DAY 7 – July 5, 2012 – THE KINGDOM OF GOD OR NOTHING

Today Mr. S woke up at 5:30am and we decided to skip the Badlands National Park and go straight to Winter Quarters in Omaha, Nebraska.  This was our longest drive so far.  Everyone has things they do in the motor home, so it was no big deal, but we did hit the wall of humidity, and it got pretty warm in the RV.  Omaha is the first place we’ve been to that is visibly different than Idaho weather.  Our kids have mentioned it a couple times today.

Camping in Omaha proved to be quite the ordeal.  I called Winter Quarters and asked them if they knew of any close camping spots and they told me the closest they were aware of was 40 minutes away.  I googled camping spots and nothing came up within 30 miles.  So we decided to play it by ear.

When we got to Omaha we used our GPS which told us there was a campsite within 7 miles, but only one.  So we tried to follow the GPS directions, got lost 3 times, and 40 minutes later found the campground up for auction.  At that point we were talking about just getting a hotel.  I called the “Mormon Trail Hotel”.  He didn’t have a room big enough to fit even half of us.  But when we told him we were trying to find a camp ground and he was our last ditch effort, he offered to help.  What he found for us was fabulous!  We are staying at Glenn Cunningham Lake (near 8000 Rainwood Rd.), which is only 4 miles from Winter Quarters.  It’s off a lake, with a beautiful park setting and only $15!  All that work, to find the best place in town, that no one seemed to know about.

After we set up camp, we went for a swim in the lake.  Wow!  The water was the perfect temperature, it was just what we needed.  Turns out you aren’t supposed to swim in it.  We saw the signs later.  Hope we don’t die from some crazy disease from swimming there.  It was pretty dirty, but we were so hot, nobody cared.

After we cleaned up ,we headed to Winter Quarters.  My favorite thing about Winter Quarters was how they immediately grabbed our little kids and involved them in the tour.  Starburst, Bazooka and Fireball were taken straight to a chest filled with pioneer clothes.  They decked themselves out in pioneer attire, and were brought to a place with little miniature wagons.  There the kids raced to see who could pack a pioneer wagon the fastest, and they talked to them about what a pioneer would pack.  Then the sister missionary walked us over to the window that overlooked the Mormon Pioneer Cemetery.  She talked to the kids about temple covenants, and told them the reason the pioneers were willing to give up everything they had, was so that they could make those covenants with God in the temple.  She then talked to them about the 2000 stripling warriors and pointed out that they were so great because they came from parents who made and kept their covenants with God.  It was a great explanation, and the spirit was strong as she was talking.

Here are some things I learned at Winters Quarters…almost 100,000 Mormon pioneers emigrated to Utah between 1840-1890.  During that time the church used the Perpetual Emigration Fund (which is similar to the Perpetual Education Fund our church has today).  They said that during the 38 year history of the PEF (Perpetual Emigration Fund) they received donations totally more than 12.5 million dollars in cash and goods.  This is in the 1800’s, with Saints destitute from being kicked out of their homes over and over.  That is so incredible!

They also talked about the trek from Nauvoo to Florence (Omaha, NE).  With the information the church had, they thought they could make it to Florence in 3 weeks.  But because of the weather and muddy conditions it took the Saints 4 months to reach Florence (to put this in perspective, we will be driving to Nauvoo in 5 ½ hours this week).  More than 340 deaths occurred at Winter Quarters from fall of 1846 to the spring of 1848, and half of those were children 3 years old and under.

From the Winter Quarters Visitors Center you can see the Temple, and the Pioneer Cemetery.  We were told that when the temple was dedicated, they didn’t just dedicate the temple grounds, but also dedicated the cemetery to be part of the temple grounds.  That is so neat…that those Saints who died trying to get to Utah to have the opportunity to be sealed in the temple, are now buried on temple grounds.

We walked over to the cemetery and walked around.  Bazooka was pretty emotional when he saw a grave that said the man died from a mob.  Fireball wanted us to read the names of the pioneers to him so he could tell his teachers and friends about the pioneers he knew from the trip.

It was a great visit.  We will be back tomorrow as it is across from the temple, and Mr. S and I want to do a session, and then the older boys will be doing baptisms later that evening.

We drove home to have icecream sandwiches and chase fireflies all night.  I thought the younger kids would be excited about it, but Spitz and Warhead (two of our teenagers) were just ecstatic.  They came in and took an empty peanut butter jar and were running through the park catching fireflies like crazy…very cute and unexpected.  It was a great day.

Summary of Day 7
Drove:  509 miles
Places we visited: Winter Quarters, Outside Winter Quarters Temple, Mormon Pioneer Cemetery, and Glenn Cunningham Lake