East Coast Trip - Palmyra, NY

A few hours drive from Niagara Falls is Palmyra, NY where Joseph Smith and his family lived and where Joseph Smith had the first vision which led to the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It had been many years since I was here, so it almost felt like my first time visiting the Sacred Grove, the Smith farm, and Hill Cummorah. There is a beautiful winding trail through the sacred grove with many benches scattered throughout to sit and ponder. While the exact spot of the first vision is unknown, we do know that this is where it took place. There is a peace there which is hard to expalin.
The Smith's were an amazing family! The farmland only became farmland after an extensive amount of work to make it cleared fields. After clearing the trees and removing stones and stumps, it was ready for crops, animals, and an orchard. They used the stones to make a fence around their property. Remnants of the original fence are still there, and the way the trees have grown back one can imagine what it looked like when the Smith's first got there.
The Smith farmhouse.
The Palmyra Temple can be seen from the Smith's farm fields.
The monument at the top of the Hill Cummorah where the gold plates, which would eventually be translated into the Book of Mormon, were burried...
and the view.

As we would continue on this trip, my dad and I eventually go to Concord, MA to see sights of the Revolutionary War and Plymouth where the Pilgrims landed. I would like to add, after my personal reflections this Independence Day, that I am grateful for this great nation which was established on the principles of the freedom to worship, among many other ideals new to the world at that time, which would eventually allow for the fullness of the gospel and Christ's church to be restored to the earth. I am grateful for the sacrifices of the many people, including Joseph Smith, who gave up their own physical comforts and often their lives so I could both live in a nation of freedom and where I am allowed to believe and openly practice my beliefs.