Toronto Canada & Palmyra NY

Well what an amazing weekend we had!  This weekend was the start of the Palmyra Pageant.  This Pageant in our church tells the story of the Book of Mormon [summarized of course!]  Josh & I were determined to go.  To make sure we caught a plane we flew into Toronto Canada.  This left us with about a 3 hour drive to Palmyra, but on the brightside that drive includes seeing Niagara Falls!

We took a plane Friday night that ended up being extremely delayed.  Thanks to a tender mercy even though we got to Toronto at almost 2 AM we made it to our car rental place right before their closing time of 2 AM.  We were worried we'd have to spend the night sleeping in the airport [which by the way is Pearson airport my maiden name.  Long lost relatives?!] And off on our drive we went!  We made it to the border and Niagara Falls at about 3:30 AM and the falls were beautiful!  With the moonlight you could see them clear as day and it was just magnificent!  Of course the streets were deserted so it was even better it felt like we had rented out the falls for ourselves!  It was quite the night!

Saturday was our first official day in Palmyra!  First off, upstate New York is gorgeous.  It is so green, full of rolling hills and incredible trees.  It exceeded all my expectations.  We first went to Hill Cumorah to the visitors center where we met sister missionaries from all over the globe.  I think part of the reason I loved it is I felt like I was right back home at temple square!

In front of the Christus Statue.  See just like temple square!

We watched the Restoration video [the story of Joseph Smith's vision etc] to begin our day and then headed out to Hill Cumorah.  This is the hill where angel Moroni hid the plates and a few other things and where he led Joseph to find them.  I couldn't believe that we were there on the same hill in the same air space! From the top of the hill we could see all the seating for the pageant and the stage.  Apparently there is seating for over 9,000.  Lucky us were able to put some T-shirts down front and center to save our seats for when we returned later.

See all those little green dots below?  Those are the chairs for the Pageant (:

Well you can't see the top but here we are in front of the
Moroni statue on top of Hill Cumorah. 

Here's a full view of it.  and yes that is an entire family in "The
Incredibles" matching Tshirts.  Don't worry, Josh and I are
getting some good ideas here for the future.

After Hill Cumorah we visited the Smith Family Farm.  Here we saw the first log cabin they lived in.  In this small little cabin the Smith parents and their 8 children lived!  The boys all shared one room and the girls the other.  Can you imagine?!  This is also the place where angel Moroni came to Joseph in the middle of the night several times while his siblings slept.  Once again it was incredible to be in this same place.

We then saw the home Alvin was building for his family and his parents when they were elderly but he had passed away while it was still being built.  The Smith's paid people to finish building it and then moved into it with their family.  This was a mansion to them in comparison to their log home.  But when they moved in the last payment for the farm came due and they did not have the money so they ended up renting the house for awhile and then moving back to the log cabin home.  Next, the sacred grove!

We heard in a talk on Sunday in the Palmyra ward that the Sacred Grove and the Garden of Gethsemane are the 2 most sacred places on this earth.  Boy is that the truth.  The spirit is so strong all throughout these church history sights but especially here at the Sacred Grove.  It is here where Joseph came at the young age of 14.  He was confused about which religion to join.  At this time there was a huge excitement of religion and you can see signs of that on their main street coming down from being on the Smith Family Farm you come to an intersection where there is a different church on every single one of the four corners.  After reading the Epistle of James first chapter fifth verse: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." Joseph knew to ask God which church was right to join. What courage and faith!  The Father and the Son appeared telling him to join none of the churches.  Seeing the actual grove just made it all the more real.  It was wonderful we could have walked around it for hours if it wasn't for the extreme number of hungry misquotes!

the sun pokes through the trees and it is gorgeous.

Next we visited the publication sight of the Book of Mormon and got our very own replica Book of Mormon.  This one doesn't have any versus just chapters!  There we so many details that went into the printing of the Book of Mormon.  It took 16 and a 1/2 months to finish the 5,000 copies that Joseph Smith had wanted.  He was very particular that he wanted them hard bound with leather.  This way they would look similar to the bible because they are another testament of Christ and the Bible.  I found that very interesting.  The Book of Mormon was sold at first for $1.75 that was equivalent to two days pay back then and they ask "Would you have been willing to give up two days pay for this special book?"  I'd like to think all of us would have.  What a precious gift it is.  Later on the price was changed to $1.25

Out front!

An original one of the first 5,000 printed copies of the Book of Mormon.

This was neat to see.  You always see these two paintings in your own Book of Mormon
and here we got to see the originals.  Notice Moroni is wearing the same bracelet as his
father Mormon.  He passed it down to him like he did the plates and his faith.

Next we had an appointment at the temple.  So special to to temple work in Palmyra!

We then took a short road trip to see Whitmer Farm where a lot of the translation of the plates happened and the official organization of the church on April 6 1830.

The Whitmer home

After some exploring we headed back to the highlight of the evening the pageant! Oh it was wonderful!  Words cannot do it justice! Some day Josh and I would really like to volunteer during the pageant.  We met such amazing kind people from all over the world and felt so at home.  The pageant was extremely well done and full of the spirit.  A wonderful missionary opportunity.  Before the show you get to walk around and meet some of the cast members.  Here are a few:

Abinidi and his real life family that played other various parts.

This one is a little blurry.. but here we have Joseph and his mother Lucy, a
blind man a few others.

Here is Lehi!  His real son was playing Nephi too how neat!

King Noah!

Here we are with Nephi and Alma!

The start of the magnificent show!

Sunday we went and visited the Sacred Grove and the Smith family farm again before we went to church with the Palmyra ward.  Wonderful service.  Then we hit the road back to Toronto.  Massive line to cross the border but still barely made it in time to stop at Niagara falls this time to see it in the daylight.  It was awesome!

We made it home safe and sound late Sunday night.  We had such a wonderful time in Palmyra and road tripping with each other.  It was one of our favorite trips.  We love the gospel and what a wonderful experience it was being in Palmyra!  It was my first time and Josh's second.  He was able to visit when Grandma and Grandpa Hadley served a mission there and shared all of his special memories from that trip with me.  It is a beautiful place in upstate New York and so much happened there guided by the Lord.  We just felt so blessed to visit and recommend it to everyone!!