Day Three (New York)

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Sunday, June 12, 2005
Rochester, NY
We enjoyed the Sabbath today by starting off with another great breakfast buffet (it was supposed to be a boxed breakfast, but someone goofed, so we had to have the buffet again!). Then we went to the Sacred Grove and took about an hour to enjoy its peace. It was raining at first, but cleared up enough to enjoy it. We started with a hymn at the entrance, “Joseph Smith’s First Prayer”. Mona and I stopped at one of the first benches and sat and read the account from Joseph Smith—History. Linda Johnson came and joined us while I read it quietly aloud. It was very special, as a beautifully serene spot of the grove (aren’t they all?) was right in front of us as I read. Mona and I then went walking around the grove’s paths—without a map, which was a mistake. We had to run back to the bus by the time we found our way back, and even then the bus was already leaving and had to stop for us!
We then drove the few hundred yards to the Palmyra ward building and enjoyed Sacrament meeting. I brought a program home, which I will include with our other paper memorabilia. We left immediately after Sacrament meeting and went to the Hill Cumorah. We drove to the top first, took pix at the monument, then came down to the visitor’s center. A few of us—Malissa Garfield, the Crums, and I—walked down. There we took in the guided tour, beginning in the Christus room, then watched the Restoration video, then enjoyed the displays in the exhibit room. We changed clothes (most of us) and left. Sis. Jones (from AZ and UT) and Sis. Sinjou (from Tahiti) were our guides.
After we left the Hill Cumorah, we stopped briefly at a grocery store for those who needed to buy some lunch, then ate at the Erie Canal park. Mona and I had snacks and a piece of pizza she bought me the night before at Wegman’s. It rained the whole time at the park, but it didn’t stop us from walking while we ate, talking with some of the “old canal” fishermen, and exploring the locks on the “new canal”.
After lunch, we went into Palmyra to tour the Grandin bookstore and learn about the original publication of the Book of Mormon. We saw Sis. Jones again, who we met yesterday at the Whitmer home—she had a different hairstyle today. Elder Hull gave our group the tour. I missed a great deal of it, though, as I left the group several times to take shots of the parts of the building that were vacant. I was lucky, as there were two other tour buses there at the same time, as well as several other individuals and families visiting. One of those visitors was, believe it or not, Dawan Coombs. I was talking with Gordon and she walked right in the front door with a friend from Provo! We got caught up and took a picture together. The rain let up enough for me to go outside and get a shot of the storefront. I would really like a copy of the Book of Mormon language poster, printed by the Church. A large copy of it was framed and displayed in the front lobby. I would also like to get a copy of the original Book replica.
After the Grandin store, we spent a good deal of time at the Smith home and farm. Elder and Sis. Veach were our guides (Sis. Veach mostly). We got a nice intro in the beautiful welcome center, where the main window looks out on the home, farm, and the Sacred Grove. We toured the Smith home, then walked up a ways to the “frame home”, which was begun by Alvin, then finished by Joseph and lived in by Joseph and Emma. It was crazy hot and humid, so we were very glad that the frame home was air-conditioned! We then got to go back to the Sacred Grove for basically as long as we wanted. Gordon showed a few of us the Smith home movie set behind the grove that was used to shoot the Restoration video. I also took some pix of the old stone fence in the Grove; only the basest stones remain of it. After washing off and cooling down a while back in the visitor’s center, we hopped back on the bus and made our way to Canadaigua, one of the “finger lakes” in the vicinity and enjoyed a lake tour and dinner aboard the sternwheeler, the Canandaigua Lady. I ate way too much, but it was a lot of fun chatting with others in the group, having fun with the crew, and gawking at the huge homes on the lake shore.
Finally we came back the hotel for our last night here—sniff! Garfields and I got together to go over the parts of “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”, which Gordon showed us (the BYU concert version) as a devotional this morning, and now we want to sing an a capella version for a devotional. I hope we can get Julia Bullock to join us for the melody, as Mona refuses, and Eileen Olsen flaked out on us!
Niagara Falls and a long bus ride tomorrow!

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