Day 19 - A Second Witness...

August 8th - Palmyra, New York

Today we visited the place where it all began...

The most important event in this dispensation...

The bringing forth of the Book Of Mormon

and the restoration of Christ's church !

This is the path into the Sacred Grove...

Where the young Joseph saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ...

and was given instruction pertaining to the eventual restoration of Christ's Church to the Earth in this, the final dispensation of time.

This is the upstairs room in the old log cabin where the angel Moroni visited Joseph and told him of the plates hidden in the Hill Cumorah... The translation of the plates made possible the publication of the Book Of Mormon, which took place at E.B. Grandin's in the Village of Palmyra, New York...

On the way into Palmyra, we passed this famous corner at Church and Main Streets... There is a different church on each of the four corners - Episcopal, Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian. The variation on the preaching of these churches during Joseph's youth had a significant impact on his decision to enter the Sacred Grove and inquire of God which church he should join...

As we parked in front of E.B. Grandin's Book Printing Shop, the sky back towards church corner looked pretty angry... it proved it's fury a little while later.

This is where the first 5000 copies...

...of The Book Of Mormon were printed in 1829-30.

An amazing sky over the Sacred Grove...


This is the Smith Family frame home...

Just down the road from the old log cabin...

This is one of the rooms in the recently restored home.

Midway between the old log cabin and the frame home is this beautiful view of the Palmyra New York Temple...

These photos were taken on the grounds of temple...

After leaving the temple, we drove to the Hill Cumorah...

and visited the Angel Moroni Monument at the top of the hill.

We then drove about twenty miles to the Peter Whitmer Farmhouse...

where the Church of Christ (later renamed by revelation The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints) was organized on April 6, 1830.

This was a very inspirational day to be able to visit the sites of these important events in the history of the church.

Joy, Mom took this photo for you so you can be reminded what your father looks like...

Finally, I took this photo for President Knight... These are a couple of your friends that wanted us to tell you hello... Brother and Sister Weston, who are directors of the Historic Palmyra Visitors Center.

OK... for the Quote Of The Day, I have to rat on myself...

"Now, isn't that interesting for two Sisters to have the same first name, Hermana..." as I read the missionary name tags of the Sisters who took us on the tour of the Smith Frame Home!

I guess it is time for "Rosetta Stone"...

Day 18 - That's a lot of water, aye!

Niagra Falls, NY

This is a cool building we saw as we drove through Buffalo, NY...

This is one of the famous "Maid Of The Mist" boats, which we took a trip on tonight...

This is a beautiful girl I saw while I was taking photos of the American Falls...

American Falls

I asked if I could get my photo taken with her... she consented.

675 thousand gallons per second goes over Horseshoe Falls...

75 thousand per second over American Falls...

Here are some of the photos from the river level on "The Maid Of The Mist"...

The challenge was keeping the lens and camera dry... Deb took these while I tackled the video camera.

This is why nobody has ever survived a trip over American Falls... nothing but rocks at the bottom!

9 of 16 people who have taken the trip over Horseshoe Falls have survived, including a 7 year old boy who was swept over in nothing but his swim suit... he was spotted and retrieved by a "Maid Of The Mist" boat...

It was the most amazing experience to enter the mouth of the horseshoe...

This was a real test of courage for Deb... my "boat girl"...

A shot from the observation deck at the top of the elevator that decends 200 feet to the boats...

Does this building look familiar Jayson? Can you say expensive dinner?


A building on he Canadian side of the border...


Rainbow Bridge... between USA and Canada...

It is a long way down by elevator to the boats...

One final shot as the sun went down and the lightning storm started.

On the way to Palmyra for the night, we drove through another cload burst t-storm... we have had some amazing thunder and lightning on this trip!

The motel we are staying in tonight is only 3 months old... much nicer than the one we stayed in last night, which had a broken air conditioner... it was over 90 humid degrees in our room and they had no other room to move us to... every motel in the area was booked so we suffered through the night!

Todays Quote Of The Day: "Great! My kids already think I am a Dork!". Uttered by Deb when she discovered the Quote Of The Day feature.