If you have been on a such a tour, I'd love to hear your story.

I went on a CHT in 2008. I was hoping to come home a more spiritual person. I thought that listening to well informed tour guides at all the top LDS cites would answer some of my questions. Maybe in the Nauvoo Temple I'd be filled with the spirit and receive the further light and knowledge that I hadn't received in any of the other temples I'd attended.

To prepare for my trip I went to Seagull Book and bought Rough Stone Rolling. I wanted to know enough about Joseph to ask intelligent questions of those all knowing guides.

I finished the book with a firm belief that Joseph was a fallen prophet. I had decided previously that Brigham was a genius and the saints would not have survived without him, but he was not a very nice man.

On the tour, when questioned about the mysteries of the church, John Lund always answered something like,"Don't give up what you know because of something you don't understand".
That's not an answer, but it was the best answer I heard on the entire tour. If you think your Gosple Doctrine class was shallow, you should listen to the sweet mishies at the CH cites.

I came home with all of my original questions, no warm fuzzy feeling and a few questions I hadn't thought of before I left.

Adam-ondi-ahman really?

Back in 1997 I went to Palmyra, did that foolishness, then drove over to Brampton, ON to go to the temple. After that I drove down to Kirtland, OH and toured the RLDS (at the time, now CoC) temple and then went to the red store thingamagig. I felt NOTHING in the sacred grove. Zip.

When touring the Kirtland "temple", the tour guides were RLDS, naturally, and I remember thinking "man, this story sounds like just a bunch of BS". I felt NOTHING while touring the temple. That almost scared the hell out of me. I was a TBM at the time. Then I went to the so-called "upper rooms" of the red store. They poured on the HeartSell and sure enough, the spirit bore witness to me that I had been suckered!!!!!!

I went to the Beehive house about 5 years ago. All the Sisters were foreign born and spun the story about extra wives needing protection (not real wives like the lady of the Beehive house). I think they put ESL sisters there on purpose, so people won't ask hard questions.

I lived about 30 minutes from Kirtland for several years. I did that tour more times than I can count.
That tour includes
The Newell K Whitney store
one of the smith homes
The Kirtland temple
The johnson farm
There are also other sites that aren't as well known and there isn't really a tour. One of them is a farm where the saints all lived together for awhile and tried to live the law of consecration. They went by another name. I can't recall what it was though.

I went to New York several times to the sacred grove, the printing shop, the rebuilt Joseph Smith home, and the pageant and all that goes with the hill cummorah.

There's a little known place called Kane Pennsylvania. There's an old church there that the mormons own. Colonel Kane is buried in front of it. It was owned by his family and they gave it to the church. It's a museum and Branch also meets there in the middle of the museum cases. It was interesting. There was a picture of colonel Kane doing an appendectomy on himself. Sitting up wide awake! He's the only non Mormon with a patriarchal blessing. BY gave it to him. I believe he died in SLC while living with the mormons, but he never joined the church.

I've also been to Nauvoo 4 or 5 times. The last time I was there they were getting ready to break ground for the temple.

I've heard the tour guide versions over and over. Most of it is Faith promoting stories. I was there before the internet was in full swing, so I didn't have much to look at as far as information to check their stories. Now that I look back on it, it was very much the same old stories i'd heard all my life. There were zero attempts to tell the truth. In fact quite the opposite. All those tours I never once heard a word about JS having another wife.

In fact, when I went to the Beehive house in Utah, they were trying to play it like Brigham only had one wife! Now that takes some chutzpah!

If I went on these tours now i'd be asking them a ton of uncomfortable questions. I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one. The church is lying about their history every day at these historical sites. They've gotten away with it. I think those days are now over. Some of these tour guides are getting quite an education while on their missions in their golden years.

I think they use female missionaries and older couple missionaries so that people won't confront them. Some of those young girls seemed so scared I wouldn't have felt right about questioning them.

I visited Palmyra in the 80s and the Joseph Smith Sr house was on the other side of the road at that time. The new house has also been built so that it is tour friendly, but not a true reproduction. That would be fine if they were honest about it, but the tour guides didn't even make it clear that it was not the original house.

because their precious little bubble is sacred and we must protect it?

I asked embarrassing questions at Hyde Park to the guide once, and I'm still a huge fan of King Franklin I.

No , but I have had a kidney stone.

On a long bus ride from one site to another, in the back of the bus, too close to the toilet, the experience is similar.

My TBM sister did that tour and often likes to cite it and how spiritual it was to see the stuff. I hear her talk a lot of nonsense when she does.

The think I hated about the Newell K. Whitney tour was how the whispy-voiced female missionaries had to bear their testimony at the end of each explanation. Like the saws display:

Missionary: "Anyone know what kind of saw this one is?"

Me: "An ice saw, for carving blocks of ice from a lake in the winter."

Missionary: "Yes! How did you know? I'm so glad that Heavenly Father gave people the ideas they needed to make tools that would allow them to do the things they did."

Regarding shoes: Missionary: "I'm so glad when I think about Heavenly Father and how he made sure our pioneers knew how to shape leather and make the shoes that they needed."

This went on and on. It was stupid and almost unbearable. We finally ended up in that room where Joseph Smith supposedly taught "the school of the prophets." There was my wife and me and some four or five non-Mormon tourists. The missionary wanted us all to sing a couple of verses of "Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief," which they didn't know and we didn't care to sing. She sang a couple of verses by herself and began crying and bearing her testimony again. I was active in church then, but felt like puking.

how come MMM site is not on church history tour ?

+1000

I've been to many non-LDS historical sites and one thing I always enjoy is the small museum that's usually there to showcase some of the items that have been found over the years.

I look forward to one day visiting a museum by the Hill Cumorah and viewing all of the Nephite antiquities that have been unearthed.

I visited the Independent MO sites (all three sects!) and Nauvoo a couple years back. Adam-ondi-Ahman was... interesting. I admit I was quite impressed with the Community of Christ guides in Nauvoo; I think it was the Joseph Smith house? Much more historical and less proselytizing/faith promoting. Nothing especially controversial--just a different intention for the tour.

I noticed that too. Their tour was more like the tours you get at state run museums or historical sites. They were even wearing khaki pants and forest green polos.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2013 06:13PM by releve.