The Sacred Grove 06.23.08

As you can see behind us, as we stand facing the Palmyra temple, the church cleared a few trees so that a clear vision to the sacred grove could be seen by those visiting the temple. The celestial room has a clear window, the only such temple in the world, that allows the exact same view to the grove.



In Palmyra township is a small cemetery where the Smith's buried Alvin. The church improved his grave stone, as at the time they could only afford an engraved flat stone to mark his grave.

This is the E.B. Grandin press where the Book of Mormon was first published. The tour was very nice, and of course, we met someone that knew someone we knew...it's always a small world...

It was a special moment for our family to be here at the sacred grove. There is a small ampitheater in the grove that youth groups will come for firesides. We went as a family and bore our testimonies to each other. According the missionaries, there are seven "witness trees," or trees old enough to have been alive during the First Vision. We wish we could have known this before we went through so we could have had our eyes on the lookout for old trees. The original Smith farm covered 100 acres, and the grove itself is now very small. However, there are many stories of how this particular grove of trees was never cleared. There is little doubt that this was the spot.