Kirtland

It's crazy to think that 2 weeks ago I was standing in the Kirtland Temple. The little town that all of the saints lived in has been preserved so we can walk through the Whitney store and home, Joseph Smiths home, the school of prophets, and so much more. Kirtland is a beautiful town and there's such a special spirit on the grounds where the saints lived and built the gospel that we now have today.

This is the table that Joseph Smith himself sat and wrote D&C, studied the Book of Mormon, and recieved a lot of revelation. 

This is the school of prophets. The room was as mall as the picture makes it look. It's crazy how many men fit in this room and how they could all recieve very different revelations and visions in such a right space of each other. There's a story of all the men sitting in there smoking their cigars and Joseph was compelled by the power of God to tell them that smoking was bad for them and others around them so every single man got up and threw their cigar in the fire. They all trusted Joseph and loved heavnly father so much that they didn't argue with their orders and all obliged to the request.

The Kirtland temple is a different type of beautiful. It not only is physically beautiful, but the things that went on inside and the stories told about it are beautiful as well. So many angels and Jesus Christ himself visited this temple frequently. They would hear and see angels singing along side to the hymns they sang, a popular hymn at the time was Spirit of God.

As we were exiting the temple after our tour, a man who was also on the tour with us had him and his family sing The Spirit of God. It was beautiful and the spirit was so strong at that moment, not to mention he's in the Mormon tabernacle choir so that helped with the beauty! 

The temple was used for church meetings and a few times durring those meetings Joseph smith would become pale and stand in awe because he knew the Jesus Christ has been in their midst. At night there would be lights in the temple when no one was there because the angels would be visiting. Joseph has written in D&C about how he has communicated with Jesus in this very building. It's a spectacular, surreal place to be and I'm so thankful I was able to be there.

The Palmyra Bookstore

When we were in Palmyra, New York we went to the book store that Joseph Smith first published the Book of Mormon. This is an original, first copy of the Book of Mormon, it's crazy to see one with my own eyes! 

The amount of work that went making the book of mormon's was astounding. There were so many steps and they had to make 5,000 copy's to sell and give away. They were sold in the main shop of  the book store. The book store also had the originals of paintins that all LDS people know every well.

It's surreal to see these paintings and the Book of Mormon with my own eyes. They hold such special spirits and stories.

The sacred grove

So I spent 10 days in New York and a few other states around that area recently and I can honestly say there wasn't one place that we stopped that I didn't have to stop and stare in awe because everything was just so beautiful. One of my favorite places we stopped was Plamyra and the house Joseph smith grew up in as well as the sacred grove. 

This was Joseph's house that holds the room that he first saw angel Moroni visit him. We learned that angel mormoni was able to communicate with Joseph while 4 other boys slept soundly in the same room. So many amazing miracles happened in this house as well as the barn and the second house built on the property that didn't get pictures of. They golden plates were able to be hidden and never found by mobs in these places. Not to mention Joseph's faithful and loving family who did everything they could to protect Joseph and the plates from the mobs. There is a story about Joseph hiding the plates in the bricks of the fire place and waking up one night feeling the need to move them so he brought them to his sisters and the sisters held in tightly to the golden plates in their bed. When the mobs came the first place they checked was the fire place and when they went into the girls room, they quickly left and didn't cause any harm to jesephs sisters or the plates. The Lords hand was so obviously helpful in these times because they plates are so crucial for the world to have. Next place we went was the sacred grove.

They don't know exactly where Joseph saw God the father and Jesus Christ but in joesphs description of seeing them, he describes a pillar of light cast down on the ground. I tried to capture a few pictures that embodied the description,

The feeling in the sacred grove is so special and hallowed. Even if I hadn't known that Heavenly Father himself had stood in this plot of land, I still would've felt the very clear, identifiable spirit that this land holds. You could spend hours in there walking and meditating and still never want to leave. I feel so blessed and privelaged to have been able to walk on the very land that Joseph smith had the vision that begin the religion that I live by every day.