First of all:
Happy Birthday to Ashlie,
our dear daughter-in-law.
I don't know how to describe our day. We have been spiritually blessed by visiting sacred sites that were critical in the beginnings of our church. We have received affirmation after affirmation of our testimony that the church is true. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and that Joseph Smith is a prophet called by God to restore the Gospel on the earth in this last dispensation. Our feelings have been tender and the tears constantly close to the surface as we visited sacred places here in the area.
The evening was capped off by attending the Hill Cumorah Pageant. We had the opportunity to have an incredibly sweet visit with Tonya and Kevin Vanderwerff before the show. We felt their strong testimonies as they shared with us how valuable their family's association with the pageant has been. We felt the spirit as they bore witness to us of their testimonies. We have truly been blessed this day. The pageant was fantastic. It was really a quality production telling the story of the Book of Mormon.
We started today by going to the Hill Cumorah visitor center to get information on all the church sites. The missionary there gave us a map and told us a little about each of the sites.
When we left there we traveled a few miles away to the Smith Family Farm. It is adjacent to the Sacred Grove. They have a replica of the log home they lived in when Joseph had his first Vision in the Sacred Grove,
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| Replica of Smith Family Log cabin |
then to the frame home they lived in and part of the Book of Mormon was translated there. This was the actual home they lived in.
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| Smith Family Home |
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| Living room in Smith Family Home |
We walked from there to the Sacred Grove. We wandered the paths there and enjoyed the feelings of peace and reverence for an hour or so. We tried to imagine what it would be like for Joseph to have the experience he had there. We felt reluctant to leave.
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| Looking up at the canopy created by the trees in the Sacred Grove |
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| The Sacred Grove |
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| The Sacred Grove |
After we finished at the Sacred Grove, we drove to Waterloo to see the Whitmer farm where the bulk of the translation of the Book of Mormon was completed and the Church was organized. We watched a film about what happened there, and visited the representation of the home where the Whitmer's lived. The home was not original, but a representation of what it might have been like.
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| Inside the David Whitmer home representation |
On the way to the farm, we stopped to get some lunch. The missionary who gave us then information about the sites told us about a grocery store in Waterloo, called Sauders, that had an in store cafe with great sandwiches. We decided to stop there.
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| Sauders G |
The sandwich I had was huge. The bun was heavenly, and the pulled pork was 3 times as thick as the bun. Michael had a hamburger. The food was OK, but the store. Oh, it was fun. This was a Mennonite store. It was large, and clean and had delightful merchandise. We purchased several items. We also had fun wandering and enjoying being there.
We headed over to the Hill Cumorah after we finished at the Whitmer farm. The first thing we did was hike to the top of the hill where there is a monument to Moroni.
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| Angel Moroni Monument |
We are finding that we are doing better physically than we were at the earlier parts of our trip. I guess pushing ourselves to keep going is paying off. Our legs are stronger and our feet are holding up better. Yay! After descending the hill we went in to the visitor center and viewed the exhibits there. We then contacted Vanderwerffs to find out where the seats they had reserved were. They had saved us seats that were great.
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| Chairs saved just for us |
They came and met us shortly after we got to the seats and Kevin insisted we move over to the section they couldn't save seats in earlier. The seats were on the 4th row, right in the center. We really had prime seats.
When we were in the visitor center before the pageant, one of the missionaries told us that the fireflys were out in force in the Sacred Grove the evening before, so we decided to go to the Grove after the pageant was done. The visitor center parking lot was not closed and so we pulled in and I got my first glimpse of lightening bugs. We got out of the car and walked a little way into the Grove so we could get away from the lights. It was incredible! The bugs are so bright. We could look out through the Grove and see thousands of blinking bugs. We could see some close by us and they were as bright as an LED light. We enjoyed standing there for a bit. It was magical. This was a fitting end for a great day.
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