{Travel Log - Day 4 Palmyra, NY}

This morning our buses took us the short distance to The Welcome Center. The sister missionary who oriented us when we first arrived shared her testimony with us. The spirit was so strong as she shared with us, it just set the mood for the rest of the day. We then visited The Joseph Smith Family Home, The Replica of the Smith Log Home and The Sacred Grove. When I walked into the Sacred Maple Grove I checked my phone for the time. I noted that I had an hour and a half before I needed to be back at the bus... plenty of time, right? Well, my family and I walked around slowly separating from each other as we individually found a spot with a bench where we could sit and reflect. After sitting and soaking up the scenery and spirit of the place, and reading the Sacred Grove story in the JSH and humming a few hymns to myself and speaking to my Father in Heaven, writing my testimony in my journal and just having a really good spiritual experience I decided to check my phone for the time. I was 40 min late!! It didn't feel like I had been there more than 30 min, let alone 2 hours. I wasn't worried though and I started walking back to the bus. I passed one of the young gals from my bus as she was writing in her journal and felt even more ok about the time I spent in the grove. Obviously I wasn't the only one who was still in the grove. It was still quite a ways out of the grove when I received a text message from my youngest brother telling me to "run, everyone on the bus is waiting". I called him and asked if the gal I passed had a cell or if I should go back for her. Her father informed my brother that she didn't have a cell. So I started speed walking back for her. I found her heading my way and we both started a quick pace back to the bus. As we came out of the grove there stood her older brother and our tour guide. I appoligized and jokingly asked if he had the bus all cooled off for us. He then told me that we were gonna have to hitch a ride to catch up to the bus. I didn't believe him at first but the bus in fact had gone on without us and in answer to many prayers we were able to quickly find a ride to meet up with the bus just a few miles down the road for lunch. Deep down I believe I really needed that extra time in the grove and am so grateful I had that time and everything worked out. From there we headed into Palmyra Village to visit The Grandin Press Building and walk around the village. We then went to visit the LDS Palmyra Temple grounds where we had the opportunity to walk around and take pictures. I never want to forget this day and the way I felt. My testimony truly has grown today.