Alison Visited, I Am Addicted to Breaking Bad, and I went to PALMYRA

Her husband has an internship in Boston so she rode a bus down here to see me. I showed her around DC and she showed me how to ride a bike around DC.

These are my pals Shilo and her sister Ashley. They made shirts for Season 5 premiere of Breaking Bad. They also invited me to move in with them in September when my contract at this place ends. They live in a townhouse with Ashley's husband Brandon. Four adults with full time jobs under one roof and I'll still pay more rent than Mike. I really like all three of them, and we all have so much fun. I guess that's why they invited me to move in, also probably because all I talk about is how I don't know where to move ;) I can't wait to start making jokes about us three being sister wives to Brandon. They're gonna love it.

A couple sisters in Spain have added me as a friend on facebook. One wrote on my wall the other day... such a sweet note. I put it in google translate, but decided to just write back in English. I figured she could use google translate too or just ask Matt. But I guess she just wanted to say hi and pay a compliment to Matt. She said her husband is getting baptized soon. Which is good because she was getting worried about his salvation and stuff. Apparently he didn't believe in God, only in science. Okay the last two sentences had nothing to do with her.


Now get ready to LIVE.... I went on a little road trip to Palmyra with my roommate Jennifer and our friend Angela. They are basically super sweet.

So Monday we drove to Niagra Falls. I slept the whole 8 hours.

Then that night we drove another hour or two to a lovely Super 8 in a little town called Canadaguia. One of the finger lakes in NY also named Canadaguia. I went running there one morning. It reminded me of Bear Lake and it made me miss you all so much.

This monument is on top of the Hill Cumorah. Gold plates were buried here, what?!

This plaque was at the Joseph Smith family farm. I took a picture to get the last line of this quote. Go Lucy go. So they fam lived in this itty bitty log cabin. Two rooms upstairs, six boys in one, 5 girls in the other. (I think). Mom and Pop's room downstairs, and one room off the back of the house called the birthing room. (Where Lucy had her kids and Alvin died). This is the house where Moroni appeared to Joseph and told him about the plates for the first time. So his 5 brothers were sleeping in there, 2 of them in his bed. Interesting....

After some years in this log cabin, and after Alvin had become a very accomplished carpenter, he started building a frame home about 300 yards away from the log cabin. He died before he finished it and apparently you could tell his work apart from the people who finished the house because he was just really good at what he did. After it was finished Joseph Sr and the fam moved in and had tons more room. They eventually had to move back into the cabin because they were so poor. So now you may read the plaque.

There was a CES fireside a couple months ago and the speaker gave a talk about the Sacred Grove and all the analogies about trees/grove have to us and our experiences in life. When I saw these trees I remembered  him telling about trees that were once on the edge of the grove (I think... I wish I could remember! but the point is the same) that had to grow sideways to get some light so they just did. Super weird.  But cool.

One of the original of 5,000 copies. Cost Joseph and Martin $3,000 equivalent to $78,000 today. Which Martin footed pretty much all of by mortgaging 180 of the 300 acres he had. Don't know why his wife was all...... but seriously a huge sacrifice for him. His wife divorced him later. I'm so grateful for his sacrifices.

So when we were at the J.S. farm and grove I was annoyed. The word is contentious. I kept thinking that the grove would be pretty cool if I wasn't being so nasty. I kept working at it all day though and the nasty feelings started to leave over lunch and in the bookstore. And just in time because we went to Alvin's grave. And I had one of the sweetest experiences of maybe ever.

I once heard Natalie talking about Alvin and Joseph being like Greg and Matt. I don't remember when or what context. But it was a long time ago probably when Matt was just a little guy in sixth grade. (That's when we met Nat--I was in ninth grade). Maybe being able to identify with this family made me feel so endeared to them. Ever since then, I thought that this story about Joseph loving his oldest brother so much and being so heart broken when he died was so sweet. 

Me and my gals walked up the stairs to his grave which is on property owned by the city so there were less tourists there, but we did happen to run into a handful. At all the sites, missionaries with tags on will tell stories about everything. The little cemetery is not on any church maps (some missionary just told us about it anyway and I'm so glad he did). Even though I knew this, it didn't register that the senior missionaries talking might be giving a private tour so we just started listening. The man stopped and asked for our names and shook our hands and I felt so bad for interrupting (because now I realized how weird this was) and he just kept on going after introducing himself as the mission president. He and his wife were showing their grandson around. 

He started talking about Alvin and how he was a golden child and everyone in the family not just Joseph loved the crap out of him. They were so heartbroken when he died at the young age of 25. Joseph Sr. was so offended at Alvin's funeral because the pastor/minister/whoever said that Alvin was in hell because he had not been baptized. President said Joseph Jr. never got over Alvin's death. Joseph named his first son Alvin, who died shortly after birth. Then he told us (and read some from his iPad) about section 137 when Joseph and Hyrum saw Lucy, Joseph Sr. and Alvin in a vision. And Alvin was not in hell. They learned that those who die without having the opportunity to baptized will have the opportunity. He told us that Joseph and Hyrum literally ran as fast as they could to their parents to tell them about Alvin. This was 13 years after the church was organized. Can you imagine going forward with translating the plates, and organizing the church and so much for all those years and having an intensely close relationship with the living God and never stopping and demanding answers about someone so beloved? I can't. 

I am so glad that heaven helped me to let go of my contentious feelings because I could not have felt the influence of the Spirit during this rare occasion to hear testimony from this man. This was by far the best moment of this trip.

The original headstone was set into a new headstone and copied word for word on the opposite side.

 This house was made from lake stones. I guess it was popular to haul a buttload of rocks from the great lakes and use them in houses. (This isn't Martin's original exterior). I took pictures for Greg because I thought it was interesting. Art and houses. It's like Greg's job. They used the best stones on the front of the house and the worst on the back. I went inspecting to see if I could tell a difference.

Whitmer farm where The Church was organized April 6, 1830.

If you concentrate real hard on the picture of the sunset you can hear the dude yelling into an electronic megaphone lots of hateful things. He put Manti hecklers to shame. And himself for that matter.... snap!

 The first picture taken was blurry beyond recognition and this one my Elder's eyes are closed. But look! it's Elder Radley Davis. Cousin love. I walked around having all the missionaries call his cell phone until he and his companion dropped what they were doing and came to the pageant. He told me that Marc, Tay and Randen were in town. They just showed up and surprised him. I'm sure it's against the rules which is why I thought it was so awesome. And hilarious.

Snapped this while driving across the Susquehana in PA... after almost getting murdered in a PA ghetto because my roommates car was about to explode so we stopped so some foreign dishonest mechanic could jack her A/C compressor.

So the most important help I got from the Holy Ghost on this trip was that he gave me an idea about how to let go of contention. He told me to try and remember the good version of people. Anytime he does something I didn't like, just forget about it. Anytime I felt like I liked him or he did or said something nice or funny, just remember those moments and versions of him. Neat tactic huh?
We are most blessed to be taught how to receive inspiration. And I'm so grateful for my friends and for Joseph Smith and for my upcoming roommates and for Radley and Matt for being such awesome missionaries.  And when I say I miss Utah, I mean I miss my family. Love you guys.