Palmyra, New York 15 years ago

In 2001 Tyler was working for Fidelity Investments and had to travel to Boston and Rhode Island for work sometimes. This particular work trip we was scheduled to be there for several months. When that would happen, the company would fly the spouse out for a rendezvous.

So in January of 2001, 15 years ago, I found myself leaving two babies behind with grandma and boarding a plane by myself to fly across the country. I was slightly nervous with only a 1000 butterflies in my stomach. My connecting flight was on time and I eventually made it to Providence, Rhode Island where I met up with Tyler and we went out for seafood.

Ten days to myself was luxurious. Tyler would work during the day and I would hang out at the hotel. No diapers, no bottles, no working around nap times. A few times I ventured out on my own but the nights were when we would hit the town. One time is was up to Boston where we got to visit the temple that still didn't have a spire on it due to the controversy with the neighbors not wanting it (eventually everything got settled and the spire was put on).

I rode the subway for the first time. I would SOOO love to go back when its not January and see more of the historic sites. I've always imagined autumn to be a beautiful time to visit the eastern states.

One weekend we ventured over to Palmyra to visit the church historic sites. The trees! I couldn't get enough of all the trees that lined the freeway and pretty much every street. And I loved the homes that were set back from the road, hidden in the trees.

Our first stop was Clifton Springs, New York, a 15 minute drive southeast from Palmyra to see the hospital where my mother-in-law Laura was born. Her parents were there helping with the upkeep of the Joseph Smith farm and she came two months early.


The Hill Cumorah came next on our stops. It was much larger, taking in more area than I ever imagined. I can only wonder what the hillside and surrounding country might look like in early spring. With snow on the ground and biting cold air, you don't stay long to really appreciate much.

Joseph Smith's log home and the Sacred Grove was a short distance from the hill. I walked into that grove and didn't stay long because of the cold, cold air.

The Palmyra temple sits not too far from the home and the grove. It had only been in operation a short nine months before we came along.

It was time for lunch and then a visit to the Grandin Press. Tyler's dad has worked at a bindery his whole life and Ty has dabbled in the printing business as a copy editor thus making this place quite intriguing to see how books were actually made at that point in history. What a tedious, laborious job to actually set all the characters by hand . . . backwards. Oliver Cowdery, as he wrote the translations Joseph Smith dictated to him, never included any punctuation even though he was a school teacher by profession. It wasn't until the book went to press that punctuation was added. The Book of Mormon took only 63 days to translate and seven months to have printed so that all may read the words. Joseph Smith didn't want to send the original translation to the printer, so he had Oliver rewrite the translation and make another copy. This is the reason it took seven months to print. They could only go as fast as Oliver Cowdery could write.

We toured Peter Whitmer's home before finding lodging for the night. That was an adventure -- not Peter Whitmer's home but the lodging.

This was in the days before the internet really became a way to find information. I believe we looked in the phone book and found a place and reserved the room. But then to find the place took an act of faith and an even greater act of faith to actually stay. But it was a bed and we were tired. I so badly wanted a HOT bath but didn't dare in our little budget motel. At first light we were out of there only to discover 20 minutes south was the town of Canandaigua with several hotel chains we could have stayed at.

But back to the Whitmers. A story was relayed to us at the visitor center about how Joseph and Oliver were feeling hostility in Harmony as they progressed in their work of translation. Oliver wrote to his friend David Whitmer, asking if he could come and get them and if they might stay at David's father's home (Peter) as they continued in their project. It was springtime and much needed to be done to get the fields ready for planting. 

"[David] had some twenty acres of land to plow and concluded to do that and then go. 'I got up one morning to go to work as usual,' he says, 'and on going to the field, found that between five and seven acres of my land had been plowed under during the night. I don't know who did it; but it was done just as I would have done it myself, and the plow was left standing in the furrow. This enabled me to start sooner.'

Nor was this the only assistance of like character given to him. While harrowing in a field of wheat before starting on his journey he found to his surprise that he had accomplished more in a few hours than was usual to do in two or three days. The day following this circumstance he went out to spread plaster over a field, according to the custom of the farmers in that locality, when, to his surprise, he found the work had been done, and well done. David Whitmer's sister, who lived near the field, told him that three strangers had appeared in the field the day before and spread the plaster with remarkable skill. She at the time presumed that they were men whom David had hired to do the work." (Comprehensive History of the Church, B.H. Roberts)

God is in the details of our lives and surrounds us with everyday miracles if we have eyes to see.

Oh, how I loved that trip. But I was so grateful to get home to my babies. Erik didn't remember who I was and grandma and grandpa did a dandy job fattening him up with too much ice cream. Isn't that the job of a grandpa?