Early Saturday morning we took a wagon ride through Nauvoo, and were told fun, heart-warming and spiritually touching stories of the Saints.  These pics were of the countryside as we weaved our way through town.  The name Nauvoo is indeed fitting - this is indeed a beautiful place!

Our guide - every one there that is working for the church, whether in the temple, in the sewing shop, doing tours, actresses and performers, are on missions.  What an inspiration each and every one of these people were.  

King Follet's well...

The King Follett discourse was an address delivered in Nauvoo by Joseph Smith in 1844, less than 3 months before his assassination.  The discourse was presented to a congregation of probably more than 20,000 members at a general conference held shortly after the funeral of Elder King Follet, who had died of accidental injuries.  The sermon is notable for Joseph Smith receiving revelation that God was once a man, and that men and women can become gods through salvation and exaltation.  This sermon has been regarded as "one of the truly remarkable sermons ever preached in America."  

After our wagon ride, we drove 35 minutes to Carthage, IL, to the jail where our prophet Joseph Smith was martyred in the 2nd story master bedroom of the jail's housers.

This is a quote from the man himself given in 1838.  Included in this is the famous reference of the scripture James, Chapter 1, verse 5:  "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him..."

This was from the First Vision; "When the light rested upon me I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air.  One of them spake unto me calling me by name and said, pointing to the other -- this is my beloved some, hear him...  I had beheld a vision...I had actually seen a light.  And in the midst of that light I saw two personages.  And they did in reality speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision.  Yet is was true...for I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it."

Bronze staute of Hyrum and Joseph.

The visitor's center at Carthage Jail.

This is the back side of the building.

I cannot describe the reverent spirit that settled upon us as we walked into the jail.  We almost were afraid to talk, fearful that it might detract from the amazing feeling we were experiencing.

Originally, the prisoners, Joseph and Hyrum Smith, John Taylor and Willard Richards were put up in the "dungeon".  It was so hot up there with the thick, thick stone walls and only these slits in the stone for ventilation.  They were sweltering up there so much, the Carthage constable David Bettisworth brought them to the main floor of his residence.  Soon he realized they were 'sitting ducks' as they awaited their trial, he moved the four men up to his own master bedroom.
John Taylor commented of the day "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer's morning.  I have a conscience void of offence towards God, and towards all men.  I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me.  'He was murdered in cold blood'"
He sang "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" and soon afterwards Taylor "saw a number of men, with painted faces, coming around the corner of the jail, aiming towards the stairs."  Hyrum was the 1st shot, and the bullet hole resides in the door still that killed him immediately, and he exclaimed "I am a dead man!" after being shot.  He died instantly.  Joseph was shot and fell through the window, landing on the ground below, dead.  When Joseph left Nauvoo for Carthage, he said "I have a conscience voide of offense towards God, and towards all men...I am a lover of the cause of Christ."

The bullet hole of the shot that killed Hyrum.

The window that Joseph fell out of after being shot.

The ground on which his body landed.