Samaria Slug

Lately I have been getting a lot of crap because I never update my blog. Which is very true, so I deserve everything that I get. So finally here is a new post and it should make up for the last two months. About a month ago I went on a church history tour with the institute group from good old Laramie, Wyoming. I was a little nervous about going because I had to travel by myself to New York City where I was meeting up with the rest of the group. Everything went great and I made it there in once piece. After a very interesting ride on the subway with all of our luggage, we made it to the hotel. We arrived pretty late, so we ate dinner at Carmine’s and then explored most of the shops around time square.

Day 2
Today we pretty much ran around most of NYC. We saw the Statue of Liberty, NY Stock Exchange, Central Park, Time Square, Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, the Naked Cowboy, Penn Station, Trinity Church, St. Paul Church, and Ground Zero. The St. Paul’s Church was one of my favorite places. This pretty much became the headquarters for the rescue workers during 9-11. They had a lot of memorials up in memory of all those that were killed in the attacks. After all of that we did a little shopping and then we went to the Manhattan Temple to do baptisms. After a couple of wrong trains in the subway we finally made it to the Temple. After we ate at the famous Carnegie Deli and took carriage rides through Central Park. We ended that night by watching the Broadway show “Wicked.” New York was so fun and I can’t wait to go back and spend more time seeing the sights.

Statue of Liberty

Naked Cowboy

New York Stock Exchange

Trinity Church

St. Paul Church

Brooklyn Bridge

Manhattan Temple

Carriage ride in Central Park

Going to Wicked

Day 3
Most of the day today we spent on the bus. We left NYC and drove to Harmony, Pennsylvania. In Harmony we went to the Susquehanna River, this is where the Priesthood was restored, where John the Baptist appeared, and where Joseph and Oliver were baptized. From there we went to Fayette, New York and saw the Peter Whitmer Sr. Log home. That day we ended up in Palmyra .

Day 4
This morning we had the opportunity to go to the Scared Grove and spend some time there by ourselves. This was my most favorite part of the trip. The Grove is such a peaceful place and it is a great place to reflect on your life. The rest of the day we went to Joseph Smith Sr. Log Home, E.B. Grandin Press and Print Shop, and the Hill Cumorah. Later that day we went to the Palmyra Temple to do baptism’s and a session. The Temple sits on a hill above the Scared Grove. It was pretty amazing to be in the Temple and to look out the window into the Scared Grove.

Scared Grove

Smith Home

Hill Cumorah

Palmyra Temple

Day 5
This morning we left Palmyra, NY and drove up to Niagara Falls. Of course, we had to ride the Maid of the Mist. We got rain poncho before we got on the boat, but I still got soaking wet. Most of everyone’s poncho went to their feet, but my only went to my knees, so the bottom of my pants were dripping wet. The Maid goes out into the middle of the horseshoe shape fall and stays there for a couple of minutes. It was pretty fun for the first minute, but then it was so windy that you were more worried about keeping your poncho down and trying to keep your camera dry. Afterwards we ate at an Indian restaurant. That was a very interesting experience, the first place that we went to was closed because it was being remodeled. The owner of the restaurant saw us outside and offered us a ride to his other restaurant across town. There was fifteen of us that pilled into a minivan. Our driver didn’t speak any English and we had no idea where we were going, it was a little sketchy, but we made it. After Niagara Falls we drove down to Kirtland. We went to the visitor’s center and saw most of the sights around Kirtland. My favorite spot was the Newel K. Whitney Store. The store was were the First Presidency of the Church was given the keys, the School of Prophets met there, and Joseph received many revelations there. It was a pretty amazing place and somewhere that I could really feel the spirit.

The room where the School to Prophets met.

Day 6
This was the last day on our trip. It started out with a fire alarm for our wake up call. We almost didn’t go outside, until one of the hotel staff came running by yelling that it was a real fire and that we needed to get out. Needless to say we grab our shoes and ran out. It ended up being nothing, but is was pretty funny to see everyone out in the parking lot in our pajamas waiting for the fire department to do their swept of the building. Our first stop was the Morley farm and then we headed off to the Kirtland, Ohio Temple. The Temple is owned by the RLDS church, so it was pretty interesting to see their views about temples. It was still really great to view the temple. After that we viewed the Temple Quarry where they got the stone to build the temple and we also visited the John Johnson Home. We ate lunch at a Amish Restaurant, which was pretty amazing. The food was awesome. After that we flew home. It was an amazing trip and I learned a lot about the early history of the church. It was a great testimony builder and I can’t wait to go back and visit the rest of the church sites.