Tour Cont...

Niagra Falls

(the Epic continues, I'll get this thing caught up eventually)

So I finally decided to learn from Jen, Kristi and Sarah and not mess with all the pictures and text and matching and blah blah blah... So here is my story and my pictures are down there... :)

After Palmyra we took a drive to the Niagra River and the Falls. It was pretty much amazing! We went on the Maid of the Mist to get an up front look at the falls, while taking a nice misty shower. They gave us rain coats, well ponchos, to wear, but some people opted not to wear them. The flowers there were beautiful, especially for May. Nothing like Temple Square, but isn't that the closest thing to heaven we have on earth? It puts up some STEEP competition!

Upstate New York...and kinda Pennsylvania

Harmony, PA

Site of the Restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood

So then we went out of the city and into the COUNTRY (back to our comfort zone). First we went to Harmony, PA, or what used to be Harmony. That is where Joeseph and Emma had a home and where the Aaronic preiesthood was restored.

So there really wasn't anything to take pictures of there. It was just a field and cemetary. The river was fenced off. I have pictures of the plaques of information that was at the site, but that's kinda boring... If you want to see more pics of...the pretty lawn where the house used to be, I'll be more than happy to share...

This was our bus. Even though we were with Anderson tours, this is not his own private tour bus...It worked out pretty sweet though! GO ANDERSON!

Fayette, NY

Peter Whitmer Farm

The actual (restored) farm house

Palmyra, NY

Literally a church on every corner

The Sacred Grove

The view of the sacred grove from the Smith home

The Smith Home

E.B. Grandin Print Shop

Where the first Books of Mormon were published

These are the ORIGINAL paintings of these pictures. They are in the E.B. Grandin Building...

Alvin Smith's Grave

The restored headstone is on the left and the original is on the right, it is still on headstone though, just front and back

Hill Cumorah

It rained while we were there and it was a church site, so of course the landscaping and flowers were B-E-A-UTIFUL!

Palmyra New York Temple

The stained glass windows depicted the sacred Grove. It was gorgeous.

The view of the sacred grove from the temple.

So apparently this is the only temple that has clear windows in the...Celestrial Room (I believe is what I was told) so that you could look out and see the Sacred Grove. Also notice that the trees are all cleared on the hill so you can see the actuall grove. I didn't get a picture of the temple from the Grove though. On the pathway (Stafford Road I think) between the log home and the frame home on the Smith farm there is a bench that you can sit on and reversly have a clear view of the temple from the Grove.

Starting in May...

IT'S SUMMERTIME!

And boy did I start it off with a BANG! Just a few shorts days after my last final I hopped on a bus FULL of people, only KNOWING about ..um.. 5, headed for the Denver airport to catch a plane to the BIG APPLE. I went with Brother Anderson and Brother Williams and many other students, primarily from UW but from all around Wyoming and some Utahns. It was a week long church History tour guided by our very own Brother Anderson who owns his own church history tour company. (It's called Anderson Tours...HIGHLY RECCOMENDED by yours truly.

So our first stop was Houston, TX en route to NYC. On our way to New York Chad and I made a friend who was flying home to NIGERIA. He was super cool. We talked the WHOLE 3 1/2 hour flight. His name is Bayo.

Then (if we wanted to) we went to the New York Yankees game. I was not dressed for the occasion, it REALLY cools down when the sun sets. But it was pretty sweet. My VERY first PROFESSIONAL baseball game.

Here are just a couple more random pictures form New York...

Yeah, we had to keep brother Anderson Under control...

Times Square

New York Stock Exchange

Vetrans Memorial...I think...

Ground Zero

On top of the Empire State Building

China Town

Les Miserables

And the HIGHLIGHT of the New York portion of the tour...

The Manhatten Temple was amazing. It was so neat to be in the heart of New York crazy where it is crazy busy, high stress and walk in one building and feel completely at peace and out and away from all the world. We always say that its so nice to go to the temple and get away from the worldly things of your life but this statement does not come to life more than when you are in New York.

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundationn; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall. " -Helaman 5:12

Just a funny advertisement in a subway