Thursday was dedicated completely to driving. We had 4 giant buses filled to the gills with youth & leaders. We were lucky enough to have a bus that was equipped with Wi-fi, so the ride up was much more tolerable.
We arrived sometime around 5pm & got settled into the dorms at Hobart College. As you can see from the pictures, the campus was beautiful! After some pizza, it was off to a short devotional & a rockin' dance!
Raul & Eric were both great on the dance floor. Rinda earned the nickname "Dance Machine," because she did not leave the dance floor once during the 2 1/2 hour dance. Raul proudly danced with 11 different girls!
After the dance we headed off to bed to rest for a fun filled Friday touring church sites. On Friday we visited; The Smith Farm, The Sacred Grove, The Grandin Printing Press, The Hill Cumorah, & saw the wonderful Hill Cumorah Pageant.
As I said before, the night ended with the Hill Cumorah Pageant which was SOOOO good! They do such a great job. We hiked up to the top of the Hill Cumorah & really just had a wonderful time there. Rinda Deju, on of our young women who came on the youth conference got to see here older brother there who is currently on his mission. He is in the Rochester, NY mission & has been working at the visitor's center. Not too many people get to visit their brothers on their mission, but things worked out just right. Rinda was so excited to see him. Elder Deju is currently the only missionary serving from the Richmond Branch, so we were also very excited to meet him as well.
After the pageant, we headed back to the dorms to get to bed. Saturday morning we got up bright and early at 5:30am & headed to the Peter Whitmer farm for a testimony meeting. It was at the Peter Whitmer farm where the church was officially organized.
It was a wonderful trip & such a blessing to get to see the actual sites where it all began. The feeling in The Sacred Grove was incredible. It was so quiet & peaceful. Sydney noticed that there were many trees there that were possibly old enough to have been there when Joseph prayed & saw God & Jesus Christ.
I would highly recommend this trip. Having grown up in Utah, I never was really excited about visiting church sites. (I mean...most of my ideas of "church sites" came from the Pioneer Village portion of Lagoon. BORING!) This trip has changed the way I look at the history of the church. It has made it much more real. Much more tangible. The pageant was really spectacular & so well done. You won't be disappointed.
One of the most entertaining parts of the whole trip are the ridiculous Anti-Mormon people who show up almost every night & day to stand on the streets with their signs & megaphones. I could hardly believe it. One guy at the pageant was dressed up in a devil costume. I just don't understand. If they truly believed that we were wrong, that the Mormons were complete frauds & that Joseph Smith just made it all up, why stand there each night & tell us that we're going to hell? Why try to make an awful spectacle & say ridiculous things through a megaphone? Is that what Christ did to those who had gone astray?
We really enjoyed the trip & can't wait to go back. It is absolutely worth it!
3 comments:
How fun! I love the pictures. I wish we could have been there too. And so great that Syd was able to go as well. We will have to try to make it there sometime in the next 3 years, so you can be our guide. love you guys.
What a super fun youth conference. Since Jared and I are going to be teaching and having our summers off, we're planning to go on lots of vacations to get out of the Texas heat. I've never been to New York. Now I'm even more exicted to go. Great pictures!!!
Jealous that you got to go there, one of my favorite places. I liked your comment about Christ not doing that to people who had gone astray.. so true. We just got back from Nauvoo and there definitely is a different spirit at those church sites.
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