Tornado warnings

We kept hearing about the Tornado warnings for Davies County which we were driving through.  To the west as the sky darkened, we saw the most fantastic lightening show that either one of us has ever seen.  It was incredible - lightening struck in multiple places through the clouds every second.  In the west we never see such a storm; our lightening storms are never that dark to begin with and they don't strike but every 10 to 15 minutes. 


After we left Gallatin, we tried to find another historical site but missed the turn and ended up on a road that was not on our little map.  We were headed directly toward this tornado clouds so we decided to head south to Kansas City if we could find the road that we came north on but it was not such an easy transition and in fact, we ended up making a circle coming back to the same road we had been on previously after we left Gallatin. 

Gallatin Rotary Jail

This historic jail was there in 1838 when the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who lived at Adam-ondi-Ahmen came to town to vote and the Missouri Residents refused to let them so it started what is called "the Mormon War of 1838".  Many people were killed not only here but in other areas of Missouri. The Mormons were expelled from Missouri even though many owned land there.

We finally found the right road and headed for Independence.  A branch of the LDS church broke off from the main church and became the Reorganized LDS church.  It continued to carry that name until the last living descendent of Joseph Smith died and so they voted to change the name of their church in 2005. They still believe in a living Prophet but their new ones had no blood line from Joseph Smith.

We visited the temple site and visitors center for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. At some point the RLDS church changed their name to the Community of Christ. They also lost the original doctrine of eternal marriage between a man and a woman and a number of other changes so that they no longer have anything in common with the LDS church except the Book of Mormon which they have modernized and Book of Covenants which has been added to.

This is a photo of their temple:

This temple is across the street from the site where the LDS church will eventually build a temple but there is a property issue.  When that is settled, a temple will be built.  So the LDS church owns property across the street and has a visitors center there.

Inside the visitors center - a little history about the pioneers who crossed the plains to Utah.

A beautiful statue of Christ called the "Christus".  It is a smaller replica of the statue in the visitors center in Salt Lake City, which was sculped by a Danish man.

The area where the LDS temple will be built before the coming of Christ.