Visit to NY -- Church History Sites - 2009

A BIG WELCOME to Clint, Katie and Corgin!
April 29, 2009
A visit to the Church History Sites in Palmyra, NY
and a fun visit with Grandpa & Grandma Hamblin.

The first morning here brought a walk in the Sacred Grove at the 

Smith farm.  It's early spring and the leaves are just beginning to appear.

A fun time on the golf carts at the Girl's Camp on Seneca Lake.
A nice visit with Elder and Sister Taylor from Pocatello, ID too.

Their visit to the Peter Whitmer farm in Fayette, NY

OUR VISIT TO NIAGARA FALLS:

Everyone loved the boat ride on the The Maid of the Mist,

But we did get WET, really WET!!

Grandpa and Grandma loved the
Falls, both the American Falls (right) and the Horsehoe Falls (left).

Corgin loved the tulips, too.

After our trip into the Falls on the Maid of the Mist, we went

over to the Hard Rock Cafe

for lunch, it was lots of fun.

THE HILL CUMORAH

l

Atop the Hill Cumorah is the 

Angel Moroni monument, 

it is a beautiful marker and 

has scenes from the Restoration period on each side.

Corgin loved the 

steps down to the monument.
"Look Mom, I can do it myself."

Corgin wanted to run down the hill so off they went -- it was pretty steep, but FUN.

At the bottom of the Hill Cumorah is the large stone monument of the Book of Mormon. A favorite picture spot.

Inside the Visitor's Center is a

large Christus statue in a

setting of the Sacred Grove.

A special picture spot.

What a treat for Corgin, to sit at the feet of the Savior!

And he is aptly awed and reverent.

Along the trail at Watkins Glen.
Beautiful waterfalls and pools along the steep narrow canyon.

The long walk back from the Watkins Glen waterfalls.

A free ride and jump along the Watkins Glen trail!

Corgin loved the big dry leaves, they tickled!!!

Corgin tried every morning to eat the glass fruit on Grandma's table.

And he proved he could run away from Grandpa.

We loved the visit and seeing our cute grandchildren and our great grand Corgin.
WE WISH YOU A SAFE JOURNEY HOME
WITH OUR LOVE.

SPrinG in the SAcReD GRoVE

Spring

Warmth has FINALLY decided to come to Western New York. 

The Sacred Grove is beginning to show signs of Spring.

Early spring flowers blooming,

buds are popping, geese are
honking, birds are singing,
ducks are swimming.

"Bees were humming, sweet birds singing
Music ringing through the Grove."

"When within the shady wood land
Joseph sought the God of love."

"Joseph's humble prayer was answered
For he saw the living God."

INTERNATIONAL DAY

A few days ago we were at the Peter Whitmer Farm in Fayette, NY and we had quite a day. I think we had about 36 visitors, but the remarkable thing about it was that in those visitors we had people from 9 nations!! There was a family from Sweden, a young couple from France, some from Australia, England, Ireland, Wales, So. Africa, Zambia and of course, the United States. And one of those from the U.S. was a native of Tonga. We could hardly believe what a host of different nationalities were represented in just that one day. Elder Hamblin (Dad, Grandpa -- whoever that guy is - HA!) said it was surely fulfillment of prophecy:

"And ye shall go forth in the power of my Spirit, preaching my gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, declaring my word like unto angels of God. . . . .
And I give unto you a commandment that then ye shall teach them unto all men; for they shall be taught unto all nations, kindreds, tongues and people."

Doctrine & Covenants 42:6 and 58

It's fulfillment of prophecy, except we didn't need to go anywhere else because the Lord was bringing them to us.

HOORAY FOR THE GOSPEL!!

6 April 1830 -- 6 April 2009

The Peter Whitmer Farm -- Fayette, NY





Today was the 179th Anniversary of the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Fayette, NY. We were there today holding a Zone Conf. and reviewed all the things pertaining to the organization of the Church, it was pretty neat!


(Sisters: Harris and Porter; Baez and Catalludi)

This is a picture of four of our young Sister missionaries -- this was taken last summer and some of them have already finished their missions and gone home. This is the sign at the Whitmer Farm which is the visitor's first introduction to this Historical Site.

Today -- 6 April 2009

It still looks like winter time at the Peter Whitmer log home -- rainy and cold. But we were there!

Cozy and warm inside the log home. We stood where the Prophet Joseph Smith stood as he organized the Church 179 years ago. What a wonderful blessing in our lives to be able to serve here at these Sacred Places! It is great to see how the Church has grown, from the foundation of 6 members and is now at 13 and a half million. This is the TRUE Church, Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the Restoration, and the Book of Mormon is true and going forth to the whole world by the work of the missionaries and members.

"For it shall come to pass in that day, that every man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language" Doctrine & Covenants 90:11

It all started HERE in Palmyra and Fayette, NY. What a great blessing to the World!!

On This Day in History -- 9 March 1930

My Ray was born ---

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Ray! (DAD, GRANDPA, UNCLE, BROTHER, ELDER, etc)
Today is Ray's 79th Birthday -- and he's still going strong!

