Palmyra Day 2

Our second day took us to the Joseph Smith, Sr. farm, the Sacred Grove, Harmony (now Oakland), PA, and the Peter Whitmer Farm.

The Smith farm was neat. It was interesting to walk the grounds that Joseph walked and to see where he had some of his visits from Moroni. The Log Cabin is a replica of the original home. Here is the Smith Home:



Upstairs where the children would have slept and where Joseph would have been visited by the Angel Moroni.


Down Stairs



View of the temple from the Smith Farm



The Frame House. Alvin started this house for his parents but died before he could finish it. It was finished by the other children for the Smith parents.



Inside the Frame House



The cooper shop (left) and the barn (right)


The Sacred Grove was beautiful. We would have loved to have sat on a bench and pondered the miraculous event of the Father and the Son appearing to Joseph Smith, but the mosquitoes were pretty thick. We were able to walk around for awhile and as long as we walked we were bothered too much by mosquitoes. Anytime we would stop to take pictures it was my job to protect Joseph's head while he took the pictures. Maybe he is sweeter than I am, but they hovered around him more than me. Luckily he escaped with only 2 bites and I didn't get any.

I can't decide which pictures are my favorites, but here are some of the ones I like. Do to the mosquitoes, Joseph couldn't get a clear picture of me, but I managed to get one of him.

Some of the trees are over 225 years old and are known as "Witness" trees because they would have been standing when the First Vision happened. It was incredible to visit all of the Sacred places and know that so many Heavenly visitors came to the places we were visiting.








After we finished with the Sacred Grove we took a 3 hour drive down to Oakland, PA to see where the Aaronic Priesthood was restored at the Susquehanna River. We also saw the headstones for Emma Smith's parents, Issac and Elizabeth, in addition to the stone for Alvin Smith, Joseph and Emma's first baby that lived only a few hours.


We weren't sure if we would make it to Susquehanna because Hurricane Irene had created a lot of flooding, but we did. We were even able to walk down to the bank for the river where John the Baptist bestowed the priesthood on Joseph and Oliver Cowdery. The trail to the river wasn't too muddy until we got within 10 feet of the bank and then we could see where the water had receded. The river was still fairly high and it was flowing swiftly. Once again there were quite a few mosquitoes, but we escaped bites.















Even though the Priesthood Restoration site isn't heavily visited the grounds are beautifully kept and the church plans on adding more to this spot soon. Joseph was very glad I was willing to make the long drive with him down to Pennsylvania for a short stop.

On our way back to Rochester we stopped at the Peter Whitmer Farm where the church was organized. The visitors' center and farm house are surrounded by cornfields.






We ended the night at Seneca Lake where we ate dinner by the water. Of all the things we did, Joseph said eating dinner at the lake was one of his favorite things we did.