simply stated: Palmyra

We took a trip to Palmyra, New York to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant for the first time and it was wonderful! We brought along my two great friends, Emily and Stephanie, and met up with Lara and her family.

We first visited the Palmyra Temple and enjoyed all the lovely flowers on the grounds.

Then we went to save spots at the pageant and Stephanie had the wise idea of saving our parking spot with a little orange cone we found lying around.

We then saw the Toma family right when we got there! My mom works for Brother Toma and he is also my institute teacher and so it was fun to see him as Abinadi and Sister Toma as a Lamanite warrior.

Emily, Steph, and I came across these young Nephites and couldn't pass up a chance to snag a photo. The funniest part is that they asked us our age and were a little taken back to find out that we are all 25.

The pageant was so AWESOME! It was all about the Book of Mormon stories and about Joseph Smith finding the plates there on the Hill Cumorah. It was so cool, I mean there were flames, earthquakes, and people falling over waterfalls. Grace sat on my lap the whole time and told me what was going to happen to each of the characters before it happened. Kudos to her parents for teaching her so well about the Book of Mormon!

The next morning Stephanie, Emily and I took a trip ourselves out to the Sacred Grove. It was so lovely and there was such a beautiful reverence all around.

We went to the E.B. Grandin Print Shop where the Book of Mormon was first printed. Wow, that was some process! This little monkey will do anything to get out of walking...

Afterwards, we enjoyed a stormy visit to the statue of Moroni on the top of the Hill Cumorah. We were actually soaked, but it looks here like we are enjoying a fine day.

Nothing like T.G.I. Fridays to escape the rain!

Then back to the pageant in the rain for round 2. We figured we may never get to see it again, so we took every opportunity to go. This picture is blurry, but it's a picture of when Christ came down and appeared to the Nephites.

Our last day there we wanted to go back to the Sacred Grove one last time. It was so beautiful the way the sun shone through the trees. It's amazing to me how one prayer in this special place changed everything, including me.