Nauvoo: the Return Trip

As promised. On Thursday we left Nauvoo at 6:00 a.m. WAY TOO EARLY! We drove to Adam-ondi-ahman and got there about 10:00. We then had a little devotional it was good, but after that they let us loose for over an hour until lunch was ready. I didn't want to walk around, so I ended up helping with lunch. After that we went to Far West and had another little devotional. Then we drove to Liberty. There we toured the visitor's center, and walked around for a little while before getting back on the bus for more driving. We then headed to our hotel in Independence, where we had dinner, before getting back on the bus to head to a church building for our Testimony meeting. Oh my goodness. Testimony meeting ended up being almost three hours. I'm not saying that it was bad or anything, the testimonies were actually really nice, but after about an hour most of us got really antsy. It didn't help that we were all exhausted because we had gotten up at 5 that morning, and had been on a bus all day and so we really didn't want to be sitting that long. It was a really good meeting, just about an hour and a half too long. After the meeting I ended up going straight to bed because I was so exhausted. When we got up on Friday morning, we checked out of our hotel and went to the Independence visitor's center. After we had all gone in and they were about to start they came in and told us that we were going to the Community of Christ's temple, which is across the street, before we took the tour of the visitor's center. That building is really cool architecturally, but not so cool spiritually. We walked in and the first thing I thought of was a shopping mall. It didn't feel right. We then went into what they call their sanctuary which has an amazing organ, and the ceiling is a cool spiral, but I felt so terrible the whole time I was in there, so I left as soon as the tour was over.
Like I said cool architecturally, but not so cool spiritually. I was really glad that we were headed back to the visitor's center, because I felt so awful, like the spirit had been sucked out of me and there was this heavy weight on my chest. I have never felt like that before, and I never want to feel that way again. That experience totally reaffirmed my testimony so much. I love the gospel so much and I am so grateful to have it in my life. After we went through the Independence visitor's center we left for Colorado. We stayed the night in Aurora, Co, and on Saturday we headed home, arriving in Price at 5:00. It was such an amazing trip, and I hope to be able to go on a similar trip again soon.