Church History by the Clock -- Day Four

Oh, my!  That was a lot of church history in one day!  The exact times we did everything really doesn't matter, except that if you travel with Abe, bless his heart -we love him- there is a schedule and we're sticking to it!
5:48am  Pull out of Russell and Melissa's driveway in Wichita.
8:40  Drive through Independence, MO.  Look at the Community of Christ Temple, wave to the LDS visitors' center, see the prophesied future temple site.  Drive on.
9:08  Arrive at Liberty Jail visitors' center.  Have a truly moving experience and enjoy testimonies shared by Grandpa and Abe.  The highlight of the day.
10:32  Stop at McDonalds (I know it's kind of gross) to get a very early lunch.  We'll be driving out in the boonies with no food options and a lot of little kids.  Besides, we had a very early start.  There is no picture to share, because no one wants to see us stuffing our faces with McDonalds.

11:00 (ish)  George and grandpa having a dance party to an Elvis Presley greatest hits CD.  Grandpa shares that he has been to an actual Elvis concert in his youth in Spokane, WA.  Kids aren't really that impressed, although they were polite nonetheless.

 11:15am   Arrive at the corner stone-laid temple site of Far West, MO.  Really, really beautiful country.  Children are happy to run around and Elinor was delighted to find lichen on the trees (she studied botany this year).  Not a lot of lichen back home in the desert.  Clark resists another family picture.  If our camera goes missing or suffers any sort of violent demise, we know who will be responsible.  Credible threats have already been issued.

11:20    Grandpa and Abe -- the two British missionaries, standing exactly where 175 years ago (5 days from the very date, April 26), according to Joseph's prophecy, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles left from the Far West Temple site to begin their missionary efforts to the British Isles......even though the Saints had already been expelled from the state of Missouri and were being hunted by mobs.
(Picture and comments added by Abe)

12:30pm   Drive around Adam-Ondi-Ahman in the rain.  Decide to all get out of the van anyway and take a little walk to a beautiful valley overlook. 

1:15pm   Drive through the town of Bethany, MO.  Bethany takes the obligatory picture to humor her father.

4:30pm   Pull into Nauvoo and immediately meet up with robotics friends for dinner before the pregnant mother bites anyone's head off.  Abe embarrasses his eldest by taking yet more pictures.  Clark threatens violence to the camera yet again.

Perhaps Bethany feels that picture taking is getting to be a bit much as well.

We are happy to be with friends from home.  And although Grandpa doesn't look it, he is happy too.

6:45pm   Meet up with Schramm family and Flynn family at "Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo"-- a charming little musical about Nauvoo performed by the senior missionaries here.

 7:00   It's showtime!  They really are the most adorable people on the planet.  And as Elinor said, meaning absolutely no disrespect to her grandparents, whom she loves very much, "I'd be happy if any of them were my grandparents!"

8:35   Swimming time for Abe and the kids... laundry time and visiting with Andrea for me.
And now, for a lesson in belly flop diving form, we look to the master.  This master is so good at pool-dives, he has the most popular of them all named after him... the Cannon-ball.

Notice the eye focus, how he is looking directly toward his landing place.  Notice the freedom with which he throws himself toward the water.  Notice the lack of fear he demonstrates as he hurls his small and skinny body toward the relatively flat and hard surface water.  Notice the spread of his hands and point of his toes as he creates the absolute most body area to make contact with the water.  It's a beautiful thing.  And mind you, he knew what he was doing.  He knew it would hurt.  But for the art of the flop, self-sacrifice was a necessary thing.  How truly brave he is.

Now, just for comparison, you can see not everyone has the gift.  We love her to pieces and put her on gymnastics mats and she shames the rest of us with her skills.  But look at the form!  There is too much concern for self-preservation.  There is true fear in her eyes.  She fears the pain.  She is weak.  One cannot Fear the Flop.

And now, for the throwback picture of Day 4.

Faith is now the age that Elinor was in this picture.  Good times.  Good times to come tomorrow.