Greg and I knew that we could only "get so much mileage" out of David, so we thoughtfully decided how to use it. Greg and I had been to Kirtland before, and we thought the temple should be our priority. The Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) had a small, unassuming visitor's center, a very short obligatory video, and a low-key tour. We figured that wouldn't be too demanding for our two-and-a half-year-old. Any leftover "mileage" we would use walking around the Historic Kirtland Village and possibly convincing a nice sister missionary or two to give us a very abbreviated tour. And if things went smoothly maybe we could even drive by the John Johnson farm (which was the highlight of our trip before).
Due to ignorance on our part (and our inability to see into the future), we were not able to take the follows factors into account when we made our calculations on how to use David's mileage:
- The Community of Christ recently opened up a big, new visitor's center (which had an eery resemblence to an LDS visitor's center). Things aren't as "low-key" as they once were.
- The first tour did not begin until 10:30. Having arrived promptly at 10, we had 30 minutes to kill (er, enjoy) in the visitor's center. While it's true that it was big and new and about as hands-on as something like that can be (including a dress-up box and touch screen computers), it held David's attention, for, oh, about 3 minutes. While there was some interesting information in the visitor's center, especially about the beliefs and self-perceptions of the Community of Christ, let's just say is was a very long 27 minutes.
- The very short introductory video is now a very long 30 minute film. Again, it was interesting, especially to see the historical context of the beginnings of the "LDS tradition churches." But, considering it had no live action and the most exciting image was of a rusted plough, it too held David's attention for about 3 minutes. That led to another very long 27 minutes.
- David's mileage completely ran out at 10:45, about 45 minutes sooner than expected. (This was half way through the film.)
- John, our tour guide, who was so nice and earnest, started the tour with a 20 minute explanation of how the temple was built. At least it wasn't 27 minutes.
- By the time we were outside, walking on the path that would take us to the doors of the temple and ultimately inside, David was deep in the negative mileage zone.
Now I must pause to tell you that we were so excited to take David to visit a temple. David has been interested in temples lately, having seen images of the Oakland California Temple in our house. (We explained to David that the temple is where Mommy and Daddy got married. At first he understood a temple to be "where Mommy and Daddy got Mary.") We have taught him that temples are Jesus' special house, even more special than a church, and that it's a place where we learn about Jesus and a place that makes us feel happy. We told him we were going to a temple where we knew Jesus had visited. Greg and I were feeling very good about ourselves as parents in trying use this trip as an opportunity to teach David the gospel. With that in mind, let me tell you the last thing we were not able to foresee when we made our plans:
- The grounds crew had forgetten to disable the security alarm that morning. So when nice, earnest John opened the doors to take us in the temple...
Our pilgrimage to Kirtland culminated with our screaming, traumatized two-year-old's sprinting towards the car like a bat out of hell (I like that cliche here, you know, the irony of the temple and all). Poor kid. His big chance to go to Jesus' special house, and he has the living daylights scared out of him. We forced our hysterical child to pose for a picture, and that was that.
And what does David have to say about the temple? As we've heard repeatedly from him since that fateful day, "Temple, scary in there!" Oh well.
