Mecca for Mormons

I'm a little late in posting, but memoirs are after-the-fact, so I guess actually I'm NOT late. Two weekends ago, we took a delightful trip to Palmyra, NY. I tried to explain to my co-worker what this little town signified to Mormons... why I was so excited to revisit (I also road-tripped in college with some friends from Boston to Palmyra back in the day). It's kind of like the pilgrimage Muslims make to Mecca. Except there are a whole slew of sites that are special and significant in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Two of my bus friends were also excited for me to visit because they are from upstate New York themselves and one of them had already seen the Hill Cumorah Pageant 3 times, though he is not a member of the church!

Anyways, I took off a few hours early from work on Friday and Marc and I and these 3 crazy, wonderful ladies drove the 5 hours to Palmyra. Driving with those ladies was so funny! Here's a pic of us after we arrived.
We arrived just in time for socializing with all our dear friends from our ward who had also driven up, eating some delicious food provided by the Rotary Club, and then watched the pageant, sitting out on the grass in front of the Hill Cumorah. It was a beautiful night and a wonderful experience. My favorite part of the pageant was... well, two parts, seeing one of the young men from our ward all dressed up, ready to play his part, and also the scene where Christ visits the people and the voice of God introduces him. In the still, dark night, with all the audience members silently watching, the sound of a voice, in that location, was so touching for me. I know that Joseph Smith heard the Lord's voice near that same spot a hundred + years ago and it was just thrilling to sense a bit of what he might have experienced.

We spent the night at a nearby college dorm, in a lovely little town called Geneva. Right on a lake! Saturday was spent visiting more of the special sites in Palmyra with Wanda, Maurice, and Quany. So many hilarious stories of riding with the 3 ladies and the with Maurice and Quany on the way home. Needless to say, it was funny for Marc and I to have two more mature women with us on the way up and teenagers in the back of our car on the way home. On the way up: "Are we there yet? I need to stop at a bathroom. When is the next bathroom rest stop? Oh! My arthritis! Bathroom break any time soon?" On the way home: "Stop! You're taking up all the room! Move over! Roll down the window! Roll up the window! You're on my side."

It was really nice to take Wanda, a new member, and Marc (his first time) to visit the Smith family cabin and home, the Palmyra Temple and the Sacred Grove. Well... actually, there were lots of wonderful things to see and even though Quany and Maurice had already seen much of it already with the Wilkins, they were so good-spirited in doing the whole tour thing again!

Marc and I are glad that we've had the opportunity to visit many historical sites while here on the East Coast. And were so happy to have association with wonderful, random, but very dear friends of all ages and stages of life. As I've said before... we keep good company and we don't take it for granted!!!