Nov 257 min read

The Nauvoo Discovery Program visits Kirtland, Ohio, and Palmyra, NY

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The Nauvoo Discovery Program travels to Kirtland, Ohio

For The Nauvoo Discovery group and some local YSA's the Journey started at 6:00 am on the 28th of October, while it was still dark outside. I don’t know much about the drive itself, as I was already in Ohio for a wedding that had happened on the 26th, but from what I heard, it was fairly uneventful, minus the F-150 having a small problem that landed it at a mechanic’s shop for the rest of the trip. (Don’t ask me what the problem was, it’s been explained to me multiple times and all I, really know for sure is there was an issue with the spark plug, but that’s all I know.)

Johnson Farm

The Johnson Farm is one of the prettiest church sites in Ohio. It is the restored home of John and Elsa Johnson, where Joseph and Emma Smith lived from 1831-1832. We took a tour here and learned about the generosity of the Johnson family, the horrible tarring and feathering of Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, and the Joseph Smith translation of the bible. We got there in the afternoon, and the missionaries stayed late to give all four groups tours. For that, we owe them our thanks.

"The Johnson Farm is my favorite Church Site in Ohio. I find it so peaceful and lovely. When I stood in the upper room, where Joseph and Sidney had the vision of the Celestial Kingdom, I felt such a sense of peace. I knew that God still talks to His people and that the day of miracles has not ceased." Rachel Clayton

Kirtland Temple

The Kirtland Temple was part of the historical church sites that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was able to buy from the Community of Christ Church earlier this year, and here I will say what the tour guides say at the beginning of the tours: We are so thankful to the Community of Christ Church for taking such good care of the sites. Without them, they would have been lost long ago and we are forever grateful to them for that.

Now, with that, there have been some changes to the tour since the Church purchased the temple, the two major changes being that now all of the tours go up to the third floor of the temple and the gift shop is no longer there, however, we still sing The Spirit of God at the end of the tour in the very room it was debuted in.

It was really amazing to be able to be in the same space where so many spiritual things happened in the early days of the church and to feel such a strong spirit that still exists in that space, almost 200 years later.

The LDS Kirtland Temple in Ohio — The Kirtland Temple

Morley Farm and Historic Village

Next, we went to the Morley Farm and because it’s not a place with a guided tour, we read Chapter 10 from the first volume of Saints, “Gathered In” and we explored a little bit before moving on to the historic village that has about 7 different early church history sites you can see, including The N.K. Whitney & Co. Store, the Newel and Ann Whitney Home, the Johnson Inn, a schoolhouse, sawmill, and ashery, plus the newly restored Joseph and Emma Smith Home.

Because we were pressed for time, we did a quick tour of the historic village in Kirtland, which included the N.K, Whitney Store, and the Whitney home, but that didn’t make it any less spiritual to see. Although, as I’m writing this, I’m remembering that after our tour of the Kirtland Temple, we did do a tour of Joseph and Emma Smith’s home before going to Morley farm, so we got to see 3 of the 7 sites outside of the temple.

After that, we hopped in the car and drove the four hours to Palmyra, which, for my car at least, was uneventful, save for about a million tolls.

The Nauvoo Discovery Program travels to Palmyra, NY

Palmyra temple

We were extremely lucky, the Palmyra Temple kept their baptistry open for us so we could do a baptism session at 8 pm. Normally, it closes at 5, so we are very grateful to them for allowing us the opportunity to do baptisms as a Program and experience that together. What’s really cool about the Palmyra Temple is that there is a section of windows that you can actually see through, which isn’t usually the case for most temples. However, the reason for this is those windows allow people inside the temple to look out and see the Sacred Grove, which (feature) was at the direction of President Hinckley. I can’t find the exact quote, but I believe he said something along the lines of “Why would you depict the Sacred Grove when you can look out the windows and see it?” And so, a special lobby was created so that the sacredness of what goes on inside the temple could be preserved, but those inside the temple could look out and see the Sacred Grove when they came to serve in the temple.

Whitmer Farm

We started the day off by going to the Whitmer Farm and participating in the guided tour there. It includes the visitor’s center and then a replica of the home the Whitmer family would have lived in at the time. It’s not the original home that the church was officially reorganized in, but the spirit of the place is still strong. There’s even a time capsule that was placed by President Kimball in 1980 and isn’t to be opened until 2030, which is only 6 years away, I might add. Who knows? There might be an NDP group at the opening of that time capsule. Or at least, I hope there is.

Hill Cumorah

We then headed off to the Hill Cumorah, whose visitor’s center is currently under renovations, which is fine, because the thing to see is outside anyway. It’s a bit of a hike, but the memorial is worth it and the senior missionaries know their stuff and were able to give us a lot of history and explain the symbolism behind the carvings on the monument.

The church has also done a lot in the last three years in preserving this sacred place and from what I can tell (I had never been before), it’s hard to believe there used to be a pageant that took place here.

Grandin Press

The place where the Book of Mormon came to be. The history of the Grandin Press and how the printing of the Book of Mormon came about is a true testament to the Lord’s hand in bringing about the restoration of his church in the latter days. The building holds a lot of the original printing machinery that was used to print the first edition of the Book of Mormon, and the church has even managed to preserve the original outside wall by building around it. They even have a first edition Book of Mormon on display! But, if I’m being perfectly honest, the part that made my jaw drop was the fact that they have the original painting by Tom Lovell of The Angel Moroni Visiting Joseph Smith, along with other iconic Book of Mormon original paintings we all grew up seeing. It’s one thing to see those paintings as prints or online but to see the physical painting up close and personal, you can’t fathom it, I mean, it’s taller than I am!

Smith home

Speaking of that painting, the next place we went to was the home where that visit took place. I don’t know about you, but if a glowing man appeared in the bedroom I shared with all of my siblings, I would’ve been more worried about them waking up than what was being said to me, but then again, I wasn’t called by God to restore His Church. But that was just one of so many miracles that took place on that farm and in that home, they can’t all be coincidences, they just can’t. The biggest one for me is that none of his siblings woke up at any point during Moroni’s visits, but not one of them doubted his story.

Anyone with siblings knows that nothing else short of an act of God (or their mother) will get siblings to agree on the same thing at the same time, and mean it, and yet, they all believed in Joseph and what he saw and supported him their whole lives.

Sacred Grove

Joseph Smith History 1: 15-20

Even with half of the trees bare in preparation for winter, and the ground covered in crunchy leaves as to make it impossible to walk around quietly, the stillness that I felt the minute I walked into the Sacred Grove was almost overwhelming. I am someone who isn’t quiet. I’m just not, it’s not part of who I am, whether it’s my mouth, my body, or my mind, something is always making noise. However, there is one exception to that, and that is the temple. The temple is the one place where I have always been able to be at peace and where I can get a break from the chaos that is my head, so much so that I almost always get sleepy in the temple because my mind is finally calm enough that it can relax and check out for a bit.

The Sacred Grove was like that for me. It was a temple without walls and when I walked in, my mind went quiet and I could just be. I wasn’t worried about everything that was waiting for me once I left, or what I was going to write for the Blog, because, in that moment, it didn’t matter. If that isn’t affirming that the Sacred Grove is a spiritual place, I don’t know what is, at least for me.