We took a little sojourn during our visit with Jen and Stew to head into upstate New York and spend a few days at the church history sites around Palmyra. This was a trip years in the making. Levi and I use to speak about taking this trip when we were missionaries and throughout our marriage it has been a discussion we have returned to. The idea of seeing where key events in the church's history took place was really exiting to us and provides beautiful context to the events important to our faith. It wasn't until I realised how close Toronto is to upstate New York (3 hours) that it became obvious that this would be an easy trip and one we could combine with seeing our dear friends the Lokers.
After a day at Niagara we crossed the boarder, had the fun delay of being finger printed, and carried on through the beautiful countryside of New York. We arrived at our sweet small town USA Bed and Breakfast and ate leftovers and basics in our room before crashing after a very busy and very hot day of travel and Niagara. We awoke to an amazing, huge breakfast (got to love America) and even got to take the leftover muffins for the road. Palmyra is small and quaint and everything is close together so it made seeing all we wanted to easy. We went to the Hill Cumorah visitors centre first and spent some time looking through it and speaking with the senior couples. We then made our way to the temple and walked the grounds with the kids before heading to the site of Joseph Smith's home and the Sacred Grove. It is such a lovely place to be. The replica's of the homes are true to size and so small, you can hardly imagine how everyone in these large families would have fit! The missionaries are excellent and give great details that really open your eyes to the way the people lived, and everything is kept just so, it's really beautiful. We made our way through the homesteads, taking our time as it was insanely hot, we all did our best, me tired and pregnant, the kids just hot and bothered and Levi left to bare us all up. We had a fun moment in the sprinkler in the garden to cool off before we entered the Sacred Grove. It's a simple, calm and quiet place, exactly the place you would seek out to have a still, important moment with God. It was lovely to be there but also to know that we can seek out those same places in our own lives. Lucky, as there definitely wasn't going to be any life changing communion today, we were all wilting and nerves were frayed! After wandering the grounds, it made it all very real, these were hard working people, called to really put their lives and livelihood on the line for the restoration. After our church history sites and the intense heat of the day we decided to seek out the local pool and take a dip. It was packed with kids but we had a good time and it was so nice to cool off and see a little of what life in Palmyra is like today. We had a little siesta at home before heading off to see the Hill Cumorah Pagent, which we discovered a few months later was to be the last to be held as they are discontinuing the show. It was a really fun atmosphere there, we met families who take their vacation to Palmyra to participate in the show together and a guy walking around sharing card tricks, which Finley still remembers. People are very welcoming and friendly and kind, it's probably what heaven will be like. Even though I'm familiar with that culture it was still a bit weird even for me! Weird but lovely. The show was great, big and full of special effects. The cast clearly loved being a part of it, which we knew from Josh and Nathan in Halifax who had participated when they were in youth. I'm glad we got to see and experience it.
After a big day we had a deep sleep, started the next day with an amazing breakfast again and headed to the Hill Cumorah again, but this time to the top, where a monument is placed commemorating Joseph Smith uncovering the gold plates. The view from there was beautiful and again the simplicity and beauty of the gospel plan is clear, 'the small things, great things are brought to pass'. From there we headed to the Whitmer Farm, about 30 minutes away. This is where much of the translation of the Book of Mormon took place and where the first meeting of the church was held. This would be my favourite site of them all, it's not only incredibly beautiful but the stories of the Whitmer family are so faith promoting. My favourite was of the mother Whitmer who housed and fed all of the men of the restoration who came through her home and desired greatly to see the gold plates, she never did while they were there in her home but later while she was out feeding the chickens an angel appeared to her and showed them to her. I love that, I think it really shows that the Lord is mindful of us and the desires of our hearts and does his best to grant them to us. Also that the basic requirements of life, the washing, cleaning and cooking don't go unnoticed as service. At all of the church sites missionaries kept recommending to us to go and eat at the local Mennonite market, so after the morning at the farm we headed there for lunch. It was so good. It was no small time market, this is a huge operation., super busy and with quality products and wares. We gathered peaches and blueberries, cheese, salami and some bakery treats for the road from the market, then sat down at the diner there for fries, burgers and ice cream. The meals were generous and delicious and made for the most memorable meal of the trip. We had a little siesta that afternoon and then headed to where the Book for Mormon was first printed, just a short walk up the street from our Bed and Breakfast. This was an absolute highlight. The church was gifted the building by an anonymous donor and at the time it still contained the original printing press used in production, which has now been replicated. They did a great job of showing you the stages the publication goes through to be turned into a book. It was a great place to end our site seeing, you couldn't help but feel of the sacrifice and effort it took to bring the Book of Mormon to us, it became very real there. It definitely impressed on me a feeling of gratitude and the importance at taking the gift we have been given and using it more widely in our lives. Much was given to bring it about. We finished the night off we ate true American pizza at the pizza parlour down the road and meandered home for our last night in Palmyra. After the kids were tucked up in bed, Levi and I sat on the front porch and enjoyed the cool air and the quiet sounds of the town. As we sat two fireflies came along, much to our joy as we had never seen them before! What a cool experience.
In the morning we packed up, grabbed our left over muffins from breakfast for our drive back to the Lokers. We had one last stop at the book shop to buy a replica copy of the 1st edition of the Book of Mormon. We were excited to get this as there are no verses and it reads much more like a regular book, we are keen to see the difference it makes reading it this way. The kids talked us into some Book of Mormon character toys as well and with that we were off, feeling grateful to have been and experienced a place we have wanted to come for years. What a blessing to have made it there.
I don't think you need to see a place in person to know that things truly happened there and I wouldn't say that being in Palmyra strengthened the testimony I already have but rather put it in context. What being there did do was to impressed on me the sacrifices that were made on my behalf, that people who were working hard and trying their best to live good lives gave so much for the restoration and that that their sacrifice should be taken seriously. We enjoy the light of the fullness of the gospel because people were willing to step forward in faith and how grateful I am to them for that.
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