Palmyra

Just before Labor Day Weekend, we made a short family trip to Palmrya and Niagara Falls. We had beautiful, sunny weather, and no crowds. We went to Palmyra our first day and then Niagara Falls the next day. In just that short time, we had many happy memories!



We packed a picnic lunch and ate near the Hill Cumorah. We went to the Visitor's Center, which was pretty fun for the kids. The girls loved the Christus statue. I had the strange experience of sitting right in the middle of the benches and hearing my own voice amplified every time I tried to ask a question or tell one of the kids to shush! The girls also enjoyed going through the interactive room and pushing all the buttons.



After the the visitor's center, we hiked up to the top of Hill Cumorah. It was quite a steep climb. I felt pretty out-of-shape (until I found out a couple of days later that I was pregnant). The side of the hill you see from the road is the side that is grassy and manicured, where the Hill Cumorah Pageant is performed. On the other side, everything is natural woodland. That was the part I really enjoyed seeing. I could imagine Joseph Smith trying to run down the steep hill with all those trees and roots and rocks, lugging around the Gold Plates and fleeing greedy men.


When we got back to the car, we went to the Smith Farm and Sacred Grove. A sister missionary gave us a guided tour of the Smith log cabin and Joseph & Emma's home. The buildings look so small from the outside, but they're actually pretty big inside. There was a downstairs bedroom for the parents and two upstairs bedrooms, one for the girls and one for the boys. The stairs were pretty treacherous, and I could imagine Joseph hit his head a lot going down them!





The Sacred Grove was awesome, and I mean that in the real sense of the word. There were quite a few people there, but we didn't see any while we were in the grove. It was quiet and peaceful. The sister missionary who gave us the tour of the Smith Farm encouraged us to speak quietly in the Grove and to take the opportunity to sit at one of the benches and pray. The kids were really quiet, very unusual for Cinnamon Bear, who seems to yell everything she says. We prayed to ourselves for a little while, which was a sacred, private experience. It was amazing to me to think the Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ had actually been in that grove. This was the place that my knowledge and testimony of the truth originated from.








Next, we visited the Book of Mormon press site in downtown Palmyra. Papa Bear and I were really fascinated with the whole process of how books were printed back then. The building houses a sort of library/book store on the first floor where men from the town congregated and read books that had been published by the press. There was also a lawyer's office in the Press building. Upstairs, there's a pulley system with a pallet of paper showing how paper was loaded from the Erie Canal and taken up to the third floor of the press. The senior missionary who gave us our tour explained that Grandin (who owned the press) was inspired to print the Book of Mormon. He was not a member of the Church and was reluctant to the print the Book of Mormon. Martin Harris mortgaged his farm to was convince Grandin to do the printing. At the time, the press they used took a long time to churn out pages. Grandin felt that he should invest in a new state-of-the-art press, which made publication of the Book of Mormon way faster. I highly recommend going on a tour of the Grandin Press if you'd like more information. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable!



It was late by the time we left the Press site, so we had to forgo walking around the temple grounds. We did not leave spiritually empty, however. The Sacred Grove itself is a temple experience, and the knowledge we gained from our tours left our minds very satisfied!