DAY 20 – July 18, 2012 – Mendon NY and Palmyra

Before I get going I want to post this blog:  http://www.servossnyr.blogspot.com/

This is the missionary’s blog that shared us the tour of Mendon.  His site has some stories and information about Mendon, and is well worth looking at.

Brigham Young’s Mill and Home Site

We started the morning at 8:30 am with a tour continued in Mendon.  If you head east on the road that John Young’s home is on the first speed limit sign you see (about 200 yards away) on the right side of the road there is a creek that heads south.  If you follow that creek it will lead you to the back of the churches property where there is a sign showing you where Brigham Young’s Mill and home were located.

Elder Servoss also shared with us a drawing that one of the locals did for a school project in the early 1900’s.  She was trying to figure out what Brigham Young’s Mill would have looked like, and based on her interviews, she diagrammed how she thought the mill would have appeared.  He game me a copy of that.

Area they believe Brigham had dammed up and they performed baptisms there.

There is a sign there that says that Brigham Young was baptized there, but that is not correct.  If you follow a path that is on your left when you are facing the sign, it will take you to a small bridge that crosses the creek.  They think it was in that area that so many in Mendon were baptized.  Brigham had dammed up the water there to build pressure for his Mill, and it was a great place to baptize people.

After we visited these sites we separated from the group and headed up to the Tomlinson Cemetery.  There are gravestones for President Kimball’s grandfather, and Brigham Young’s wife.  One neat story about Brigham’s wife…she was sick in bed with tuberculosis.  But after reading the Book of Mormon she wanted to get baptized.  So she got out of her sick bed to be baptized in the creek.  A couple of months later she died.  What faith these people had.

This is the skyline looking down from Tomlinson Cemetery. We read Heber’s vision here as we looked over the valley.

While we were up at Tomlinson’s Cemetery, you have a perfect view of the valley, where the Young’s homes were, and the Inn.  You can see the sky from the East to the West.  Heber C. Kimball’s vision happened in the sky over this area.  So we sat in Tomlinson’s Cemetery and read his vision.  Both he and Brigham Young had the same vision on the same day.  And later in Kirtland they started sharing the story with each other and realized they both had seen it.  The vision happened on the day the prophet received the Gold Plates.

There were a couple more homes we could have driven by in Mendon, but we thought that was a great way to end that part of the trip and headed to Palmyra.  Mendon was so much more than we expected.  It’s a place I would love to learn more about, the it is so thick with history.  I was told if anyone wants to learn more about Mendon that there are a series of books written.  The first one is called “The Mendon Saints: Their Lives and Legacy” by Stephen G. Schwendiman.  I was told it has so much information about these Saints it is going to take him 4 volumes (I believe is what I was told) to tell their story.  Definitely something I will be looking for when I get home.

We drove into Palmyra, and had time to walk through the front part of the visitors center and watch their new movie “The Restoration”.  They also had a display of old Pageant Costumes that our kids loved.  It was clear from the beginning this was going to be nothing like Nauvoo’s Pageant.  Everything was so colorful and intricate…the kids were very excited.

Palmyra Temple

After the movie, we had to rush out to make it to the Palmyra Temple so the boys could do baptisms. The Palmyra Temple is beautiful, and overlooks the Sacred Grove.  It is quite a site.

After the baptisms we had a little free time for dinner and cleanup before the Pageant.  We got to the pageant just as it was getting dark.  As we walked out of the parking lot to the seats we were greeted by Nephites and Lamanites.  They have some of the people in the pageant out to welcome everyone.  It was fun to look at their costumes.  We probably passed 60 costumed people greeting us before we got to our seats.

You could tell right from the beginning this was not Nauvoo.  The set is way more complex, and that’s what we thought before the show, once the show started we realized this was an understatement.  The set looks like South American ruins.  But during the pageant, waterfalls came out of this set, fire shot out from multiple spots.  Mist and water surrounded a large boat as it crossed the ocean, and what looked like volcanic matter shot from this set.  They also had a baptismal font in it, two different places for people to be burned on the set, and Christ came out of the heavens, which left my younger children speechless.

The Palmyra Pageant

Everything about the Palmyra pageant is large, the costumes, set, and the scope of the story they tell (they go through many stories in the Book of Mormon).  It was a must see, and you could never choose between the Nauvoo Pageant or the Palmyra, they are just too different pageants completely.  I have some kids that said they would love to be in the Nauvoo Pageant, and others said they would much rather be in the Palmyra Pageant, and all for different reasons.

Warhead passed the shed where they stored props including all the Book of Mormon weapons, he just stopped to drool and said, “Look at that toybox!”  He has made sure to walk back by that shed multiple times.

It was a great night.  We were all so exhausted, we don’t stop too often.  I don’t know how Mr. S is doing it, because our rest time, is usually when he is driving.  But everyone including Mr. S is loving this trip.

Summary of Day 20
Drove: 72 miles

Places we visited or saw:
Brigham Young was baptized Brigham Young’s Area where old Mill was and Baptismal Site, Tomlinson’s Cemetery, Palmyra Visitor’s Center, Palmyra Temple, Palmyra Pageant

Favorite thing we did today:
Jawbreaker: Palmyra Temple
Everyone Else: Palmyra Pageant
Mrs. S: Palmyra Pageant, and Tomlinson Cemetery