7 June from Our Viewpoint

Tuesday. Northwest Missouri. Today we were up early. With this heat, we wanted to get to Adam-ondi-Ahman while it was still cool enough to walk around and enjoy our visit. We had learned a bit about Diahmen (as some shorten it…. It makes me feel cool) at the Visitors Center at Independence. We learned that there is a one year waiting list for senior missionaries to serve there. The men do the groundskeeping and maintenance and the sisters are involved in family history scanning and record preservation. Behind Salt Lake, apparently, it is one of the most prolific sources of digitized records. Also, although it is part of the Kansas City mission (or whatever also includes Independence), the missionaries there report directly to the First Presidency. I think we can all see why that would be. Cool, huh?

Adam-ondi-Ahmen is very peaceful and beautiful. There was a cool breeze and the birds, insects, and animals provided a soundtrack. We all would have stayed there for much longer! Evan was very impressed with the spirit there and wished there were more spots like this in the world. Then he supposed that it would be possible if the hearts of the people were more Zion-like. I love those Visitor Center films that teach so well!!

Next, we drove to Breckenridge, MO. The town park there has a small memorial to the Haun’s Mill Massacre with a mill stone from the mill. It not an LDS site and, therefore, does not include many details.

From there, we drove to Haun’s Mill itself. My 5th great grandfather was killed during the attack and we were especially looking forward to seeing this area. It is a beautiful little area. There is a small little stone left from the mill and a concrete pad with information about the massacre.

We are currently in Hannibal, MO. We plan on eating tonight at Lulabelle’s, which we’ve been told is the place the locals eat. We’ll see. Tomorrow morning, we will tour the Mark Twain Cave which was written about in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Supposedly, it also has the signature of Jesse James, the outlaw. Hold me back!