Day 9 - Susquehanna River and Aaronic Priesthood restoration

Day 9 - Susquehanna River and Aaronic Priesthood restoration

Today we traveled to the site of Harmony Pennsylvania . . . no longer a township . . . to see the site of the Aaronic Priesthood restoration along the banks of the Susquehanna River.

Many important things happened at Harmony.
Harmony was the home of Isaac Hale, father of Joseph Smith's wife, Emma Hale. Joseph Smith and his father boarded with Isaac Hale in 1825 while working on Josiah Stowell's mining project. In December 1827, Joseph and Emma moved to Harmony from Manchester, New York, to work on the translation of the plates of the Book of Mormon. (See Book of Mormon Translation by Joseph Smith) Eventually they bought a small farm and house, where most of the Book of Mormon was translated between April 7 and early June 1829. Nearby, on May 15, 1829, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist and were authorized to baptize each other. The first convert baptism, that of Samuel H. Smith, took place there ten days later. Somewhere between Harmony and Colesville, New York, Peter, James, and John restored the Melchizedek Priesthood. After the Church was organized in 1830, Joseph and Emma returned to Harmony and lived there through that summer. Fifteen revelations now found in the Doctrine and Covenants were received in Harmony.
The Harmony in Church history refers to a township rather than the village of Harmony. The township boundary was changed in 1853, placing the Church site in present-day Oakland Township. The site of the Hale residence lies about a mile and a half west of present-day Oakland, Pennsylvania, in Susquehanna County, along the north side of Route 171.
Today the Church owns about 288 acres at the Harmony location. On a small landscaped triangular plot located between the highway and a railroad right-of-way, a granite and bronze monument dedicated in 1960 commemorates the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood.

Tomorrow we visit the Sharon, VT birthplace of the Prophet Joeseph Smith. Then we fly home.

It has been a wonderful 9 days. We have felt the Spirit and have expanded my knowledge of Church history.

Day 8 - Palmyra New York

Day 8 - Palmyra New York,

The morning of day 8 started with an early morning visit to the Sacred Grove.

It was a beautiful cool morning. There was some fog, but the Grove was so peaceful and quiet. We sat in the Grove for a while. Then Dad went to visit the Smith restored homested, Alvins home, the cooper shop and the Young's barn. I walked back to the remains of the stone fence.

Then we made a visit to the Palmyra Temple. The Temple has beautiful stained glass windows with lots of trees . . . symbolic of the location at the Grove.

After lunch at the Akropolis . . . we went to the Grandin Press. The Church has done such a good job on the restoration of that visitors center. Although they won't use my father-in-laws bees wax! =8)

We also went by the Martin Harris home.
Then we went out to the Peter Whitmer farm in Fayette, NY.
This is the location where the Church was formed on April 6th, 1830. It is also the location (in the woods in the area) where the 3 Wintnesses where shown the Golden Plates by the Angel Moroni. Moroni also showed the plates to Mary Whitmer as a token of her unmurmuring service.
"One evening when she went to milk the cows, she said that a stranger with a knapsack spoke to her, explained what was going on in her house, comforted her, then produced a bundle of plates from his knapsack, turned the leaves for her, showed her the engravings, exhorted her to faith in bearing her burden a little longer, then suddenly vanished with the plates. She always called the stranger Brother Nephi."

Day 7 - Niagara Falls & Hill Cumorah

Day 7 - Niagara Falls & Hill Cumorah

This morning we left Erie Pennsylvania this morning and drove to Niagara Falls.
It seemed a little odd to be visiting a tourist location on a Sunday . . .

After Niagara falls, we spent almost an hour and a half trying to cross the border back into the United States!

Once we were able to get through customs, we traveled to the Hill Cumorah. I love the Hill Cumorah! I have always felt a very strong witness while at the Hill Cumorah and today was no different for me.
My Dad really enjoyed being at the Hill Cumorah as well.

Day 6 - Kirtland

After our stay at Streetsboro, OH (some 40 minutes from Kirtland), we traveled to the Kirtland Temple.

It was a amazing to see what the Saints were able to accomplish of the borders of the american frontier with little money and precious few resources. As I sat in the Temple and pondered the increadable miricles and visions that took place in that holy building I felt truly humbled.

We visited the Church historical site at Kirtland including the Whitney Store.

The Whitney store is the location of the first School of the Prophets where many saw the Lord.

We also visited the John Johnson farm.
This is the building where the Prophet was dragged from his bed, tarred and feathered and still preached the following day.

While at the Johnson farm, Joseph also received the vision which resulted in the 76th Section of the D&C. Ginger, our guide, told us that Joseph had said that he didn't record a 100th part of what he saw . . . Wow!

Day 5 - Travel day from Galesburg to Streetsboro (Kirtland)

Well we completed our 8 1/2 travel from Galesburg, IL to Streetsboro, OH.
It is beautiful, FLAT country. We passed hundreds of miles of farms.

We also passed the Wyandot Indian land. The Wyandots were one of the tribes to which the Prophet Joseph sent missionaries a short time after the organization of the Church.

