We awoke early on Sunday to drive to Fayette, New York, where the first meeting of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was held. We had been there the day before, to tour the Peter Whitmer Log Cabin, but thought it would be appropos to spend our Sunday worship at this singular site.
The church meetinghouse there was constructed in 1980 and used for the Sunday morning session of General Conference on April 6 that year. President Spencer W. Kimball gave an address to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ. Attending sacrament meeting there was a fantastic way to kick off our Sabbath day.
We then traveled southeast through the Finger Lakes region of New York, deciding then and there that a vacation home on one of the lakes would be a splendid idea. Not unlike the giant RV, or beach house on the Oregon Coast, or the jet boat we’ve dreamed of on previous vacations. Seriously beautiful scenery. So beautiful that we simply soaked it in and have no pictures to prove it.
Our travels landed us in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. In recent years, the church transformed this area from the simple monument that once stood marking the spot of the restoration of the Priesthood, to a more souped up version. A visitor’s center, the Hale home, the smaller Hale home that the Smiths lived in for a time, and an area of maintained land where the events surrounding the priesthood restoration were thought to have taken place (based on historical accounts).
What I would like to remember about Harmony Pennsylvania:
- Joseph met Emma (Hale) there while working for a man named Josiah Stowell. Stowell was digging for Spanish silver in the area and hired Joseph and his father for a handsome price. Within a month, Joseph determined that no silver was to be found and informed Josiah of the fact. Despite needing the salary to support their family, Joseph had the integrity to call it quits when he knew nothing was to be found. He didn’t find silver, but he did meet his future wife while they lodged with her family in Harmony.
2. The Hale home was fancy by 19th century standards. Emma grew up in privileged circumstances and enjoyed the benefits of formal education. This qualified her to become Joseph’s first scribe as he translated the Book of Mormon. It also demonstrates the amount of faith Emma had to trade her cushy circumstances and Methodist faith to convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and marry its founder, an uneducated farm boy whom her father detested. Though her father opposed their union, he later invited them to live in his home, then the home adjacent to their property, where they began work translating the Book of Mormon. Emma was also part breadwinner, Joseph being occupied with the work of the Restoration. She was a remarkable woman of faith and grit.
3. Despite artwork depicting a veil separating Joseph and the gold plates from his scribe (so as to keep the plates from the view of others), there is no indication that this ever happened. In fact, more of the records indicate that the plates were kept hidden under Emma’s tablecloth, and that Joseph did not even view them directly while translating. Based on what we know, he would use what was called a seer stone, which would somehow highlight a phrase, which he would utter to the scribe. The scribe would then record the words and read them back to Joseph. If what was uttered did not match the words indicated by the seer stone, they would halt until corrections were made. Some are weirded out by the whole idea of a seer stone, but I think that’s silly. Especially if one purports to be a religious person. Biblical accounts demonstrate the use of objects for religious purposes on several occasions (Moses’ brass serpent, the Urim and Thummim, etc.) Others are skeptical that Joseph could translate without even looking directly at the plates. But then, my husband Tim can read entire books via Audible on his phone without even looking at or touching the screen. We call it Bluetooth. We are so quick to pooh-pooh ideas that are unfathomable to us, due to our limited understanding of technology or the cosmos. If God created the universe, certainly he can figure out a way for an uneducated farm boy to translate an ancient record into English without looking at it. Seriously.
4. The restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood through John the Baptist and the Melchizedek Priesthood through Peter, James and John here in Harmony, Pennsylvania are of particular significance to me because they gave men the authority to do God’s work on the earth. It made baptism and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost available to people in this day and age. It is not enough to just say one believes in God and then go about your merry way doing what you’ve always done. God has a plan for us, and the fulfillment of that plan is predicated on our acceptance (and execution) of His requirements. Receiving and keeping priesthood ordinances/covenants is an act of faith on our part, one that binds us to Him and will eventually lead us safely back to His presence.
By the time we took the path down to the river, we were all crazy hot, not to mention tired and hungry. Anna even toyed with the idea of staying in the car, so we left it running so she wouldn’t melt in the heat and humidity. She snuck out of the car, unbeknownst to Tim, followed by Eve, who was about to shut the door, when I stopped her abruptly, seeing that Anna had exited the vehicle. Tim, out of habit, had locked the doors, which would not have been much of a problem if Anna had stayed, but since she didn’t, we were THIS close to locking our only set of keys in the car while it was running. We were all grateful that we avoided that potential disaster. Ah! On to Albany for the night!