Another Mission Adventure in Missouri

  Another Mission Adventure in Missouri

 


    On Friday, May 1st, Elder Crow and I went to visit missionary apartments in the some the furthest areas of our mission. One interesting place that we went was Chillicothe, MO. It is a very small community. There is one set of Elders there and 2 Senior Sisters. We had driven through there before, so we knew that there were many buildings that had LARGE murals painted on the sides of them.

This is for real!

Love the depth perception

Down on the farm

We decided to get there early enough to take pictures of some of them. There is some really amazing artwork on whole sides of buildings. Oh, and by the way, did you know that Chillicothe is the home of Sliced Bread, seriously! I guess we all need some claim to fame.

  We also went to Hamilton, MO. which is where the famous Missouri Star Quilt Company is. It is world famous, I had actually heard about it even before our mission.
 

Original Floor Plan

We then went to Gallatin. We visited our missionaries there, and then we went to the Squirrel Cage Jail. That was very interesting. It was one of  8 circular, rotating jails ever built, and only 3 remain. It was actually scary, in that here were these 8 tiny pie shaped cells, that bunked 2 prisoners each. There was a bench with a hole in it for their toilet, a very, very thin mattress, no pillow, and no blanket. Everything in the jail was steel.



 It got below freezing in the winter, and hot in the summer. The cells sat on a rotating floor. One time each day the jailer would rotate the cells with some type of gear and each cell would face the front where their food was placed in a slot for them.
They were fed once a day, and their cell moved around once a day.

Lovely, comfy bed

They never got out of their

Spacious Cell

cell for any reason. We were amazed at the conditions they would live in. The lady giving the tour said, "Well they were prisoners." They sure do things differently now.

Only source of heat

   
Next we went to Far West. They have a beautiful monument there, of the Temple site.

Entrance to the Monument

   At one time there were 5000 inhabitants there. 4000 of them were LDS. I'm sure that was part of the problem, and a big reason why they were forced to leave under such harsh winter conditions. Now it is hardly populated. It was interesting to me, however that there is a nice Community of Christ church right across the street from the monument.

 

The Senior elders like to go there to fish. there are 2 ponds there. I haven't mentioned the ponds. They are everywhere, we even some one across from our apartments. They are beautiful.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Missouri is such a pretty area, now that it is green. Beautiful green rolling hills, with lots of ponds, and trees. We are really enjoying our mission.