Well here are the long awaited pictures from our New York Trip (and other random pics)! Sorry it's taken me forever to put them up, life is just crazy busy! It's funny, ever since I started blogging when something funny happens or we go do something I always think "That would be great to blog about!" But then I don't have time, or I can't find my camera cord or whatever so here we go...
This is us right after we got off the Maid of the Mist (a boat that takes to right in the middle of horse shoe falls! We would have been SOAKED if we didn't have these ponchos).
Way cool pic!
This was our first time renting a car and it was a sweet one. A brand new Eclipse... My dream car all through high school!
An older Senior Missionary Man took this pic of us with the Palmyra Temple and he was so proud of himself! He said that was the perfect picture! It was cute how excited he got (and it did turn out great!
This was part of the padgent. It was an amazing spiritual experience and very well done. It was stories from the Book of Mormon and when Christ came to visit the Americas it was incredible! Then at the end there was a little section about Jospeh Smith and how he translated the plates for us to have. As you are watching and the narrator is talking about the Book of Mormon, the testament of Christ's visit here he says that Christ will come again to us and then Christ appears again! It was AMAZING! A feeling I will never forget.
While at the Hill Cummorah Visitors Center I ran into my friend Autum Saxon who is serving a mission in Palmyra! It was fun to spend a few minutes talking before she was off to lead anohter group through the sites.
This was the Smith Cabin and this is the room where the Angel Moroni first appeared to Jospeh Smith.
This is the Grandin Printing Press where the first Book of Mormons were printed. It was amazing to see all the work that went into making a book back in the day. So different from now.
This was at the Peter Whitmer farm where the Church was organized.
This is a picture in the Sacred Grove. The night we got to Palmarya I was so excited to be in the place where the Church was restored. It had been a long day of traveling and it was around 7 PM so we were just going to go to the hotel but before we did, I just wanted to SEE the sacred grove. The anticipation was so great just thinking about what happened there. We had a really hard time finding it becuase it is SO green out there and there were trees everywhere. We thought we would be able to see the temple spire or something but it was hidden in the trees too. We finally did find it. We went back to walk through on Sunday Morning. It was so quite and peaceful and beautiful. We found a little bench and read Joseph Smith History.
Earlier that week when we went to the visitors center, the missionaries were talking about the first vision and asked us what our favorite part about the first vision was. My favorite part is that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ called him by name. They know each of us individually, by name and by circumstance. They know what is best for us, they know what we are feeling, and they know best how to comfort us if we will only turn to them. This week long vacation really stregnthened my testimony of so many things but mostly of how amazingly individual the gospel is. We are a part of a universal church that can still be exactly what you or I need on any given day. This church is constantly challenging us to be a little better and overcome the world to live to a higher standard with the help of a loving Heavenly Father who knows us. And it all started with a fourteen year old boy with a sincere question. I am so grateful to be a part of this church! All in all it was a great vacation that we will remember for the rest of our lives. Thanks mom and dad for making it possible for us to go!
