Tidbits across the midwest

 Now that I've done all the documenting of the places, (except for Winter Quarters, which I'll post on Sunday. because it's nice and long. and i mean Loooooooong.) here are some of the people and tiny things that made this trip great:

 Two professors came on this trip. Brother Baggot and Brother Black. Brother Baggot brought his fifteen year old son, Jacob, and Jacob's best friend, Braxton. Brother black brought his 11 year old son, Joseph.

I creepily took pictures of them. This is Braxton:

This is Braxton and Jacob, we were pals: 

And this is Joseph. He hated me.

There were two married couples on our tour. The first couple was awesome. super funny, really kind. Then there was these two:

DEVILS.

they were rude, stand offish, and constantly having weird PDAs. For example, when our tour walked down the trail of hope to the mississippi, we had a nice devotional and afterward we sang a few hymns. the spirit was there was very tender and peaceful. Until i turned around at a weird sound and saw these two makin out hardcore behind me, and i was disgusted. I threw some shade their way and tried to forget about it. several other similar events happened over the course of the trip and it was really annoying.

So the this is brother Baggot, my favorite, for reasons explained in the Winter Quarters post:

He is very kind and soft-spoken. He loves to laugh and joke around. And every morning, he'd say "RISE AND SHINE COUGARS, IT'S GONNA BE A GREAT DAY!" as he was walking down the aisle of the bus or the hall of the hotel to wake us all up. annoying, but i couldn't hate him for it becuase he's just so nice. He's also emotional, like me. So I didn't feel silly when my eyes got watery during certain devotionals or spots on the tour, because his were watery, too.

This is brother Black (also an amazing person) and his son playing football, like they did at every stop:

Brother black was the no-nonsense guide. Still very spiritual and fun and extremely smart, but strict. He knew SO MUCH about church history, and he answered every question i had. 

The missionaries at every stop were all kind and gracious but my favorite were the senior missionaries in nauvoo because they were old. hehe. i love oldies.

Some other Nauvoo tidbits:

 MY PRAIRIE RING!

got it at the blacksmith shop, fell in love with it, wore it non-stop for three weeks. lost it the other day after my Children's literature class. I cried.

THERE WERE SO MANY BUGS.

seriously, gnats just looooove the midwest apparently. and the humidity was KILLER.

Here is my roommate Jaylene saying, "I HATE BUGS, MELISSA". hahaha

Also, while we were waiting for the bus to take us to dinner in Nauvoo, a bird pooped on my skirt. :(
not cool, robert frost. not cool.

 Also, there were two boys that sat behind me and Jaylene. Their names were Chris and DJ. they were HILARIOUS. honestly, i laughed at them so much. just eavsdroppin. and they definitely noticed because one time Chris said, "man, dude DJ these girls in front of us must think we're ugly. Cause they laugh at everything we say but they will not turn around and look at us."

Jaylene and i DIED laughing at that comment

"SEE!" he said.

i still didn't turn around. haha.

eventually we became friends. and i laughed out loud at their jokes instead of snickering quietly. 

I took this creepy picture of Chris in Nebraska. I never did get a picture of DJ. oh well.

In Nebraska, we stopped for dinner. I was hard core craving a famous bowl from KFC. SO good. so we go up to the doors and they're locked. so we checked the lobby hours and it said 8:00am-9:00 pm. it was only 7:45 in the evening so....i was upset. I JUST WANTED A FAMOUS BOWL, ALRIGHT?!

So i Avada Kedavra'd them from the corner. convenient that the street name was potter and the light was green when i took this...

At like 3:00 am monday morning we were stopped in Iowa? i think. or nebraska. I don't even know, doe. and I was delirious. Me, Jacob and Braxton had a dance party. no music, but that made it even better.

about three hours outside of Rexburg, we were all going crazy. we'd been on the bus for more than 24 hours and so Jacob and i played "Black Magic" It's one of those stupid games that you play in like third grade on rainy days. and it took him 73 MINUTES to get the game. haha in the time he got it, every around him for like 3 rows had figured it out and we were all like, "come ON, dude!" haha that was fun. 

Also, on the bus we "slept"  a lot. meaning, we'd close our eyes for twenty minutes or so. there was no comfortable way to sleep on that thing. ha.

and our feet were very swollen. this is me in Nauvoo, but they were TINY here compared to when we got home. but mine were not bad at all, really.

Jaylene, on the other hand, just had elephantitus

and i made this map to brag to Jenae about how many states I've been to. muhaha. So now I've been to 12. TWELVE, jenae! muhahaha. California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. Booyah.

Illinois pt. 1

Amish boys driving a horse and buggy! too cute! they waved to us :)

And excuse the window pictures. 

This is on a bridge crossing the HUGE mississippi river!

Our next stop was Carthage Jail in Illinois

Joseph Smith was hated by people who thought that his beliefs and preaching were threatening to their way of life. on many occasions he was arrested on false charges by wicked men who only wanted to lock him away for a few days or weeks to crush his spirit and intimidate him. On one of these occasions, he and his brother Hyrum were taken to Carthage Jail and there they were killed by an angry mob that rushed the prison. 

I have so much respect for Hyrum. He stood by his brother always, regardless of the consequences. 

I love this song about the two of them:

ignore the weird pictures...this was the only version on youtube i could find!

This song is about Hyrum and Joseph, and I think it's amazing. The church is built on people like Hyrum. Quietly doing good. obedient and faithful. 

This is the Jail. 

Joseph, Hyrum and two of their friends were held here. They sang and prayed and wrote letters. They knew when they left their homes that they would be killed. 

In the end, the mob rushed in, the four men tried to hold the door. The mob shot through the door and hyrum was shot in the face and killed. Joseph fell to the floor with him in mourning. Then Joseph ran to the window, and tried to climb out but was shot by two bullets coming up from outside, and two bullets in the back from the doorway. 

He was killed. He fell to the courtyard.

Being in the jail, and in the room where Joseph was killed was moving. also a little fond. How do i make tat sound not weird? Being there wasn't sad. I didn't cry. No one did actually, It was more an uplifting time. We all knew what happened there but it was calm. no sadness at all, only hope. I think that's why we call it a martyrdom. Because he died for a cause, and his murder, while it was supposed to smother the church actually propelled it forward. The saints moved on. 

That's because although Joseph founded and lead the church through one of it's hardest times, and he did so much, he was just the beginning. So his death was and is the driving force behind the church. He was a Prophet of God. I can never thank him for all that he did.

When we got to Nauvoo, we took all of our things into the hotel

One of the professors, brother Black, brought his 11 year old son Joseph on the tour and whenever the bus stopped Joseph asked his dad to play catch. they always did, and it was adorable every time.

In old Nauvoo, There are senior missionaries (volunteer missionaries who are married and  over 50 years of age.) who put on a cute little play for us. It was about the older saints leaving Nauvoo. too cute, honestly. My mom and Dad need to serve here! they would LOVE it. My mom told me that it's their dream mission. 

after that little rendezvous we walked "the trail of hope". The trail out of Nauvoo toward the mississippi.

The mississippi smelled. I took some picture to prove i was in it! haha

The trail was touching, all along the way there were quotes from the people who had to walk it, leaving behind their city. I cannot believe that they had to leave. I don't know how they did it. But more on that in the next post, because i have a lot to say about it and this post has been long enough.

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.