SEPTEMBER OUTINGS

Outings with the Sisters

We have been having some fun P-Day outings with some of our Sisters (the ones that have the same P-Day as we have).  It has been fun to take them around to some of the places we have visited and enjoyed, and these places came alive with young, creative Sisters!





Birds Botanicals

One P-Day, we started out at the Birds Botanicals, an interesting place to see the beautiful orchards and tropical plants that are growing in a cave.

At first, we thought we had lost our Sisters among the tropical plants!
(Sister Erikson & Sister Altier)

But soon they were found among the beautiful Orchards!

Next stop:  Steamboat Arabia

We then headed for the Steamboat Arabia, the Steamboat that sunk in 1856, carrying over 200 tons of of fine dish ware, jewelry, guns, gold and other precious items.   The side-wheeler steamboat had just left Kansas City when her hull was suddenly pierced by a submerged tree.  She sunk in just minutes with all of her treasures lost.  The passengers all got off safe.  

Years later in 1988, and after the river changed course over the years, the steamboat was found beneath a Kansas farm field.  This is the largest collection of frontier supplies and they are still restoring many of the items.

Each time we go visit this display of items, we see and learn something new.  The family and friends that recovered this some 25 years ago, have now located another sunken steamship and they are in the negotiation stage with another farmer to bring up more hidden treasures.

A little note on Church History:  In 1831, when Jackson County was first being settled, Joseph asked the Colesville Branch to continue traveling from Kirtland to Jackson County.  14 families, under the direction of Newel Knight, left for the Missouri frontier.  They also took one of these Steamboats up the Missouri River, from St. Louis, until they reach Jackson County, MO.

Another Day and Another Outing

Today we started out for The Money Museum; The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas, City, MO. 

Our Sisters are back with us again and we enjoyed exploring this Money Museum again.  There are coins on display of the earliest they have up to the present day.  It is interesting to see the changes.
The first picture is taken outside the front doors where we entered.

Sister Erikson is standing in front of 40 Million $1.00 bills.

We did all the fun things that are offered there to do and to see.

Next stop:  The Country Club Plaza

The plaza is the first shopping center in the world designed to accommodate shoppers arriving by car.  This 55 acre site is 5 miles south of Kansas City, MO. and 1 mile East of the Kansas state line.

J. C. Nichols designed this Plaza after Seville, Spain, which he had visited and loved.  The Plaza opened in 1923 and was an immediate success, and it has lasted with little interruption since that year.

The basic design reflects the classic European influence of Seville, Spain which includes: Clay tile roofing on 2 story buildings, Mosaics, Lantern style lighting, Balconies, Towers and Domes, Courtyards, Sculpture and Fountains, lots of marble and no traffic lights.  Free parking is all indoors.

We started our walking tour at the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain, appropriately named after The Plaza designer.  This fountain was created in Paris in 1910 and originally graced the formal gardens of an Estate in Roslyn, NY.  The fountain was discovered in a salvage yard in 1951, shipped to Kansas City and restored to this beautiful condition.  As I have mentioned before, Kansas City has more fountains than any other city in the world other than Rome, and this is a good example of one of them.

While there, some other Sisters, and their ward friends, joined us.  You never know what will happen when you get a group of Sister together!!!  They made a great contact with a young lady who was there at the fountain, and not only did she take this picture, but they hope to contact her and teach her the Gospel.  I also had a chance to talk about our church to a nice man and we invited him to come to our Visitor Center.  So we try to do some good as we enjoy our P-Days.

Now, which face do we like the best!

This ornate fountain is an exact replica of the Plaza de Los Reyes fountain found in Seville, Spain.  It is carved from several kinds of marble with and intricate iron detail on top (sorry, can't see).  Water used to flow from the four masked faces but in 2006, the city found water leakage below into the electrical panels and decided it was too dangerous and costly to keep it running.

As we walked down the Boulevard, we enjoyed the nice divided street with the many hanging potted plants, fancy street lights, the wide sidewalks and no traffic lights.  There are fountains and statues throughout The Plaza.

Wishing Fountain - Rub the nose of the boar for good luck!

Now, that is going a little bit to far don't you think!

This bronze byUtah sculptor Dennis Smith, 1987

Morning Prayer

There are some beautiful nooks in the side of buildings that display sculptors and fountains with sculptures in courtyard you can enjoy throughout The Plaza.

Brush Creek flows along the side of The Plaza.  You will notice two gondolas in the picture on the right.  I have not seen them in action the many times we have visited The Plaza, but I am sure there are special times they are out on the water.

                                                            Jamesport, MO

 We also had a chance this month to visit Jamesport, Mo., a small Amish town.  As we visited some of the shops down the main part of town, we realized that they were not the Amish shops that we hoped to visit.  We were running out of time, so we didn't get to some of the out-of- town shops where the Amish people sale their home-crafted items, but we now know where to go the next time we visit!



The Amish people came to the Jamesport area and settled in 1953 and have grown to the largest settlement in Missouri.  Currently there are around 150 families living in the rich farm land of the area.




This is a log cabin home that was built in 1836, that now stands in Jamesport City Park.  This is very typical of the homes the Saints built while they were in Missouri in the 1830's.  Jamesport is not far from Adam-ondi-Ahman.

                                  Attending the Temple with our Sisters

One of the cherished experiences that we have is to attend the Temple, now and then, with our Sisters.  We can attend as often as we have time off from our Visitor Center responsibilities, which we love to take advantage of.  The Sisters can attend once every three months, or more often if they have a new convert they want to take to do baptisms for their ancestors.  They just need to get rides to the Temple by a ward member or from us, Sr. Couples, which we are always happy to accommodate.  HA!

We are serving in the best mission in the world!  Not only do we get to have wonderful experiences in the Visitor Center each shift, but we are only 20 minutes away from the Kansas City Temple, AND Missouri is full of wonderful places to visit.  We love serving the Lord here in Missouri. 

We hope you all have a wonderful day.  We love you all!