Palmyra, New York

Not very often do I share about my religion on the blog, because it is mostly about our travels, but my religion is a HUGE part of my life. It is the whole reason for how I live my life and the things I believe in and the reason I know our Heavenly Father is watching over us. The only reason I was comfortable with going along with this job of moving every two years is because of the prayers that were answered. 

We took this trip so we could see the history of the restoration of our Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and where Joseph Smith grew up and also where he brought the Church back to the earth. Also we wanted Spencer to see these special places that he has been learning about. 

This is where our first modern day prophet, Joseph Smith, lived growing up with his family. Can you believe his parents and 7 kids lived in this home!!! It was small and simple. 

We have scripture that is called The Book of Mormon, which goes with the Bible (we study both), and Joseph Smith was the one to find the Golden Plates, that were actually golden, and translated the words, put them down on paper and published it as The Book of Mormon. Which we were also able to go and see the publishing office that he used to publish The Book of Mormon.

 But while Joseph was in the process of translating a lot of people wanted to get the Golden Plates, so he would hide them, and the people would never find them. They would get incredibly close to finding them, but they never did. One time his sisters were in a bed and he put the plates between them, the men who were looking for the plates came into the room and looked everywhere, but never asked the girls to get out of the bed, so they didn't find the plates!!! 

Another place they were hid is right under these bricks Spencer is standing on. He had heard these stories and knew exactly where he was. He was quite excited to see the actual fireplace that Joseph used to hide the plates. 

This is a home that Joseph's brother, Hyrum, built. He built this in the 1820s, and when walking in they said that 85% of the home is of the original! Talk about a well built home!  

The place we were was the Smith's farm they had. We saw the barn that they had for hay, and also a workshop type place. 

After that we went into the woods. This place holds a special place in each of our hearts because it is the spot where Joseph prayed to Heavenly Father to know which Church he should belong to, and Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, came down and talked to Joseph and told him none of the churches were completely true. They each had some of the truths we believe in, but not all, and that Joseph was to build Christ's church again on earth. It was incredible to walk through these woods. Even though there were a ton of people walking through the pathways, it was SO quiet. I loved it. 

Preston was so good throughout this day, it was very hot, but yet he was calm and quiet. 

And cute.

Later that night everyone went to the Hill Cumorah pageant. I stayed at the hotel with Preston, because the performance starts at 9pm, and I thought Preston better get a good night sleep that night (which in hindsight, I should have gone, because he didn't sleep and I was up all night long). This pageant is about The Book of Mormon. It's pretty cool, and Spencer had a lot of fun watching it. He wants to participate in it in the years to come!

Before the show some of the actors come out to talk with the audience. Here is Spencer with Nephi.

During the performance. 

 This is a really bad picture, BUT it is a picture of us with our parents friends they had while they were all newlyweds!!!! We loved running into them and had lots to try to catch up on in a short amount of time. 

It was an amazing trip with lots of memories.