What a delight for him to be able to continue serving the Lord, even at this advanced stage of his life. Hoooorah!!

We continually look back on our lives in wonder and awe at all the wonderful things we've been able to do -- it is certainly a treasure book of memories!

From our early struggles with getting Ray's schooling finished and starting our family, to all the years in the Church Educational System (Arizona, Montana and Utah) and the joys of missionary service (Barbados, West Indies; Roanoke, VA; St. George, UT; and Palmyra, NY) we have enjoyed the choice blessings of our Heavenly Father.

We have three WONDERFUL children -- Kevin, Kristi, and Glenn and they have blessed our lives continually. And then they have given us eleven ADORABLE grandchildren -- (4) Kristin, Justin, Kyle, Kelley; (5) Jaron, Trisha, Clinton, Tanessa, Jacob; (2) Brooke, Jacob. And in turn some of those grandchildren have married and have given us eight simply DARLING little great grandchildren -- Emmy, Carter, Ashton, Lilly; Ali, Grant; Corgin; Addi. (P.S. I want to add that we also have some GREAT in-laws in our family: son-in-law Brent Simonson; daughters-in-law Edith Ann Hamblin and Susan Hamblin. And several grandchildren in-laws: Heather Simonson; Katie Simonson; Daniel Evans; Jacob Larsen.) What else could we ever want?? All of you have blessed our lives tremendously!! THANK YOU!

Ray has had a wonderful life -- from his carefree days in Eagar, AZ where he enjoyed the small town atmosphere of knowing everybody in town and sharing his life with lots of relatives and many great friends. Enjoying his life as a "cowboy" and small town "dude."

We met in Provo, UT when he came to go to college at BYU. Here he found another fun family to be a part of his life, he loved them and they loved him! It was a school year romance for 2 years, with Ray returning home each summer to work for the US Forest Service. Then in June 1950 he accepted a mission call and served in the West Central States Mission for 2 years. We became engaged in Nov. 1951 with a "mail order" ring sent from the missionfield. Ha! He returned from his mission in June and we were married August 15, 1952 -- six weeks after his return. It has been a wonderful life together!!

The purpose of this little bit of history is to let all of our family (children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren) know what a GREAT man this Grandpa is. He honors his Priesthood and loves the Lord, he has a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He loves serving the Lord and also serving all those around him; he loves all of his family with honorable devotion and sacrifices many times so others can be comfortable and enjoy life.

He has always made my life enjoyable and happy and I THINK I WILL KEEP HIM!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HONEY!!!

Winter Blah

I haven't posted for awhile, so thought I'd better do a little blogging. This is the slow wintertime here in western NY and we'd like to hibernate like everyone else does, but we keep going to the Sites and we still go teaching with the Sister missionaries -- even if it's a slow & stormy day.


The weather has warmed up some from the zero temperatures we had for a few weeks, now it's rainy and windy. With all the snow we have it could make things pretty soggy.

We have transfers this week and Zone Conf. next week, so we will be doubly busy. We worked at the Visitor's Center at the Hill Cumorah today and had about 35 visitors, so it was fun to see some people coming again. There were lots of the Sister missionaries who were hanging around too, so that's always interesting and full of fun. Last week we had a cute couple from Brazil visit at the Grandin Bldg. Elder Hamblin and I took them on the tour and they really loved it. During the tour they confided in us that they had not been active in the Church for several years, but that he had just taken a new job and had been sent to Geneva, NY for some training. When they saw that it was only about 15 miles to Palmyra, they decided to come and see the Church History Sites -- the Grandin bldg. was their first stop. He was quite emotional and really sincere when he told me he thought this must have been the reason he was sent here for training and she was in tears by the time we had shared our testimonies. They could hardly wait to get to the Smith Farm and the Sacred Grove. She hugged and hugged me when they were ready to leave and I'm sure the Spirit had touched their hearts. It felt so good to have someone respond so tenderly like that!!

There's not much new going on here. Oh, we do have a new piece of furniture -- this sweet companion I live with bought me a new rocker/recliner. The old chair here in the apt. was killing my back, so we splurged and bought an inexpensive (but nice) one that we can leave for someone else to enjoy when we go home. It's a great improvement!

A WinTer DaY at the SMitH FaRm!!

A quick follow-up on our Saturday:

We worked our shift at the Temple in the morning, then had the afternoon shift at the Joseph Smith Farm. We had 31 visitors from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. I think nearly all of them also visited the Sacred Grove after their tour of the Welcome Center and the Log Home and the Frame Home (our 1/2 mi. walking tour). The Sacred Grove walk meant "breaking trail" thru the snow -- and they'd come back nearly frozen. Then they'd thaw out a little and say how they loved the tour and the Grove.

It was the beginning of the 3-day holiday weekend I guess that brought more people than usual. Some of them were Dental students from Buffalo and their little families, and some were from Utah and around that were taking advantage of Southwest Airlines half-price special "if you fly to or thru Buffalo, NY."

All is well, we too "thawed out" after our busy afternoon!!!

SNOWY and COLD!