Palmyra New York Temple Trip

On May 3rd, I had the  opportunity to take my kids to Palmyra New York to see the Temple and a few LDS church history sites.  We left at 6:45 in the morning and met up with another family for the 3 hour drive. I have never driven this far  by myself and was a little nervous, but the drive was easy and very quick. We arrived at the LDS stake center at 10:30am. Just in time to drop off all the kids for another couple, from church, to watch  them while I and my friend went to the temple to do some temple work. 

My friend and I sat and chatted while we waited for the session to start. I was very excited to be there and to do the work for those who have pasted on. 5 minutes into the presentation, my friend  was not feeling well and quickly passed out. We had to stop the presentation and carry her out. She came to soon after. She had not eaten much and had a lot of anxiety about the whole trip. Not have her husband  along and 3 children all younger than mine to deal with. It overcame her. They brought us to the Brides room where we gave her stuff to eat and drink. She felt a lot better after that.  Once you leave a session you can not go back. They offered to let us do either sealings or initiatories. We chose sealing. We joined a couple who  had brought their own family names to seal. Wives and husbands were sealed  together and children to  their parents. I was able to do 3 daughters to their parents. It was a wonderful experience. This was the first time I have done children to parents.  My dear friend  began to do sealings for a husband  and wive, but  got sick again and pasted out before finishing. Poor girl, she tried. So we were finished and needed to leave. 

After she felt better again, we drove back to the church and stuffed her full of food. The other couple took their turn at the temple while we sat and watched kids run around on  the church lawn. The weather was perfect and it was just pleasant sitting outside doing nothing.

My friend felt so bad that we were not able to go and do the work we wanted. I'm sure things like this happen all the time. She's not the first and won't be the last. Even though we didn't get to do much, it was still such a wonderful trip. Just having the chance to go in and be there was enough for me. No disappointments at all. I'm just glad I was there for her and to serve any way I could. 

While we were in the temple, the children took a walk up to the temple to look around. I am glad  my kids were able to stand on holy ground and see the temple. Walk around this sacred building and look forward to the day they too will go inside to worship, make covenants, and the work for those who have gone before.

The kids (10 of them) were eager to go and see the Sacred Grove, Joseph smith farm, and log house. (Note: my camera was dead so I was not able to take any pictures. All pictures where taken from The Church of Jesus Christ Web sites)  We were able to go in Joseph Smith's Log house. The kids were so inquisitive about how can people live in a house so small? We were not able to stay too long in any one place because the little guys wanted to touch everything and sneak under ropes and into rooms where they should not be.
They loved the Barn and playing in the open area. Their barns were bigger than their houses. Looked at their tool shed and wagon. Pretty cool stuff.

Here is the kitchen in the log house and the up stairs bedroom.

This lovely white house is Lucy Mack Smith and Joseph Sr. home.  this is the home Joseph Smith Jr. grew up in. 

I love all the furniture and simpleness of life. Yet I am so thankful for my dishwasher, stove and refrigerator. It's pretty cool to be there and try to imagine  there young family sitting around this small table reading scriptures and discussing the gospel.

The Sacred Grove was nice to walk through. I wish it had looked like this pictures, but because of our hard winter this year, spring has not really yet come. The  trees were bare, the ground was swampy, and the over all appearance was pretty grey.  But the realization of the First vision, God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ appearing here masks the bleakness with  reverence, awe, and love.

Our next stop was the Hill Cumorha where Joseph Smith received revelation to find an ancient record, (writings) on golden plates. The kids and I went into the visitor center where we were meet by some sister missionaries and a missionary couple. Sister Day  gathered us in and gave a wonderful presentation of Christ and the role of Joseph Smith Jr. The kids loved seeing the huge Christus. It reminded them of being back home in St. George and going to the visitor center there. She gave us a challenge to invite another family over for family home evening. The kids are looking forward to taking it on. And as a good missionary does, she will be following up with us by facebook to see if we have done the challenge. No pressure right?!

It's a huge hill!! There is path that winds back and forth to the top. It takes about 8 or 9 minutes to walk up the path. But my kids decided we would just hike straight up the hill.  The hill was so steep, but we made it.We looked at the monument and all the engraving at the base. We sat and looked out over the  hills. The weather was wonderful all day and the rain held off just long enough to us to climb the hill and wonder where the plates actually had been hidden. Then the rains began to fall. It was finally time for us to head home.

We left for home about 5:00pm and made a few stops along the way. We stopped for dinner at McDonlads like I promised and got home just after 9pm. It was a wonderful trip and probably the only chance to ever see these sites while here in Pennsylvania.   It was a long day and such an great experience. I just hope my kids  remember this trip  throughout their life.

I am so looking forward to moving closer to a temple. It will be such a blessing to be closer and have more opportunities to attend. I can now check off one more temple, bucket list,  and look forward to Going to the Columbus Ohio Temple next.