Well, get ready for another hundred pictures or so! That's what vacations mean, apparently...lots of photographs! Before I start on this week's pictures, here are a few from a couple of weeks ago. Remember I couldn't get most of our pictures from the 4th and 5th of July off of the camera? Well, Frank got them off for me. The colors are off...not sure why they are muted and hazy...but anyway, here they are:
Seth and I are ready to watch fireworks! It was cold...that's why we are wrapped up in a blanket..
Our friends have an amazing view from their house on top of a hill. I think the muted, hazy colors in this one made the picture look pretty cool.
Jared setting off fireworks.
The driveway show.
And now a few from my birthday:
Ready to open presents (only one is wrapped...but it's in pretty paper).
Cards, a new non stick frying pan, and nylon utensils to go with the pan (so it doesn't get scratched up).
A few pictures from the fireworks display Frank took me to see that evening:
A view of the carnival while we were waiting for the fireworks to start.
Seth loved playing with light sticks while we waited. And a few of the fireworks:
Now on to this last week! Friday through Tuesday we were getting ready for our trip, which kept us very busy...cleaning, shopping, packing, and getting RS stuff done so that hopefully I wouldn't have a huge pile of RS things to do when I got back. Frank also took his car in for an oil change and got the tires rotated. I did make it to the temple on Friday, which was very nice, and we had the Elders over for dinner on Saturday, and I did some sewing. (Baseball stuff...the sewing I get paid for!) I had a presidency meeting on Monday. I was supposed to do some visiting teaching Monday too but the weather didn't cooperate...we were going to meet at a park. So I'll have to reschedule that.
We wanted to leave Wednesday morning by 8:00 and we did pretty well at hitting that mark...left our house about 8:15. We did have to go to Costco to fill up the car and to have the lug nuts on the tires tightened, so we didn't actually leave Frederick until about 8:30 but still...not too bad. The trip up was fairly uneventful except that the GPS was trying to take us through Pittsburgh, which is way out of the way. So we stopped at a Barnes & Noble and bought an atlas and figured out how to get to our destination using a good old fashioned map. We got to our hotel in the Rochester area right around 3:00, which was perfect since we couldn't check in until then. After resting for a while, we went to get dinner at IHOP. Right after we finished dinner, Seth said he felt sick and then he threw up! (Luckily, Frank got him to the restroom in time.) Obviously, not part of the plan and since we were supposed to meet Tanner at the HIll Cumorah and then attend Pageant, we were pretty dismayed. But Seth insisted he felt fine after that so we decided to forge ahead and hope for the best. Thankfully, he was fine and didn't have any more trouble the whole trip so we think maybe it was a combination of carsickness and eating too much too quickly.
We got to the Hill Cumorah, found some good seats, and Jared stayed with our stuff while Frank went to buy some water for us and I took Seth to see some of the things at the visitor's center. Then we all went back to our seats to wait until 7:00 when we were supposed to meet Tanner. While we were waiting some crazy guy across the street from the Hill got on a megaphone and was hollering all these negative things about Mormons. Apparently, he does that every night before Pageant starts. Been doing it for years. Around the time that Tanner arrived, they turned on the preshow music which helped to drown him out quite a bit. Here's a few pictures we took while waiting:
All the seats have Hill Cumorah Pageant seals on them!
The awesome stage Tanner helped build.
We talked with Tanner but not for very long because he was anxious to do some proselyting before the show started. It was great to see him and he looks good. Other than the difficulties he's been having with his companion, he has loved his time on the work crew.
The couple of hours before Pageant starts every evening, all the cast and work crew members circulate in th crowd, talking to the nonmembers and getting referrals from the members. Here is Seth with the two cast members who talked to us:
This guy is from Mesa, Arizona so we hit it off, of course. I don't think we are related, though...his last name is Anderson. Plus his family hasn't been there for generations.
His companion was cool too. He lives in a place called Victor, which is near the Hill. Both of these young men have been in the cast for the last 5 or 6 years.
Here is Moroni and Joseph Smith:
And here is Tanner and his companion talking to some of the crowd:
The lighting staff is getting things ready up on the towers:
And here is Tanner in costume, getting ready for the show to start. He was sitting right in front of the stage behind the curtain, but he told us where he was going to be so we could go up front and talk with him for a few more minutes:
The stage lit up:
And now the show begins!:
Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life
Nephi sees the birth of Christ
Tanner was actually on stage during the boat scene...that's why he was in costume, so he would blend in with the cast. He was actually there to help set up and take down the boat pieces, plus he caught the mast when it broke during the storm. So all of the following pictures have Tanner in them. (He's wearing the black head piece.) Most people probably didn't even notice he was there working, but we knew what to look for! Some of them are really blurry, but here they are:
(He's behind someone in the photo above.)
(See Tanner behind Lehi?)
King Noah
Abinadi dies
Alma baptizing at the waters of Mormon
Samuel the Lamanite prophesying
The destruction scene:
Christ ministers to the Nephites:
Mormon passes the plates on to his son Moroni:
Mormon dies:
Moroni buries the plates in the Hill Cumorah:
It was a great show!
After it ended, we went straight back to the hotel and went to bed because it was late! We were some of the first people in the crowd to get to the street by the parking lot, and when we got there we had to wait for a few minutes to cross. I turned around to look behind us and I was awed by the size of the crowd behind us! Thousands of people!
Meanwhile, the anti-Mormon guy was at it again...he started up the minute the show ended. He was saying some pretty hateful things too...things like Mormons hate Jesus and we are all filthy sinners and going to hell! Yep, nice. But the funny thing about it was that it didn't even bother me. Because if you really listened to him you realized that he is just totally misinformed and doesn't understand what we're really all about. I felt really peaceful and all those hateful words just washed right past me. It doesn't matter what he thinks because I know what's really right. I actually felt sorry for him because he is just a pawn in Satan's hands and he has no idea what joy he is missing out on. So sad!
