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On Sunday we went to church at the branch in Tiffin.  Being in such a small branch is a bit of a shock after spending so many years in big wards in Orem and Seattle.  Even our ward in Knoxville, Tennessee seems huge next to the small congregation in Tiffin.

My mom tells me a family of 9 moved in recently, but that they were on vacation the Sunday we were there.  The primary was completely composed of visitors.  It was my 4 primary aged children, my nephew Paul, and two other visitors.  They all met in one classroom and then moved to the primary room for sharing time.  The primary president drew a rough sketch of the US on the board to show where everyone was visiting from.  Isaac raised his hand and said something to the effect of:  “I’ve studied geography a lot and I’ve won awards in geography and that does not look very much like the United States!”  Krista and I had the only two nursery kids so we ran the nursery the 2nd hour and my dad ran it the 3rd hour.

 

After church we ate a quick lunch and then piled in the van and drove to Kirtland.  Here’s the view of Cleveland as we passed:Kirtland has changed a lot since we were there last.  The Community of Christ still owns the Kirtland Temple so we went to their visitor center first.  We had to pay $3 each for a tour of the Kirtland Temple and we were asked not to take any pictures inside or touch any of the original wood. Next we went over to our Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints visitor center.  Last time we were there they just had the Newel K. Whitney store, but since then they’ve moved the road and built a small village of historical buildings to visit.
Nicole was starting to get a little stressed.  When our tour guide asked how many loves fit into the oven, she yelled out “2 + 2 is 4!”  The tour guide asked if she wanted to lead the group to the next site and Nicole happily took her hand and skipped along with her.  Nicole was much more calm after that.

The saw mill: On the way home we stopped in Republic (just a few miles from my parent’s home) to take a picture of Charlotte next to Charlotte Street.