A Honeymoon to Palmyra NY & Kirtland OH

We spent our honeymoon visiting the early church history sites in Palmyra New York & Kirtland Ohio. It was wonderful, insightful, we learned a lot. A bit cold but a perfect place to go, somewhere we both have wanted to go for a long time. This is where the church had it's beginnings and our marriage also.

Palmyra: We started the day by going to the E.B. Grandin Shop. It was really neat to see where the Book of Mormon was published and to see how it was published. The visitor center there is incredible. We found the process fascinating, and it was neat to learn about all of the miracles that went into the publishing of the Book of Mormon.
Our next stop took us to the Smith Farm and the Sacred Grove. What an incredible place! We especially were impressed by the Sacred Grove. There is a powerful spirit there and a beautiful peace.
One hilarious thing was that as we reached the monument, Dayna said, “I don’t think I have ever seen a statue of Moroni before.” I thought about this for a minute, and on further questioning, she realized that she in fact had seen other statues of Moroni. We had a great laugh about this, especially because she had instructed me earlier that morning to step further to the left so that I could get the angel Moroni into the picture of the Palmyra Temple.

Niagara Falls:
It blew us away

Kirtland: We were especially impressed by the N.K Whitney home and store. We were amazed at the character and sacrifices of Brother and Sister Whitney was willing to make for the gospel. Following our visit to the churches historic Kirtland, we went up the hill to the Kirtland Temple. We were amazed at the workmanship of the temple and the sacrifice that was required to build the temple. It was beautiful.

We then attempted to find the quarry where the stones of the temple were taken from. In this attempt we ended up hiking all over the woods and up the side of a hill, still looking for a quarry. We ended up finding the quarry not yards from where we parked.
It is amazing to me that such a great work was had at these humble places and how many converted in the Ohio. The people were really prepared to receive the gospel when it arrived. At the Kirtland ashery the ash, something worth almost nothing, yet with time and heat was made very valuable. So with the saints and the early unorganized church in Ohio; with time and heat it was made great.