The Search for the Garden of Eden

Yet, the grounds around Christ's future temple offer a glimpse of the paradise that Smith probably imagined. Far from the the city's strip malls, the payday-loan stores, fast-food joints and car dealerships, the lawn is a lush green, like a freshly trimmed football field. Mormon splinter churches surround it. The headquarters for the Church of Christ (or Hedrickites) borders the parcel's north edge. Across the street, the Community of Christ's stainless-steel spire punctures the heavens.

Sister Mendoza latches onto me. A missionary from Mexico with a thick accent that makes her difficult to understand at times, Sister Mendoza is one of the 50,000 Mormons serving on missions across the world. Young Mormons pay their own way to serve Jesus Christ for up to two years. The men must be between the ages of 19 and 25, and the women older than 21. They are paired with a missionary of the same sex (unless they are married) and taught to street-preach and make house calls teaching the basic tenets of Mormonism.

"I'm looking for the Garden of Eden," I say.

Sister Mendoza escorts me to the reception area and pulls out The Book of Mormon, a text as sacred to the church as the Bible. She marks a couple of passages, scribbles her contact information on the front cover, and writes down journal passages by church apostles and presidents.

Sister Mendoza bursts with enthusiasm and keeps thanking the Heavenly Father for sending me to her. She leads me to the basement, where she implores me to keep my heart open and feel the spirit of the Holy Ghost. "Pay attention to the spirit," she repeats.

Before I know it, I'm in a dark room watching a video about Joseph Smith's life.

Life in Missouri was never paradisiacal for the first Mormons. Early Missouri settlers felt threatened by the growing Mormon population and its opposition to slavery, so they raided Mormon settlements and drove the Mormons from Jackson County.

By 1838, the Mormons were at war with Missouri, and Missouri Gov. Lilburn Boggs issued an extermination order in October of that year. "The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace — their outrages are beyond all description," it read.

At Haun's Mill, northeast of Independence, 18 Mormons were massacred. (The extermination order wasn't formally repealed until 1976, implying that it was legal to kill a Mormon in Missouri until then.) In 1844, Smith was murdered by a mob in Illinois and became a martyr.

The video ends (without mentioning the Garden of Eden), and another missionary pops into the room. Sister Carroll (I think that was her name), an equally enthusiastic blonde, begins her sentences with "I know," such as "I know that Joseph Smith Jr. is a prophet" and "I know that there are living prophets on Earth." Her eyes bulge as she testifies to me. She carries a massive combination Bible and The Book of Mormon and reads passages I can't quite remember (possibly from Michael and Galatians).

"What did the apostles come to Earth to teach us?" she asks me.

I feel a little on the spot. "They came to show us God's will," I stammer.

"They're here to teach us what God wants us to do," she half-concurs.

She asks me to read a couple of chapters in The Book of Mormon tonight.

I agree. One is about asking God if what's taught in The Book of Mormon is true. The other concerns God not being able to perform miracles unless his children believe.

So I decide to become, at least for the purpose of this story, a believer. I will believe as long as God provides me answers.

The actual Garden of Eden could be anywhere. Maybe it's on the grassy hill where Joseph Smith Jr. envisioned Jesus' temple or underneath the surrounding churches. Or maybe the Garden is somewhere else in town, buried under a housing development or apartment complex, biding its time beneath the Bass Pro Shops, scheduled to open in late January, or pro golfer Greg Norman's course. Maybe it's the entire city. Elders and sisters at the Liberty Jail (where Joseph Smith was imprisoned) explained to me that the Garden could have been the entire world at the time. As one sister said, "It had to be somewhere, right? Why not?"

Or maybe Joseph Smith got it wrong.

So I return to the visitor's center, where I eyeball a giant map of Missouri with Sister Mendoza. The map highlights Mormon historical sites: the Liberty Jail; Adam-ondi-Ahman, where Adam was exiled; Far West, where the stones were laid for a future temple. The map doesn't show the Garden of Eden.

I ask Sister Mendoza if there is a specific site for it.

"No, I don't think so," she tells me. "You should ask Elder Poll."