Palmyra Pageant

Peaceful. Breathtaking. Unfathomable. Humble. Trials. Nobility. Persecution. Persistence. Prepared.

These are some of the words we thought about all weekend long.  

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When we first found out that the hubby received an internship in DC for the summer, I immediately started to look for housing.  I added myself the the listserv (email updates and announcements) for the whole YSA ward here in DC, hoping that someone was moving away for the summer and needed their place rented out.  One day there was a new email from a girl whose family lives in Palmyra.  She was inviting all that wanted to come to stay at her house for the weekend.  She had a plan for those that wanted to see the sites and watch the pageant.  It only runs two weekends of the whole year so she wanted to get the word out.  My grandparents served their mission there and I have always heard about how incredible the sites are.  When I saw this email I immediately wrote her back and asked her if she would let a married couple come along.  To make a long story short, we were lined up with another married couple that wanted to go, and we were on our way to Palmyra on Friday afternoon!!

Palmyra Temple

 This is one of the smaller temples, but it is beautiful.  The church went and bought all of the land that was once owned by the Smith family, and built the temple on part of their land.

Log Home

This was the home of Joseph Smith, the prophet who restored the gospel on the earth today.  His entire family lived in that home, and this is also where he received multiple visions from the Angel Moroni. The hubby and I talked more about it while we were up in his bedroom and you could feel the spirit very strong. Even though there were a lot of people coming up and down, we were able to stand in a corner and talk a little bit about the significance of the room before we moved on.  I feel very lucky that my hubby has so much knowledge inside of that head of his.  It made the experience that much better hearing him tell me things along the way. 

The land there was gorgeous.

As we were walking from the log cabin to the frame home and sacred grove, we stopped in a spot where they have trimmed the trees down so you can see the temple.  What an amazing site. 

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We unfortunately did not get a picture of the frame home, or work shop where they hand made their own barrels.  These are two significant places because it was under the bricks of the fireplace in the frame home where Joseph hid the gold plates. Next he moved them to the loft of the work shop and hid an empty box in the floor boards.  A mob came and found the empty box, but no plates.  He also had to hide them in a barrel covered with beans to get them from one place to another. If you want to learn more, click here. There is an unexplainable feeling about hearing these stories by current missionaries, while standing in the actual site.  We were blown away.

The Sacred Grove

It was exactly what we thought it would be.  It looks exactly like the pictures.  And the feeling is exactly as we anticipated it to be.  Peaceful.  Calm.  Somewhere you would want to spend your time, or seek revelation.  We could have spent all day here, but knew there were other sites to see.  We walked around for over an hour trying to picture where Joseph knelt down and prayed. There were some parts where the light was coming down through the trees--it was really neat!

Grandin Building

This was our next stop and it was where the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon were printed.  The process that they went through was SO time consuming...they had to align each letter on the page one at a time using tweezers!! Not only did they have to place them in from left to right, but they had to start at the bottom of the page, and they had to go upside down.  Can you imagine?!  

The hubby holding a replica of what the first copies looked like!

This was the printing press machine

After we spent the day looking at sites, we went back to Missy's house and she taught us all how to skeet shoot with a shot gun.  I had never shot a shot gun before, but the hubby was a champ.  I think he only missed one! Everyone was cheering him on and once I got the hang of it and kept my eyes open, we had a competition who could shoot them first.  I'll let him tell you the rest of the story :)

The Palmyra Pageant

We had been in luck the entire weekend to spend time in Palmyra, but it really shone through when we went up to the grass in the front to sit on our blanket we had reserved.  The hubby noticed two seats that were vacant on the front row and dared me to go ask the people around them if they were taken.  Long story short, they were for visually impaired people and since no one had claimed them and it was 5 minutes to the show, they let us sit there.  I don't know who was more center of the stage, the hubby or me.  They were amazing seats and we loved the pageant!!

This was my favorite part and it was when the Savior was resurrected and was with the people.  He then walked over to the left side of the stage and all the children ran to him.  It looked just like the picture you always see with the Savior surrounded by children.  I had tears in my eyes, it was adorable.  

Angel Moroni Monument

This was at the top of the Hill Cummorah.  

Our last stop on our way home was the Whitmer farm.  This is where the church was organized and the first sacrament was passed.  There were over 70 people sitting in that cabin and the service back then was over 7 hours!! 

The whole experience was amazing and I am so glad the hubby and I got to share it together.  It brought us closer and confirmed our testimonies even more.  Best part was that we spent less than $100 for the whole weekend.  Thanks to camping out in tents and eating cheap food!  If you have the opportunity to plan a trip, we highly recommend it.  What a great place to be.  We are grateful to the Cranny's for letting us tag along.