"In October 1830, one month after being baptized in New York, Parley P. Pratt began his first missionary journey, accompanied by Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer Jr., and Ziba Peterson. They traveled to Ohio to preach to the Native Americans. On their way the missionaries taught the gospel to Sidney Rigdon, a Reformed Baptist minister, and his congregation in Mentor, near Kirtland. Within a few weeks 127 people were baptized, including Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams, and a nucleus for the Church was established in Kirtland. The missionaries later preached to Wyandot Indians in Sandusky, Ohio, and to Delaware Indians in Missouri."
http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/58721/United-States-information-Ohio.html

Day 4 - Warsaw, Carthage and Nauvoo

Day 4 - Warsaw, Carthage and Nauvoo

Well, we started off our day by driving to Warsaw. Like many other towns which were associated with the persecution of the Saints, Warsaw seems to have prospered very little in the past 150 years.

Of note, we found this on the Main Street of Warsaw . . . I don't know if it has been there since the martardom, but it was startling nonetheless.

The business is abandoned and the second floor has collapsed.

We then went to Carthage. It was a very sobering thought to stand in the very room where the Prophet sealed his testimony with his blood. There wasn't as much evidence of the event as I had expected. The Church has removed the floor where Hyrum's blood had left a stain. The bullet holes had been repaired . . . probably by those who owned and lived in the home in the intervening years. There was a bullet hole in the door.

Later in the day, we returned to Nauvoo and visited some of the early Saint's homes. Below is the home of Brigham Young. We also visited the home of John Taylor, the Trail of Hope and the restored post office.

Tomorrow is a travel day to Kirtland . . .

Day 3 -Nauvoo

Day 3 - Nauvoo.

Well the day started very early. We traveled from Keokuk, IA to Nauvoo for an 8:00am temple session. The Temple is beautiful! I can only begin to imagine how hard it must have been for the Saints, having been driven from New York, Kirtland and Missouri, to leave your homes and Temple. What Incredible Faith!

The Temple was beautiful . . . both inside and out. The missionaries indicated that the Temple was 95% accurate on the outside, but somewhat different on the inside due to HVAC, fire code elevators, etc.

After the Temple session, we went to visit the Nauvoo city sites.
First we visited the RLDS owned Nauvoo properties such as the Nauvoo Mansion and the Red Brick Store.
Then we visited the LDS Church visitor's center. There, we were able to see one of the original Sun Stones.

Nauvoo is not at all what I had expected. I am not certain what I had expected, but there are precious few of the original homes left or restored. It was much like a very large park with an occasional brick home. At one time, Nauvoo had more than 1500 homes.

We saw Joseph, Hyrum and Emma's grave site. We also saw the Red Brick Store and the Mansion House.

During lunch, we also found some very interesting local items . . .

Day 2 - Independence, Missouri

Day 2 of our journey was very full. We ended up getting to our hotel about 9:30pm and I was too tired to post to the blog.

On day 2 we finished up our time in Missouri by visiting the Independence temple site. We visited the Hedrickite meeting house and spoke with their eldest Apostle. He talked about the differences between the LDS Church and the Church of Christ ( Hedrickites). The Hedrickite church  was founded by Granville Hedrick who accompanied Joseph Smith on Zions Camp. Finding that they were not going to fight in Missouri to redeem Zion, he decided that Joseph was a fallen prophet. The own a few of the 62 acre lot designated as the Independence Temple site.

We also visited the Community of Christ (RLDS) temple and spoke with them. They also own a substantial portion of the Independence Temple lot.

The we visited the LDS visitor's center at the Independence Temple lot. What a difference!

We also journeyed to Adam-Ondi-Ahman. The site is cleared and prepared for the gathering which will occur there some day. I did not know that there will also be a Temple at Adam-Ondi-Ahman . . .

We then proceeded to the Far West dedicated Temple site. It was truly amazing to look out at the rolling fields and realize that there were once hundreds of homes in both Far West and Adam-Ondi-Ahman, but nothing remains other than the FarWest Temple corner stones. No evidence of those towns could be seen.
I was also a sobering realization how far the mobs had to travel to kill saints at Haun's Mill, Far West, etc. It was almost an hour by bus from Independence to Far West.

None the less, the Lord's work will move forward . . . in his own time.

Day 1 - The flight to Kansas City and the Liberty Jail

Hello Everyone,

Well, it is the end of day 1.

We left Salt Lake City this morning at 6:40am. We arrived at Denver for a lay-over before we traveled on to Kansas City, MO. It was a smooth, uneventful flight . . . other than the fact that Dad has not flown on an airplane since going to Neal's Junior Championship track meet in Chicago circa 1975. He was able to get a window seat for both legs of the flight and loved it.

Once we all arrived at the airport (there were people joining us from as far west as California and as far East as Nova Scotia), we boarded the bus and traveled the 21 miles to Liberty Jail. It was sobering to think of the Prophet Joseph and the 5 other leaders confined for 4 long winter months.

Tomorrow is a big day. We will see many history sites . . . it is amazing how much happened here in such close proximity.

The start of the journey

We will start our journey by flying from Salt Lake City, UT to Kansas City MI
Oct.4th, 2010