On Thursday we visited all the other church sites, except for the Grandin Building (we ran out of time for that). First, the Peter Whitmer home:
Visiting here is always sweet because of the great memories we have of attending church here. The visitor's center was recently renovated, though, so only parts of it were familiar. They had some cool new things, including some activities for kids:
And here is the Fayette Ward building, which is right next to the Peter Whitmer home. The wing of the building on the left of the picture houses the visitor's center.
After visiting the farm, we drove into Geneva and stopped by Hobart & William Smith Colleges, where Frank worked when we lived there. He saw a few of the people he worked with there and we went to the cafeteria where we used to eat for lunch. We were prepared to pay to eat there, but when Frank explained that he used to work there, they said we could eat for free...nice!
Our next stop was a brief visit to the house we lived in:
It looks the same except there used to be a huge tree in front of it that's gone now.
Then we drove to the Palmyra area to see the other church sites. We drove the back way through the countryside...I always LOVED this drive! It goes through beautiful farms and there are quaint little old churches out there in the middle of nowhere. Plus we go through a really old little town called Phelps which is just full of beautiful and unique old houses like the ones below. (I didn't get very good pictures because we were moving too fast, but I tried!):
When we got to the Palmyra area, we stopped at the temple first. It is such a beautiful temple, and it he grounds are gorgeous, too.
Then we went to the Sacred Grove:
(That is Seth and I sitting on a bench in the backgroud.)
The Sacred Grove is such a beautiful, peaceful spot. Always love visiting there!
Next we went to the frame house:
(Orchard)
There's a large garden in the yard of the frame home.
And a barn and a a cooper shop across the street. The barn, the orchard, the garden, and the cooper's shop were no there when we lived there...hadn't been built yet. The frame home has been completely renovated too...it looks the way it looked when the Smith family lived there.
Next we walked down a path to the log home:
(This path was a paved highway when we lived in New York, but the church got permission from the state to have the highway rerouted behind the frame home, so now it's a walking path.)
The room above is the room where Joseph Smith was sleeping when he had those night time visits from the Angel Moroni. The original house had been torn down, but they excavated and found the original foundation, so they built the house on the original foundation in the exact same spot. We were living in New York when the log home was built and Frank and I were able to listen to the dedication at the nearby stake center.
Our last stop was the Hill Cumorah. I took the footpath up to the top for the first time ever...we always drove to the top of the hill on all our other visits:
The view from the top of the hill is fantastic! I always feel grateful to Moroni when we visit the Hill. He made so many sacrifices so that we can have the Book of Mormon.
We met Tanner for dinner at the bottom of the Hill. His companion didn't want to come with him so one of the other work crew boys came with him "on exchange". His name is Brother Nelson, and he is very nice. We bought dinner for Tanner and his "companion" (as well as ourselves) at a concession place they have at the Hill during Pageant. We got chicken dinners, which included the area's famous "salt potatoes".
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for a swim. On the way, we tried to get some pictures of the cool clouds:
The New York Thruway!:
Friday morning we packed up and drove home. We made great time and got home by mid afternoon. Here is Harrisburg (the capital of Pennsylvania), which was on our way:
Since getting home we have been busy getting caught up on things like grocery shopping and laundry. Jared had a song practice last night for youth conference. Tonight he went to a play. Frank and I went to a dinner at a ward member's house for a couple who are moving soon. They've lived here longer than we have (nearly 25 years) but he retired recently and they are moving back to her home state...which happens to be Alaska! He is one of the guys that Frank cooks with. They are big-hearted, generous people and will be greatly missed! But Frank says we are going to go up to visit them in Alaska sometime. We have both always wanted to go there.
There were a bunch of new pictures up on the work crew blog yesterday. Tanner told us about most of the things they've been doing, but it was nice to see some pictures. Swimming:
One of their temple trips...this is Tanner's district:
The whole work crew:
Tanner with Brother and Sister Hess:
Visiting the Grandin Building,,,they did that on Wednesday:
Paintball...they did that on Thursday:
Tanner is in each of these pictures, by the way...see if you can find him!
Yesterday they went to the Peter Whitmer farm. A family in our ward is visiting up there now and she texted me to tell me she saw Tanner there. Then later she texted me again to say that he had given her family "an awesome mini devotional" while they were at the Hill waiting for Pageant to start.
I'm sure it will be sad for Tanner to come home but we are looking forward to seeing him again soon!
And that's all for this week, folks!
4 comments:
Annette, I've been looking around but can't find how old you have to be to be in the Cumorah work crew. Do you have to be graduated from high school?
No, you don't have to be done with high school...some of the boys on the work crew this year with Tanner are going to be seniors in high school this fall. I can't find the age requirement either, but I know you have to be at least 17 by the time Pageant starts because Tanner was not old enough to do it last summer. I believe the boys have to be 17 or 18. Maybe they have lowered the age, though, because of the lower missionary age. If you go to http://www.hillcumorah.org/Pageant/Participation/index.php it says that they will begin accepting applications for next year in September and October. I would check back then...you should be able to get the information about the work crew then. I hope that helps!!
Thanks, Annette. My son turns 17 next July 1st so I'm not sure if he'll be old enough or not but it seems like a great opportunity. I'll have to wait until September when they post applications.
Well, there was one boy on the work crew this year who turned 17 while he was there, so maybe they make a few exceptions. I'm hoping they reduce the age so Jared can apply to go next summer...he doesn't turn 17 until October (next year) though.
Post a Comment