Day 16: Palmyra

Our morning started early. We had to get to the Sacred Grove before the other tour buses.

Our tour has been almost completely in reverse order from how things happened chronologically. The Sacred Grove is where it all started. It was here that Joseph Smith, confused about religion, first went to pray.

It was here that he was visited by God and Jesus Christ and told to join none of the existing churches.

It's a pretty amazing place to stand in. I've been many times before, but this was the first time for my parents, so we split off for a little while.

Also on this property is the home where Joseph's family was living at the time. It is a replica of the one that the Smith's lived in, built on the original foundation.

It was in this house that Joseph Smith was visited by Moroni, an angel, and the last person to write in the Book of Mormon, about 1400 years before his visitation to Joseph. This happened a few years after the he was first visited by God and Jesus.

He told Joseph about the record of the people in America, his people. He told Joseph where to find it, in a hill nearby.

This hill, the Hill Cumorah, was our next stop.

But first, we stopped by the Palmyra Temple, which is within walking distance of the Smith Farm. It was built in 2000.

Here's the spire:

The angel on the top is the same angel who visited Joseph Smith, Moroni.

We headed to the Hill Cumorah next. We would be back there later that night for the pageant, so we just stopped long enough to look at the monument on the top of the hill.

That is also Moroni.

Our next stop was the building where the Book of Mormon was published. For reasons I can't explain, I do not have any pictures of this.

We went back to our hotel for the afternoon. The pageant did not start until about 9, so we had several hours to kill.

One of the things that I love about my dad is that he is adventurous. He is always willing to explore, and ready for any suggestion.

When I lived in New York, I fell in love with Perry's Ice Cream, particularly a flavor they have called Piece of Cake. In the last few years, everyone from Dreyer's to Cold Stone has come out with a cake batter flavored ice cream, but this was the first I'd ever had, and, in my opinion, still the best. The ice cream is yellow cake flavored. It has a ribbon of chocolate frosting running through it, and little pieces of pound cake. I have yet to find anything like it anywhere else.

Luckily, there was a Wegman's nearby. Wegman's is another thing I miss about New York. It is a chain of grocery stores in New York and Pennsylvania. The flagship store was in one of my areas, a place called Pittsford, NY, and included not only several restaurants, but also a section for furniture and dishes. I have included this link to a Wikipedia article about Wegman's. The one near our hotel was not as nice as the one in Pittsford, but it did have the ice cream, as well as sponge candy, another upstate New York delicacy.

My dad and I decided to have lunch before loading up our cooler with ice and packing a half-gallon of ice cream in it. Across the street was a Tom Wahls. Tom Wahls was a popular place for the missionaries to eat. It features some pretty good hamburgers. However, my dad and I decided to have, instead, the 55 Junker Plate.

The Junker Plate is actually a knockoff of another dish from another restaurant called Nick Tahou's. They are famous for something called a garbage plate. Here is the Wikipedia description of a garbage plate (if you get queasy easily, you may want to skip this part):

A Garbage Plate is a combination of one selection of cheeseburger, hamburger, red hots, white hots, Italian sausage, chicken tender, fish, fried ham, grilled cheese, or eggs; and two sides of either home fries, French fries, baked beans, or macaroni salad. On top of that are the options of mustard and onions, ketchup, and Nick's proprietary hot sauce, a greasy sauce with spices and ground beef. It's served with rolls or Italian toast on the side, which is made fresh at the bakery next door. Health.com named the Garbage Plate the fattiest food in the state of New York.

There are many variations on this at various restaurants in upstate New York. I never had one as a missionary because my first companion and the name of the dish itself led me to believe that they were gross. However, I thought being at Tom Wahl's with my dad was as good a time as any to try one, so we split it. We had ours with fries, macaroni salad, and white hots (bratwurst). It was covered with hot sauce, which was similar to chili, mustard, and onions.

After lunch, we went back to Wegman's and bought the ice cream, a few other New York foods, and a giant bag of ice, which we put into the cooler we had brought, and headed back to our hotel.

The ice cream was soft, but not melted when we got back, so between Dad, Mom, and I, we managed to eat a good portion of the half-gallon of Piece of Cake before it melted.

Around 8, we headed back to Palmyra for the pageant.

The Hill Cumorah Pageant was started in the 1920's by a group of missionaries in the area. It used to be held on the Joseph Smith farm, but it was moved to the Hill Cumorah in 1934. People from all over the world apply to be in the Hill Cumorah pageant. They come for three weeks, during which time they learn their parts, perform, and do volunteer work in the surrounding community.

As you can see, the pageant actually takes place on the hill. If you look closely, you can see the Moroni statue through the trees on the left.

The pageant itself displays scenes from the Book of Mormon, from the time the prophet Lehi left Jerusalem with his family, through the time Jesus Christ appeared to the people in America after his resurrection, and finishes with Moroni burying the record in the Hill Cumorah, and then appearing to Joseph Smith to tell him where it is.

Here is a man in costume, who was playing one of the Wise Men in the scene where one of the prophets, Nephi, prophesies of the birth of the Savior. The cast members mill around with the people in the audience until right before the pageant starts, talking to people and sharing their testimonies.

We also ran into an elder from my parents' ward in Salt Lake, Garrett, who is a friend of my brother Danny. He is serving his mission in my mission, though he is teaching people in American Sign Language.

It's a pretty spectacular production.

Please note the large man who sat in front of me two minutes before the pageant started. He didn't block my view much, but I couldn't seem to take any pictures without him in them.