DAY 8 – July 6, 2012 – Pioneer Courage Park, Kanesville Tabernacle, Winter Quarters Temple

We started the day by visiting Pioneer Courage Park. It wasn’t originally on our list of sites to visit, but the missionaries at Winter Quarters told us about it, so we decided to check it out.  It is in the middle of downtown Omaha, surrounded by sky scrapers. It’s a beautiful park, with huge statues of families, animals and wagons driving through the park.  The statues are very expressive.  The park is stunning among all the tall buildings downtown. It was worth a stop. We walked around for about 20 minutes taking pictures and then left for Council Bluffs.

Council Bluffs/Kanesville was a very pleasant surprise. It seemed out of the way, and I wondered if it was worth the trip. It was well worth the trip, and really not that far. Out of all the church sites we have visited so far, I learned the most in Kanesville (so far). Most of the other sites I at least had background information for. But Kanesville, I really didn’t realize all that had happened there.

I love what the plaque said below this monument, “The sculpture focuses on the Mother as the central and pivotal influence of love and service, not only within the family unit, but also within the spiritually strong society that grew from these pioneers. A strong family unit is the strength of any community and nation even today.”

Kanesville was church headquarters for two years. The Kanesville Tabernacle was built in 2 ½ weeks because there was no where to hold a general conference. In the Kanesville tabernacle Brigham Young was sustained as the second prophet of the church.

It was in Kanesville that the church was asked to supply 500 men for the Mormon Battalion. To be here, and realize how fresh the wounds were for the church. Their prophet has been killed, they have been chased out of a city they built, with no assistance or protection from the United States Government. They have trudged there way through mud and illness to a place where they are trying to regroup, and now they are asked to join the army and to support the government that hadn’t supported or protected them. It’s amazing to think how faithful the Saints were.

They have a video here on the Mormon Battalion that I have never seen before. I was told that this video used to be shown at the Visitors Center in San Diego, but it is no longer there. So come to Kanesville…it’s a very well done movie, explaining the Mormon Battalion. It explains the blessing it was to the church, and the blessing the Mormon Battalion was to the country…building trails, and helping build cities.

It was also in the Kanesville Tabernacle that Oliver Cowdery came back, after having left the church for years.  It has been told in journals, that Oliver came into the tabernacle during a sermon, and the person (I think it was Orson Hyde) stepped down, and let Oliver speak.  He got up and bore a strong testimony of the church, said that he didn’t come back for a position, but wanted to be a part of the Saints again.  He was re-baptized here in Kanesville.

So many things happened in such a small place. The missionary there was great at retelling the stories, and when he bore his testimony, the spirit was really strong.

After Kanesville and lunch, Mike and I went back to do a session in the Winter Quarter Temple, and afterwards the boys went to do baptisms. The temple is beautiful.  The boys baptism session was really cool.  It was a full baptism session, but not made up of a ward, but of kids from all over the US that were visiting Winter Quarters.

We will be heading to Nauvoo tomorrow.   This has all been so fun, I can’t wait to get to Nauvoo.

Summary of Day 8
Places we visited: Kanesville Tabernacle, Pioneer Courage Park, Temple Endowment Session, Temple Baptisms at Winter Quarters

Favorite thing about Winter Quarters:
Jawbreaker, Warhead, Spitz: Baptisms in Temple
Bazooka: Winter Quarters Prayer Room
Starburst: Pioneer Cemetary
Fireball: Pioneer Park
Mr. and Mrs. S: Winter Quarters Temple and Kanesville