BYU Women’s Conference

and

LDS Church History Museum

Ellen Riley flew in to meet me to attend Brigham Young University Women’s Conference.  Our first stop was to eat lunch in the Nauvoo Cafe, and then a visit to  Temple Square and the Church History Museum.

The Nauvoo Cafe is located on the corner of South Temple and Main Street in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, in Downtown Salt Lake City.

Visiting Temple Square and the flowers of Temple Square

Reflecting pool in front of Salt Lake City Temple.

The Salt Lake Assembly Hall is one of the buildings owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the southwest corner of Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. It has seating capacity for an audience of approximately 1,400 people.

The Salt Lake Assembly Hall is a Victorian Gothic congregation hall. Rough granite walls are laid out in cruciform style making the hall’s exterior look like a small gothic cathedral.

Our timing was just a little late to see all the tulips in their prime, but Temple Square was still gorgeous!

The L.D.S. Church History Museum

The museum is located west of Temple Square and north of the Family History Library.

I was excited to see a set this set of coins in the museum.

I had heard about a set like this one in the news recently.  ABC had a story about them, as did KSL in Salt Lake City and LDS Living.

They were the rarest of a seven-piece collection of Mormon coins made in 1849 that brought in nearly $2 million at an auction staged by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.

A $10 Mormon gold coin fetched $705,000, and a $20 Mormon gold coin sold for $558,000 at auction this week.

The territorial coins, put up for sale by a collector, went to an undisclosed buyer. Bidding ended Thursday night.

Tyson Emery, a coin expert at All About Coins in Salt Lake City, said coins and currency were scare when Mormon pioneers arrived in Utah in 1847, and the settlers began making their own coins primarily to buy goods from the East.

“The gold that they used to make these Mormon gold coins came from the original California gold strike, probably right from the American River at Sutter’s Mill,” he told the Deseret News (http://bit.ly/1h1t3cv ).

Only 46 of the $10 gold coins were made, and just a few are still around.

I was also excited to see the “originals” of Missouri Church history.  This picture by C. C. A. Christensen showing the persecution of the Saints in Jackson County, Missouri is the “one” always used showing the Saints being expelled from Jackson County Missouri.

Another “original” is Joseph Smith’s letter written in Liberty Jail to the people in Quincy, Illinois after being expelled from Missouri.  Parts of this letter would latter become scripture D&C sections 121-123:

Displayed with the letter were original bars from Liberty Jail.

And lastly, the original cast iron face wheel from Haun’s Mill on display at the Church History Museum. (Article about Haun’s Mill)

Then we were off to Women’s Conference 2014 at Brigham Young University.

The Theme this year is found in Psalm, 84:11 which reads, “For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” In this verse we are reminded of the blessing and power of divine grace.