Local Youth Tour LDS Church History Sites

By TRENT ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

A group of over 50 local LDS youth traveled across the country earlier this month, visiting various sites of significance to their religious heritage. Most of them, having just graduated from Moapa Valley High School, had spent the past year studying early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the church’s seminary program. This trip offered the opportunity to experience the sites that they had been talking about all year in class.

Throughout the weeklong trip, which began on Monday, June 8, the group trekked through a rigorous journey across six states in the midwest and the east coast before returning home on Tuesday, June 16.

This trip is offered to local youth every two years. This year, though, the trip shifted tour management. Brandon and Mandy Leavitt, under the tour company, Leavitt Tours, took over direction of the trip from Brandon’s parents. They had been managing the trip for more than 25 years and had decided to retire from it after this year.
“It was really special to go on this last trip with my parents,” Brandon Leavitt said. “And with having such a great group of kids this year made it even more special.”

The trip began early Monday morning. The group met together to disembark to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. From there they flew to Kansas City, Missouri.
Upon arrival the group wasted no time. They drove first to the newly built LDS Kansas City Temple. The youth were allowed time to wander the temple grounds and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

The town of Independence, Missouri was the next stop. As an early gathering place of saints in LDS church history, Independence has several noteworthy historical sites. They include a raised bit of land, set apart and dedicated by church founder, Joseph Smith Jr., as a site for a future temple complex and church gathering place.

In this area, several of the religious groups had their origins with Joseph Smith still own property. Nearby is a tall, spired building, the temple of the Community of Christ, one of the largest groups that broke with the main LDS church after Smith died. While there, the group was able to take a tour of the temple and experience the differences and similarity of this group.

“It was interesting to hear about all the stuff they do,” said youth traveller Tahnee German to the group after the visit. “But there was a big difference when we went to the [LDS] visitor’s center there.”
Across the street from the temple was the LDS Church visitors center. In it, Church missionaries were available to give short presentations and tours detailing the historical significance of the city of Independence, as well as the temple lot and its dedication.

Later, the group visited the historic Liberty Jail located nearby. Here the LDS prophet, Joseph Smith, was incarcerated during the winter of 1838 while being persecuted for political/religious reasons. The tour given there included a look at the original jail building, a presentation about the ordeals that early members of the church faced that winter, and the prophetic revelations that Smith received while confined in the jail.

The group moved further east the next day, stopping at the Richmond Cemetery where a monument to LDS historical figure and Book of Mormon witness, Oliver Cowdery. Also in the cemetery were various historic tombstones from the 1800’s. Many were weathered and unreadable, but LDS restoration groups had tried to put them where they were thought to originally be.

Next, the group visited the historic site of Far West, an early church settlement where a section of land was set aside by Smith for the building of a future temple.

The next day of the trip was devoted solely to exploring Nauvoo, Illinois. In addition to visitng the LDS temple and visitor’s center in Nauvoo, the youth were allowed to split into smaller groups to explore the historic town which was founded by Smith and the saints. Many of the buildings present in the town were once occupied by early church members in the early 1840s. Tours through the old buildings, such as a brick mill where attendees were given a souvenir Nauvoo brick, were given by LDS missionaries.

After departing Nauvoo the next day, the group stopped in nearby Carthage, Illinois. This church-owned site is the original building where Joseph Smith, and his brother Hyrum, were held and martyred by an angry mob.

The group next took a long bus journey to Kirtland, Ohio. There they visited several more important sites. Another early gathering place for the Church, Kirtland is the city with the first LDS temple.
This beautiful building is still standing as it was then, owned and maintained by the Community of Christ church.

Also in the Kirtland area are the Morley Farm and the Johnson Farm. Both owners allowed their large amounts of land to be used as residential areas as the destitute members of the early church had to change residency several times to avoid persecution.

The group’s last stop in Kirtland was the historic Kirtland area. Many of the original buildings and homes built by the early saints had been set apart and restored as needed by the LDS church for tours. Among the more important of these buildings is the store which was owned by one of the first bishops of the church, Newel K. Whitney, and a complex sawmill and ashery once owned by Whitney to service the needs of the early church.

With only two days remaining of the trip, the group then travelled to Palmyra, New York, the early birthplace of the LDS Church. The youth were allowed to take the various tours throughout the property where the Smith family resided when Joseph was growing up.

The group also held a worship service in the nearby Sacred Grove, the place where Smith received his first vision of God and Jesus Christ, an experience which initiated his calling to eventually organize the Church.
“There are some really great sites that we go to along the way in this trip,” Leavitt said. “Nauvoo’s good, Kirtland’s great. But the spiritual experience which is felt in the Sacred Grove is unmatched.”

Still in Palmyra, the group then went to the Grandin Publishing Co. building; the place where the first copies of the Book of Mormon, a main doctrinal book of the Church, were first printed.

The group also visited the LDS Palmyra Temple; the Hill Cumorah, where Joseph Smith found the Book of Mormon engraved on golden plates buried in the hill; and the Whitmer Farm in Fayette, New York, where the translation of the Book of Mormon from the ancient text on the plates was completed.
In addition to Church history sites the youth also visited other points of interest like Niagra Falls and Hannibal, Missouri, the town that was the inspiration for several Mark Twain novels including Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

“This trip was really a great one!” Leavitt said. “It was probably one of the best groups of youth. They were always on time, there weren’t problems in the middle of the night. There was a real sense of maturity. Because of that, I want to say thanks to all the parents for the financial sacrifice they gave for the kids to go on this trip.”