We got to Palmyra and headed to the Hill Cumorah visitor's center. There was a beautiful Christus statue there along with all kinds of time period memorabilia and costumes they use in the Hill Cumorah pageant every summer.
I love this picture of the boys with Christ. It really feels like he is watching over them. :)
The first stop on the tour was the Smith Family Log home. This is where Joseph Smith read James 1:5 from the Bible which reads, "If any of ye lack wisdom, let him ask of God, which giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." He wasn't sure which church to join and this scripture caused him to "Ask of God."
Which he did in the grove of trees behind the family's log home. In this now, Sacred Grove is where the Father and the Son appeared to Joseph and they began the restoration of the church on the earth through "The First Vision". Click HERE to learn more about this miraculous event and the other places we visited in the Palmyra area.
The boys were so thrilled about this basement cellar. They weren't sure why you'd put a fridge in the basement like that. We explained to them that it WAS the fridge :)
This is the room in the log home where the Angel Moroni appeared repeatedly to young Joseph.
The kitchen of the log home.
We then walked down the road to the Smith Family Frame home that was built later. Our cute senior missionary showed us the bricks in the fireplace that were removed and a hole was dug for Joseph to hide the gold plates because thieves were after it for the gold. We know they are of a worth greater than any earthly material and I am grateful for the Book of Mormon and the knowledge is brings to me.
For more information and a free copy of the Book of Mormon, click HERE. You won't regret it :)
On to the threshing barn
We learned the origin of the word "threshold".
Cooper was thrilled about the "Cooper shed"
She let Cooper go behind the chain to get a picture of him in his shed!!
In case you don't already know, a Cooper is a barrel maker. Cool.
After touring the Smith family homes and property, we took a walk into the Sacred Grove. It is difficult to adequately describe the peaceful, yet powerful feeling this grove contains. We don't know exactly where the Vision took place, but just from walking in, you know this is Sacred ground.
Cooper and Caden felt the spirit so strongly and felt such peace that they decided they were going to build homes in the Sacred Grove and were NOT leaving this bench for at least the rest of the day. We let them linger as long as they wanted.
Our missionary sister told us that some of the trees were "witness trees". Meaning they were in the grove when the Vision took place. We saw some amazingly strong and clearly older trees that made me wonder, did you see it? Did you witness this great miracle? Wow.
It took a while for us to tear ourselves away from the grove, but we wanted to see the publishing site before it closed.
Here are again, the original floor boards of the printing press where the first edition of the Book of Mormon was published.
This is what the storefront looked like back when Joseph was getting it published.
Being a papercrafter and loving fonts and various typeface I was in heaven in this room!! Here is where the typesetter worked to set the type for printing. This is, incidentally, where we get the terms "uppercase" and "lowercase". The Capital letters were literally in the upper case and the others were kept in the lower case. Also, mind your "p"s and "q"s comes from typesetters needing to pay special attention to the similar looking letters when using them and putting them away.
This press was new technology and the height of innovation at the time. They could print 16 pages on one large sheet, making quick work on the press.
This is where the pages were brought, folded, cut and bound into leather cover books.
Yay! I love a good monogram!
This is one of the original copies of the first print of the Book of Mormon. Wow.
We then headed back to the visitor's center and up to the Moroni monument at the top of the Hill Cumorah.
The Hill Cumorah is where Moroni buried the gold plates and where he sent Joseph to retrieve them when it was time to start the translation of the Book of Mormon.
On our way out of town, we stopped by the stunning Palmyra Temple. I love this shot of the new temple with the trees and the old fence in the foreground. A marvelous work has come forth among the children of men.
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