Early in the morning, we picked up our rental car from Downtown Boston and drove it out to Upstate New York. As we drove 6 hours West, we could feel the weather getting warmer and warmer, much to our dismay--we sure had enjoyed those cool breezes from Boston Harbor!
Palmyra and the surrounding upstate New York area are the birthplace for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Every summer, the LDS church hosts a pageant on the Hill Cumorah, the site where the records that would come to be known as the Book of Mormon are located. We literally planned our whole trip around being able to see the Hill Cumorah pageant!
After arriving into town, we checked into our Air B n B and took our host's recommendation to eat at a local place just up the road called Mama Lor's. Oh my goodness-the food was delicious! We then drove out to the Hill Cumorah to wait for the pageant!
We arrived early as I was hoping to see my friend, Miranda Miller, who was participating in the pageant. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find her, but I did walk around the grounds at least 3 times to get my exercise in haha
The pageant itself was INCREDIBLE!! Nick and I definitely felt the Spirit, and were very impressed by the sets, the costumes, and the music. We are SO grateful that we had the opportunity to attend!
The next day, we went around to all of the sights in Palmyra!
We started at the Martin Harris, the land that was mortgaged for the financing to print the Book of Mormon. Senior missionaries currently live in the home, but we were able to see the land!
We then headed over to the Main Street of Palmyra to the Grandin Print Shop, which is where the first edition of the Book of Mormon was printed. Nick and I really enjoyed this experience a lot--it was probably our favorite while we were in Palmyra!
After the Grandin, we headed out to the Joseph Smith family farm and toured the log cabin where Joseph Smith had the repeated visions of the Angel Moroni. We couldn't believe how small the home was, and were amazed that none of the siblings were awakened during these repeated visions!
We then walked through the Sacred Grove. Honestly, I was surprised. I had always pictured this as a very reverent place. We had to walk pretty deep into the Grove to get past the couples talking loudly or large families tromping through. When Nick and I finally did find the peace and quiet that I was hoping for, we stopped for some time to feel the Spirit of the place. To be in a place where God the Father and Jesus Christ had also been is pretty incredible!
After the Sacred Grove, we visited the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center, and walked up the Hill (talk about steep!) to the Angel Moroni monument at the top.
We then went to the Palmyra temple, which overlooks the Sacred Grove--how cool! (Afterwards, we realized we should have gone to the temple first because it is literally right next to the Sacred Grove)
We realized we had time, so we drove the 45 minutes out to the Whitmer farm, where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized. While we were there, the wind started blowing the rains started coming, so we headed back to Palmyra.
We decided why ruin a good thing, and ate at Mama Lor's for Round 2. We had a great time in Palmyra, and we are so grateful that we've been able to see so many of the early church history sites!
No comments:
Post a Comment