Road Trip – Day 11-12

 

The kids wanted to see Palmyra, NY, and the church history sites.  I have been there at least 3 times, and its a cute, scenic town.  We camped at the KOA in a cabin as rain was in the forecast.  The kids love the little cabins and all the fun amenities of a KOA – playground, trampoline, stocked pond,  pancake breakfasts, arcade, mini golf, pool, and nature trail.

Our first tourist stop was the Smith Family Farm.  There are three parts – the Log Home (replica on original location), the Frame Home (80% original), and the Sacred Grove (forest behind fields).  Wait, there was one more building, a barn that was new.  It was a Young Family Barn that was dismantled and reassembled where the Smith Barn used to be.  It is time period accurate and authentic.

It was really hard to take pictures on this part of the trip because Skye was a napless nightmare.  K and B took any pictures we do have. The Sacred Grove is so called, because that is where Joseph Smith went to pray as a 14 year old boy and saw God the Father and Jesus Christ.  There is no sign that says “this is the spot”.  There are trails through the lush NY forest with old stone walls.  You are supposed to be rather reverent as you walk through.  People come from far far away to meditate and pray here.  Luckily it was a not busy because Skye just wanted to run and scream.  She had been in the car for 3 hours and just did 2 house tours. She kept looking for unicorns and acting out a scene from a cartoon in a ‘magical forest’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next tourist stop was the Hill Cumorah.  This is the location, just a few miles away from the Smith Farm, that the angel Moroni told Joseph Smith the Book of Mormon plates were buried – by Moroni himself when he was alive. The hill has a visitor center at the bottom and a path up the hill to a golden statue of Moroni with the plates.

 

We also swung by the little temple in the woods overlooking the Sacred Grove.  Phil and I were married there 13 years ago.  First thing in the morning on a Saturday in May accompanied by our four best friends.  It was pretty simple and woodsy and quick.  We had a ring ceremony and celebration in another woodsy paradise later that day with all our family.  But I digress…  I wish I Skye had cooperated and let me get a picture of the stained glass windows.  They are forest scenes.

 

The last tourist thing we did was see the Grandin Building – the print shop where the Book of Mormon translation had its first printing in 1830.  Printings of the time were usually bound with paper covers, but Joseph insisted the printing be as formal as possible so the book would be taken seriously.  We learned a lot in our 30 minute whirlwind self tour (Skye was losing it again)- it took 19 months to print and bind 5,000 copies.  The printing was paid for by a friend of Joseph Smith selling part of their land. The docents showed the kids every step of the process and taught them how to fold the 16 page giant sheets.

Next time we come to Palmyra, we hope to see that annual July pageant on Hill Cumorah .  It is really impressive, I saw it as a young kid. Hundreds of volunteers perform a dramatized reenactment of the part of the Book of Mormon where Christ visits the people on the American continent after his resurrection.

In one of the little movies we watched in the visitors center, Joseph Smith was quoted as saying, “I don’t blame you for not believing my history, had I not experienced it I could not believe it myself.”  That made me laugh.  Faith is funny like that.  There is plenty in the history of Christianity, and other faiths, that is fantastic and unbelievable.  I suppose our whole existence is improbable and surprising.  I wouldn’t believe the Joseph Smith story either if I hadn’t read the Book of Mormon itself and prayed about its validity.  But I have, more than once, and I can’t deny it.  Jesus is the Christ, and Joseph Smith was a simple farm boy who played a great and fantastic role in bringing another testament of Jesus to light. Praise to the man.