Palmyra, NY

Our next stop was Palmyra, NY.  We pulled into the Hill Cumorah visitor's center and got a map of the places we needed to see.  

Then, we drove up to the site where Joseph got the plates.

Moroni's promise...

The view is beautiful.  We face-timed the kids from this spot and Mike showed them this hill and they all talked about what a great sledding hill it would be.

Angel Moroni...

We went from there, to the temple.

It's a small temple, but so beautiful.

This is the Smith home.

This is the site of Joseph's vision of Angel Moroni.

And a view of the temple through the sacred grove.

This is the house that was to be Alvin Smith's home before he died.  This home is where Joseph brought the plates after he got them from the hill.

This is the place where he hid the plates from a mob.

If I remember right, this sink is original to the home.

This foundation is original too.

We had a neat experience in the sacred grove.  We met a man who is from Greenland.  He told us his conversion story and brought the spirit in.  I love to hear people's conversion stories.  He decided that he wanted a life better than the one he was living and ran into some sister missionaries who gave him a book of Mormon.  He knew that it was true before he even read it because of the feeling he had when they placed it in his hands.  He later served in the Ogden, Ut. mission and spent most of his time in Smithfield.  Crazy small world.  He is visiting the states for a few months and I really hope he takes us up on our offer of a place to stay.

The grove is beautiful.  I remember it being much more dense when I came as a teenager.   Maybe the fall frost killed off the underbrush.  Either way, it was still completely beautiful, and awe inspiring.

We saw all sorts of snakes and frogs that gave Mike the heebie jeebies.  We changed the words of the First Vision song from "bees were humming, sweet birds singing, music ringing through the grove" to "snakes were slithering, big frogs jumping,  creepy things all through the grove".

We went from there to the print shop that printed the first Book of Mormon.

It was cool to learn of the process of printing and of the time and effort that it took.  Most of the print shop has been remodeled to make it visitor friendly and for upkeep, but there are some original things.

This is a first edition of the book.

The ink splatters on the wall are original to the shop.

Just down the street are the four churches that competed for followers and inspired Joseph to ask of God which of the churches were true.

We also saw the Martin Harris farm.  It's all just right there in one little town.

Seeing all these church history sites reminded Mike of his mission.  The rolling hills and little towns were more reminders of the places he spent hours visiting on his bicycle years ago.  We had great discussions as we drove the miles and miles of New York countryside.  We listened to Joseph's account of his vision and re-affirmed our testimonies and discussed our gratitude for being members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  It was all just so wonderful.
We pulled into Buffalo that night and ate Buffalo Wings at the restaurant that invented them.  Mike was pretty skeptical of it all, but said they were pretty good.  :)

Next stop, Niagra Falls.