Spirit was poured out in abundance at the meeting.  We hope and pray that she can find Christ and hold on since He is the only one who can heal such wounds.

On Saturday, September 8th, prior to the Marcum's arrival in Missouri, we met our dear friends, the Johnsons and Briggs for breakfast at The Big Biscuit.  Things are winding down for these special friends of ours.  The Johnsons finish their mission this next week on the 12th.  The Briggs finish on October the 8th.  It will be a very sad day for us to lose the companionship of  our daily working friends, the Briggs.

We were thrilled to meet Brinley, Tanner and Heather at the Kansas City Intl. Airport.

We piled into our car and chose to see the Truman Presidential Library in Independence with a stop off at Hi Boy, a local hamburger dive, for a quick lunch.  We've never eaten there except for the onion rings, which were provided by our stake president, President Cato, one day when we converted the employment center to Self-Reliance classrooms.

The exact replica of the Oval Office is the place where President Truman used to hold his press conferences.  It's hard to imagine this room crowded with reporters.  I wonder if they were more civil then.

Here we look at Bess and Harry's graves in the inner courtyard.  President Truman had to raise the money to build the library and he had a working office he used almost daily for many years.  He did not have a pension or income as the former president like they do now.  He built the library which houses all of his papers, letters and documents so that researchers can have access to them.  He very much wanted people to know how the government works and was unusually blunt and transparent.

It looks like President Truman was just about as tall as Tanner.

We loved visiting and lounging that evening at our little house after sampling the delicious BBQ at the Best Little BBQ Joint in Independence.  It isn't as famous as some of the Kansas City locations, but we think it is just as good or better.  They seated us at the very same table where we sat with Jackie, Val, Steve and Ann.  Fun!

I ordered a new visor with a wide brim to shield the sun.  Always the humorist, Steve tried it on for us.  Too funny!

We love our eclectic little Riverview Branch.  As we were walking out the door, I persuaded this group to pause for a photo.

That afternoon, Steve abandoned his usual Sunday nap and went with all of us to the Visitor's Center where we enjoyed the newest movies about the Restoration of Christ's Gospel and the translation of the Book of Mormon.

Back at home, we hosted the branch elders, Elder Hunt and Elder Rowley for dinner.

Monday morning, we traded the Chamberlains so we could do rounds and take Marcums to all the historic sites.  We all participated in the daily work routine but of course, Steve was the man who actually rode up in the lift and changed the light bulb in the Liberty Jail Rotunda.

We love the spirit and the message at the Liberty Jail.  It was a delight to share it with family members.

We were in the process of changing spot bulbs to LEDS throughout the past week.  I save those in the meeting room for Brinley and Tanner since I knew they could easily do it without a stool or a ladder. They willingly obliged.

Our next stop was the Richmond Cemetery were Olive Cowdery, one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, is buried.  Several of the Whitmer family members are buried there also including Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Mussleman Whitmer.  With so many helpers, it didn't take too long to water the flowers and pick up the sticks that constantly fall from the surrounding trees.

At Hauns Mill, we didn't find any real garbage to pick up that day so we had time to drive to Breckenridge and see the Hauns Mill Monument erected by the Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation, which is a group of believers in the Book of Mormon from various churches.

We love the beautiful hibiscus blooms at Far West.  I guess we missed getting any photos at the monument at Far West but we had an interesting experience when we stopped by the book store up the street.

We were fortunate during the Marcum visit to be included in several behind the scenes experiences.  Meeting Jimmy Dale Wilson at the bookstore was one of them.  He is a direct descendant of Samuel Harrison Smith, who moved to the Far West area of Missouri recently and was baptized last October. As a former Baptist Minister, his conversion story was amazing and he says that his family members are being drawn to Missouri where he is hopeful others will be open to the truth of the gospel.  He is eagerly looking forward to going to the temple next month.

The man in the farmer jeans is Wayne Galbraith, who works at the bookstore and is extremely knowledgeable about the church's history in Missouri.

Next we drove to Adam Ondi Ahman full of gospel enthusiasm after hearing Jimmy Dale's testimony.

Marcums had been to Diahmen, as the saints often called it,  previously, but had not known about the acoustic test so we walked to preacher's rock and tried the demonstration.  I'm guessing our photos there were taken by Heather's camera as I didn't have any.

After a full day of touring Missouri Church History sites, we sampled more BBQ at a popular BBQ place in Excelsior Springs located in a former train depot and called the Wabash.

It was directly around the corner from a very famous old hotel called the Elms.  Heather and I ran in to take a look since Harry Truman stayed there the night of his election.  When he went to bed, the press was calling the election for his opponent, Thomas Dewey.  They even printed the newspaper with the headline Dewey beats Truman.  However, when he woke up in the morning, he had been declared the winner.  The press has gotten this wrong before.

This Model A car is on display in the hotel and is from the Truman era.

After a quick run to Costco to pick up these cute little carry-on suitcases, everyone checked to make sure they could get all their stuff in their current carry-ons.  They managed to load their clothes and the new suitcases inside of the old suitcases that were borrowed from siblings.  Heather always was good a packing for a trip!

We had time on Tuesday to check out the Hallmark Museum in downtown Kansas City.

Once again, we got the inside story so to speak.  We have been to the museum several times, but this was the first time, we got to visit with one of their creative employees.  This gentleman, is a writer for Hallmark.  He told us the process for how research trends and decide how to write the cards.  He also displayed several children's books he has written and told us how he got his internship and then eventually his dream  job with Hallmark.

This is inside the Union Station Depot.  When we have been here in the past, this room has always been blocked off for a special event.  It was fun to finally walk through it and see this gorgeous, enormous room.

At the very back of the room is a doorway which leads to the model train museum.  It is full of different sized model trains, most of them running.  It is a train lover's heaven.

For some reason, the museum technician, invited us into the actual display and told us about the different trains individually.  He is responsible to keep them all running.

Then he took us into his backroom workshop and showed us other trains that he is currently working on to bring them back into tip top condition.  The railroad car Heather is holding is worth over $800.

Then we went out on the bridge that crosses over the train yard and watched these trains roll beneath us.  Noticed the double decker train in the background.  It is still a busy place as a lot of freight trains go through this area.

On our way to the airport we made a couple of quick stops.  First we drove through the Subtropolis underground caves which house numerous businesses.  Then we stopped by the beautiful Kansas City Temple for a picture.  We squeezed as much as we could into their short visit.  

We had a great time together.  Tanner and Brinley have the rest of the week to prepare for school at BYU-I.  Tanner will be talking in church on Sunday and Heather will be preparing to feed a big crowd of friends and relatives who come to welcome Tanner home.  Good luck and thanks for coming.