A Weekend in Paradise

On Sunday, our friends told us they were heading down to Palmyra to go to the temple and asked if we wanted to join.  There was no reason not to...and a million reason to, so we headed out on Friday afternoon.  I couldn't believe how excited I was.  These are places I've heard about and imagined, but never seen in person.  They are the basis of my testimony and I was finally going to actually SEE them.  All of us were excited.

On the way, we have to cross this HUGE bridge to get into the US.  It feels like a roller coaster, seriously.

Not only was I going to the Church Historic sites, but I was adding another State to the short list that I've been to.

When we saw this, we thought maybe we'd overshot our destination a bit.  Fortunately it was Mexico the town...not the country.  Although I would have enjoyed a trip to the country too!

Then it was there.  Palmyra/Manchester.  The first landmark we saw was the Moroni Monument at the Hill Cumorah.  We pointed it out to the kids and Max said, "Wait, this is REAL?!"  Yup.  It's real.

We stopped at our hotel, dropped off our stuff, got some dinner, and then headed to the Hill.  We went to the Visitor's Center first:

We made a joke that it looked a little like Tyler and his polygamist family here in this shot, since Matt wasn't with us.  So we made lots of comments like, "Too bad your dad couldn't come too." So the workers at the Visitor's Center new we were legit.  

I introduced Lucy to one of the missionaries at the Visitor's Center and teared up.  Lucy is here...where her namesake lived.  She is named after Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Smith's mother...and it was beautiful to bring her here.

And then we climbed...the Hill.

"Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario county, New York...

stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the neighbourhood."

Since our calves were burning halfway up, I can testify that it is a hill of considerable size...and the view from the top at sunset was glorious.  Definitely the most elevated of any in the neighbourhood.  Now elevated in size and in significance.

We had fun checking out the monument and rolling down the hill.

Then we checked out the statue of the BOM and the kids took turn reading it for our scripture study that night.

It was fantastic.   Definitely the Hill is one of the most significant spiritual experiences of my life.  And to share it with my kids was fantastic.

Tonight, we're sleeping in a hotel, which my kids think is fantastic, and then tomorrow Tyler and I are doing sealings at the temple and then seeing the other sites.