Activity: Palmyra Trip 2011

So this years Palmyra trip was quite frankly mind blowing, as always it is! About 15 of us made the grueling 6 hour drive, but in the end it was worth it. My group didn't end up going for the Friday night Session of the Hill Cumorah Pageant like everyone else, but I am sure we all had all of the same amazing experiences while there! My group arrived at 2:00am Friday night and sadly didn't get to hang out with the rest of our group that night, but in the morning we all woke up together and enjoyed some much needed breakfast (muffins &orange juice.) everyone was out of there very early in the morning, and didn't get to spend much time together as a ward, but like I said, we all took part in a spiritual feast that is Palmyra, maybe not together, but I know we all had an amazing time none-the-less (:

Where to start? well I guess first on the list to talk about is the Hill Cumorah itself! to many not of our faith it seems just a very steep hill, but to us, it is a landmark of immense significance! This is the place where Moroni burried the plates that Mormon abridged from the writings of the Prophets of old (Lehi, Nephi, Abinidi, Alma,   Samuel the Lamanite, Nephi the Disciple, Moroni, Mormon, and many others, those are the ones off the top of my head.) These plates were hidden from the world until it was the be ready for the Gsopel once again, and that day came when Joseph Smith was commanded of God to translate these plates & bring the Gospel back into this world, and the Hill Cumorah is where he found these plates by the guidance of the Angel Moroni. the Hill Cumorah is an amazing site to see and it makes an amazing stage for the Pageant. if we are talking about the amazing experience at the Hill Cumorah we cannot forget the welcome center right next to it. The Hill Cumorah welcome center is a good way to start your experience on the hill (though we did it after), The Christus Statue is beautiful and the dialogue makes for a wonderful spiritual experience, then moving on to the Restoration film, though many of us have seen this video a million times it couldn't have been more spiritual than it was in that theater on the sacred Hill Cumorah grounds!

The Restoration film is a great way to lead into going to the Sacred Grove & the Smith family farm! Our group, I'm not sure about all of the others, went and viewed the houses and grounds of the farm first before we entered the Sacred Grove, My favorite building is the home the family moved to in Manchester NY where the plates were translated by Joseph Smith, It's very humbling to stand in a place where the Gospel's restoration began its first steps of life! After this we headed in to the Grove, and what a magical (by magical I mean Spiritual) place it is!

The Sacred Grove is the place where God the Father & his Son Jesus Christ visited Joseph Smith while he asked to know which of all the religions contending around him was the true church, and God&Jesus gave him his answer that none of them were. and later was visited in prayer & told he was to restore the true church on this earth! He and Oliver Cowdery were ordained in this Grove also by apostles Peter, James, and John. All of these events make this place have an obviously spirit about it, anyone can tell you that these aren't any ordinary woods, they are special, you can feel God's presence in this Grove so strong. I know that all of us who went to Palmyra, and everyone who has been here feel such a comfort & spirit here like none other. & it was an amazing experience this weekend.
The Book of Mormon Printing Press store is always a very great experience, gives us incite on the hard work it took to bring into the world the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon. Today it is much easier to put together copies of our scriptures, but we must pay tribute and thanks to all those who showed such great faith to do such tedious work to make the Restoration of our Gospel so successful.

Finally we made it to the much anticipated Hill Cumorah Pageant! Its so fun to walk around and talk to all the actors & actresses that have worked hard for weeks to make such a huge event so successful & they truly make the Book of Mormon come to life right before our eyes! The characters are so lively and excited about the work they are doing & it makes that pageant even more enjoyable having been able to see the excitement of the actors & actresses before hand. the pageant really is so spiritual & there is nothing quite like it. It is a beautiful thing& you can feel the spirit so strong in every scene! Truly an amazing experience!

The Pageant, Sacred Grove, Smith Family farm, Hill Cumorah, and anything else people went to see were all the ingredients to a delicious spiritual feast, and quite the way to lead to another amazing Sunday ! thank you everyone who came!! This was a great YSA activity & I'm glad we were all able to partake!