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About Mormon
Heritage Association |
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What is the
Mormon Heritage Association? How did we start? What are our goals... |
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IN THE
BEGINNING
It all began unintentionally, in early 1997. Clinton
Day, a High Councilman in the Salt
Lake Big Cottonwood Stake (with a love for the history of the L.D.S. Church) suggested
that an appropriate sesquicentennial activity for the Stake Presidency and High Council
would be to hold a High Council meeting in Nauvoo. After initial chuckles, and then some
consideration, Clinton was assigned to make arrangements. Arrangements were made for facilities
in Nauvoo for the meeting and a tour of the sites was planned and directed for those stake
officers and their wives (who for the most part were also church officers). Interested
friends and relatives were invited along to fill the bus. |
Because all of the tour members were
strong church members with years of service, including preaching and teaching, Brother Day
thought it foolish to give all of the history parts himself. He, therefore, assigned most
of them to tour members, giving only the location and subject to be researched and taught.
In addition, scripts were written representing key historical figures, to be given in
first-person by selected tour members. Some of these include: Emma Smith and Mary Fielding
at Far West, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer at their graves in Richmond, and Mary Ann
Young and Wilford Woodruff at the Mississippi in Nauvoo. In order to maintain the proper
spirit on the bus, each day started and ended with a hymn and prayer. Oh, and that High
Council meeting was held in the upper room of Joseph Smith's Red Brick Store. In it, two
of the high councilmen were called and sustained to be bishops! |
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The results of this tour
exceeded anything we could have ever dreamed. It was not a tour. It was an experience that
changed lives!
Pressure was applied by the tour members to plan a similar tour the next year for the
sites from Palmyra to Kirtland. This was done and the results were just as incredible. Dozens of thank-you letters flowed in. Some were beside themselves when trying to describe
their gratitude. Word of this experience spread to friends and family. The next year
(1999) there was a high enough demand to fill five buses. It took Brother Day seven and
one-half months to plan and lead all five tours. His business as a computer consultant
paid the price. His computer consulting clients became frustrated and Brother Day had to
make a decision: Either quit the tours and get back to work or shut down the consulting
business and make a business out of the tours. By this time, a number of other history
lovers had joined in the volunteer effort and had helped direct some of the tours. Brother
Day decided to forsake his business of 35 years, raise the price just enough to exist, and
continue with the tours. With the help of ten other volunteer guides, it soon grew to
seven tours in 2000, eleven in 2001, and thirteen in 2002. In
2004, work began translating the scripts of the
Missouri/Nauvoo tour into Spanish for an historic Spanish-speaking tour.
In 2005, another Spanish-speaking tour traveled the Palmyra
to Kirtland tour. Beginning in 2006, we began similar
participation tours to Israel where the number of tours per year
grew from one in 2006 to four in 2007 and four in 2008.
2007 initiated exciting tours to England and Wales
following the footsteps of the early Apostle missionaries:
Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, John Taylor, Orson Pratt,
Parley P. Pratt, among others. |
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GOALS of the Tours:
1. Conduct the tours in the spirit of a good gospel doctrine class. By using the
methods described above, our tours cover the historic details of each site while providing
an uplifting spiritual experience. We want people to realize and appreciate the sacrifice
and faith of their ancestors, returning with a strong conviction to keep the faith
themselves.
2. Offer tours at a modest price anyone can afford. Through the use of volunteer
labor and efficient time management, we can keep the cost of the tour down enough that
anyone who really wants to go, is able. We stay in clean, comfortable, no-frills motels
and eat mostly buffets and continental breakfasts. |
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3.
Minimize amount of time taken
off work to attend tours. Tours often depart on Tuesday and return Sunday night
or depart Saturday, and return Wednesday or Thursday night. In most
cases, only 3-4 workdays are missed, allowing even the busiest people the opportunity to go.
The time efficiency of the tours allows people with more free time to attend both tours in
the same year while others prefer to do them in consecutive years.
These tours have had an unexpected effect on young people, even teenagers, who have gone,
loved it, and been forever touched! |
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Copyright © 2002 Mormon Heritage Association. |
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