NewsNew Mormon church draws good comments at open house
By Cindy Iutzi /Gate City Staff WriterThe Keokuk Branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opened the doors of its new church on Brookshire Drive to the public Sunday.
Platters of homemade breads and plenty of punch were served in the culture center. Several displays were set up in Sunday School classrooms. "It went real good," said Branch President Don Skog. "We had about 100 people. We were really happy with it." The building was dedicated at 10:30 a.m. Sunday in a 45-minute service that followed the congregation's usual Sunday morning meeting. The open house began at noon. Church members were at every door, welcoming visitors, conducting tours and answering questions. Members of area churches and visitors to the area stopped in to see the new building. "It's pretty," said Mary Hull of the First Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, Keokuk, and Lee County Genealogical Society. "I have used the LDS genealogy department." Hull's appreciation of the building was echoed by Cliff McKee of Keokuk who was touring with friends. Betty Peters of Keokuk and her daughter Diane Buske of Oregon also admired the new building. Some of the comments included, "It's beautiful," "It's a very attractive facility" and "Very nice." Julia McDaniel of Kahoka, Mo., a member of the church, paused in her punch serving duties to reflect about the new building. She is happy to finally have a permanent church home. "I love it," she said. "We went to Nauvoo (Ill.) from here and then to Nauvoo from Kahoka (Mo.). Now it's a half hour drive instead of an hour drive." McDaniel's grandmother, Julia Louise Byrnes of Kahoka, looked back over her years in the church. "I was baptized in 1927 in the Mississippi River where the George M. Verity is now docked," she said. Byrnes said the entry to the river was a gentle slope at that time. "That's where you could walk out into the river for a ways." Worship locations varied and changed often. "We had just a home Sunday School and then went to the Old Carthage Jail for a while," she said. "Then we went back to home Sunday School (1928 Orleans Ave.), then to Nauvoo. We had Relief Society in John Taylor's home (in Nauvoo) and Sunday School at the information Bureau, Time and Seasons and the Icarian Building." The congregation also met in a building on the Temple Block in Nauvoo for a while and at the Stake Center in Nauvoo. When the Keokuk Branch was formed, LDS members met in a storefront on Main Street and in two locations in the Keosippi/River City Mall in Keokuk. Bonnie Jameson of Keokuk had a Home Production display set up in a classroom. As the Keokuk Branch's home storage and food production specialist, Jameson is versed in the practical application of home food storage. "I will teach home storage and food production to the women of this branch," she said. "In times of hardship they will have learn to have a year of food supply." Times of hardship may come from disaster, illness, death or job layoffs, Jameson said. Jameson learned about storage and production and how to apply that knowledge from materials she obtained from the church and from such resources as extension, she said. The women will take a field trip to an LDS cannery in St. Louis where they will have an opportunity of doing some hands-on food storage and production, Jameson said. "They are given the opportunity to do production for their family and are given the opportunity to do more for others in the church," she added. Copyright © 2010 - Daily Gate City
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