Independence, Missouri

So i'm back in Rexburg (insert tears here)

And get read for a Midwest series. 

So Wednesday afternoon we all piled on a bus and we drove through the night.

 SLEEPING ON A BUS IS HORRIBLE. i can barely sleep in cars as it is. At one point i literally sat down on the floor and laid my head against the seat. I actually slept for awhile until the girl in front of me leaned her seat back and SQUISHED me (specifically my head) in between her seat and mine. needless to say, i was woken up. and then i just couldn't sleep. gah.

when i actually woke up- woke up, we were in Nebraska. flattest place ever. no actually, IOWA is the flattest place I've ever been. just flat. flat flat flat. not one hill in sight.

Then eventually we got to Missouri.

Excuse the dirty window blurry picture, i was just fascinated by how GREEN everything was

We stopped briefly at the Kansas City temple. We didn't have time to go through because we had an appointment in Independence that we didn't want to be late for.

My bangs have officially reached the most awkward length of all man kind. every time i trim my hair it takes all my strength not to chop them short again. haha.

So we drove to Independence, MO.

some quick back history:

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was organized in 1830. In 1847 when the Mormons were kicked out of Illinois and trekked to Salt Lake City, some of them disagreed with the move west for reasons regarding Brigham Young as Prophet. They stayed in the Midwest under the name, "The Reformed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" and today are centered in Independence. In 2001 they changed the name of their church to "Community of Christ" and built a temple in Independence dedicated to world peace. 

As part of our tour, we were learning about churches who have branched off from our church. This was one of them. Going through their temple was a very interesting thing and i actually learned a lot about their religion! So that was intriguing. 

we also visited the dedicated temple site for the Independence temple. that was cool.

We went to Chik-fil-a for dinner because Jaylene hadn't ever been! blasphemy!   and then we headed to Liberty Jail

turns out? My cousin Kendra lives just around the corner! So she ran over so we could say hi and chat for a second. Kendra is one of my heroes, honestly. And she and her husband are so great together. They are one of the couples that just make me really hopeful for my future marriage. Alos, I have never met a single other person on earth who is quite like Kendra! hahaha she's so funny and kind!

That night we stayed at a hotel in Independence, and oh my goodness let me tell ya, that bed felt like i was sleeping on a cloud compared to that bus seat.