The Biggest Trip EVER: Palmyra, New York

Sorry it's been a while for me to write a post. I was so busy trying to get so many deadlines done for school. At least I'm almost done. Remember that I still have a lot to talk about our biggest out-of-state trip? Well, it was after Kirtland. This place we went to was Palmyra, New York. Even though we didn't get to take a tour around Manhattan, or Central Park, we still got to go to three special parts of New York. We went to see a big view of Niagara Falls. It was amazing of how it looked, but we made sure that none of the little kids could try to climb through the fence.

Then we went to another part of it. It's another church history story. We went to the Sacred Grove and the village where Joseph Smith lived in his childhood. I'm going to tell you about the story. When Joseph Smith was twelve years old, he went two different churches that he wasn't so sure of which one was right or wrong. He was at his home one night and read a verse in the Bible in James 1: 5 "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." After he read the heading, he went out in the Sacred Grove to pray to the Father in Heaven. He made sure he was alone. As he was, he knelt down to his knees and started praying. Then he felt an evil power attacking him. It was Satan trying to keep him from praying. But Joseph Smith still prayed really hard away from that evil power. Then he saw a pillar of light that was brighter than the sun. From the light, he saw two personages. One of them spoke unto him calling him by name and pointing by the other. "This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" Right when Joseph asked them of which churches he should join. He was then answered that he should join none of them, for they were all wrong. Right when the personages left, Joesph Smith went back to his home to tell his family. Unfortunately, he told some professors about his Vision, lots of them thought he was a liar. They kept on saying that there are no such things as visions. But Joseph Smith really did see a vision. When some people don't believe him, he asked himself "Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision and who am I that I can withstand God or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it."

That is one of my favorite Church history stories. Lots of them make me happy, and some of them make me sad. We went inside the Sacred Grove, it looked exactly like the story. When we were in it, we had to be so reverent through it. Since it was called the Sacred Grove, we had to have half an hour of silence and to think about how we could pray to Heavenly Father anywhere else, just like Joseph Smith did. Before we went through the Sacred Grove, we also went through the museum about Joseph Smith's village. There were lots of good building about what Joseph and his family did. I liked the story about Joseph's older brother, Alvin. He built a nice looking house for the family so that they could live there, before his death at 26. Right when Alvin Smith died, the untrue churches thought that if he never got baptized before his death, he would be lost. But with more advice from Heavenly Father, Joseph Smith found out that Alvin is not lost. That's when he learned about Eternal Families. It means that families can be together forever, if it is followed through Heavenly Father's Plan of Redemption. For a big family like us, I'm sure that we'll be a family for eternity.

I like to share so much experience with everyone online, there is one more thing we did in Palmyra, we got to go see another show that was unlike the Nauvoo Pageant, we got to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. It was mostly about the Book of Mormon stories that lots of people know and love. It was really a cool Pageant, because the hill was the stage. Lots of the stories looked kind of like it was all real. Right when we were done, we then went back to the hotel to get to bed before the next day of our trip. I hope you really loved the story I told you about. Next time, I'll talk about the next place we went to.

,

The Biggest Out-of-State Trip EVER: Kirtland, Ohio

I'm now back to blogging. I'm going to talk about another thing that happened on the trip. After Detroit, Michigan, we then did a lot of driving to Ohio. The next stop was another Church History place called Kirtland. In Kirtland, we went to go see the Kirtland, Ohio temple, that used to be an LDS temple, but it got taken over by another religion. Right when they called the Kirtland Temple the Community of Christ, instead of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It made me a little upset that I wanted to judge that religion for taking over the Kirtland temple, but I kept being silent through it. We did tour inside the Kirtland Temple. It was the temple where Joseph Smith and all his friends taught the restoration to people who lived in Kirtland.

Remember that story that I talked about the mob who killed Joseph Smith at the Carthage Jail? Well, before that ever happened when Joseph Smith was alive, the mob was trying to find Joseph Smith so that they could kill him, hoping the whole LDS church restoration would stop. But, I'll talk more about the hard life Joseph Smith had when he tried to Preach the Gospel. And also what happened in Kirtland, this might sound a little sad, but one night when he and his wife, Emma were asleep, the mob broke into the home and captured Joseph. They brought him outside to torment him. They started ripping his clothes off and they put hot tar on his bare skin. Then they put feathers on the hot tar that was put on him. After the mob left him with all the hot tar and feathers on him, Emma brought him back inside and started washing all the feathers and tar off. When I heard of that part of the story, I thought that was totally sad. I didn't like the way that the mob would do something like that. Right when we started the trip back East, I was hoping we wouldn't run into any people who would cause any harm on us, but it never did. That's because we've been having faith and praying to Heavenly Father for safety while we traveled. He does answer prayers every time you pray to him.

Anyway, at the Kirtland Temple, there is one true thing that happened there with Joseph Smith and all of the other saints. They say a light outside the window that showed the spirit of Heavenly Father being at the first LDS temple. After we toured the inside of the temple, we then started to take a tour of the cemetery, right next to it. There was a whole bunch of people who died in Kirtland. What I was hoping to see was the grave of Joseph's older brother, Alvin. But there never was, because Alvin Smith died at a different place where I'm about to talk about next time.

After touring the cemetery, we then went to the visitor's center to take a tour of the town of Kirtland. It was named after Newel K. Whitney. He owned his home a store and an ashery. They were a strong family to do a lot of that work to pump water with a watermill. It was a lot of fun to tour the church history in Kirtland. After we were done touring, we drove across Ohio to keep going back East to do the rest of the trip. On the way, we stopped at a Target and a Red Robin in Cleavland. Ohio was fun. Next time, I'll talk more about the rest of the trip. I hope you enjoyed this post about another story of Church History.