Palmyra and Hill Cumorah

After trudging around the graveyard, looking for ancestors in the rain, we finally went to church sites. We stopped at Hill Cumorah first. Quite a hike to the top. I think it must have been hard carrying the gold plates down that hill. Carroll (Spence) wanted to roll down the hill like a kid, but then decided he might get a little wet (although it had stopped raining at that time). Next, we went and had lunch at Palmyra, across the street from the print shop where the first Book of Mormon was published. We decided not to go into it so we would have time to go to the sacred grove. The sacred grove was amazing. As we walked into the woods behind Joseph Smith's family home, the sun came out for the first time that day, and shone through the trees. We were the only ones in the grove at that time, so we sat on a bench by each other, being quiet so that we could each have our own experience. I had the same feeling as when I went into the Garden of Gethsemane. The spirit was there and I felt at peace. All I could hear was the trees rustling and birds churping. We also saw a deer and a gray squirrel.