090816_The Smith Farm in Palmyra

On to the Smith Farm down the road.  We visited the farm back in 1974-75 and the farm was on one side of the road while the Sacred Grove and everything else was on the other side of the road.  Now, the road has been re-routed around the farm and everything easily accessible by walking.  Great way to do things.

A tour had just left the visitor's center so we wandered off and headed to the Sacred Grove (the area where Joseph Smith had his first encounter with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ).  We briefly stopped here to look at the acreage that makes up a large portion of the existing farm area.  They don;t own it all but a portion of it.  

We paused a little at the entrance to the Sacred Grove.

For some, it may be difficult to accept what Joseph saw when he entered here and asked his Heavenly Father about.  Not so much for me.  I know it to be true.  

Something of extraordinary value happened along these paths one day in the early 1800s.

We reluctantly left the grove.  This placard describes the Smith family farm.

The Smith's log home

The story on the Smith's log home.

Our guide took us up to the rooms upstairs.  This is the room that Joseph received the vision of Moroni and his direction concerning the plates he would be finding and translating a few years later.  Happened in this room.  Our guide bore testimony of Joseph and his role in bringing forth the Book of Mormon.

After out time in the Smith cabin, we walked down the old trail towards the Smith house.

Walking a hundred or so feet down the trail, our guide asked us to stop and look towards the West.  Here she pointed out the Sacred Grove where the Gospel was restored and it all began, the restoration of the gospel in this dispensation.

She then asked us to turn around, 180 degrees, and look to the East.  There, in the trees, was the spire of the temple.  This represents the culmination of what had begun when Joseph had entered the grove so many years ago.  I couldn't help wondering if Joseph knew, or saw in vision, that a few years in the future, there would be a temple only a couple hundred yards from his boyhood home.    

Moving down the trail, the next stop is the Smith homestead.

I noticed that the boards used in the walls didn't fit together very well.  Bet this was cold during the winter.

This fireplace was the place that Joseph removed the bricks to hide the plates of the Book of Mormon from the mob that wanted to take them from him when he was doing the translating.  

This was one of the rooms in the house.  

This was the end of our time here on the Smith farm.  It was quite the experience.  So much history and spirit here.