We started our Sunday morning with a walk along a path to the church building behind our hotel. We were in for a real treat. The church members in Palmyra prepare a special Sacrament Meeting for the many visitors during pageant. What an experience to sing "Praise to the Man" and "Oh How Lovely was the Morning" next to the Sacred Grove. We heard a fabulous talk by the senior missionary who is the director of the historic sites in the area. He spoke of repentance and told us that story of Martin Harris losing 118 pages that had Ben translated from the plates. He was supposed to come meet Joseph and return the manuscript but he was very late in coming. Joseph began to get worried and Martin finally arrived at the Smith's frame house (where John & I are standing). There Martin confessed what had happened. Both men wept and were devastated. Moroni came and took back the plates and translating tools. It was a terrible experience, but it led them to repentance. As the speaker explained, "Our faith in Christ leads us to change our thoughts and actions that are not in line with God's will." I know that the power of repentance is real and that God's arm is always outstretched to us in love.
That stiring church service ended with the choir and congregation singing "The Spirit of God." It was a incredible experience. To top things off, we headed over to visit the Smith homes and stood right where Martin came to tell Joseph the bad news. We walked in the Sacred Grove one last time before we went to pick up Marianne.
She was so sad to leave her new friends and the entire pageant experience. To help cheer her up we headed to Niagra Falls. The falls were crowded, but magnificent! Since we'd already made the border crossing, we decided to go see Toronto. It was a longer drive than we expected and we were a little anxious when we realized that we didn't have phone service or internet access in Canada. How were we supposed to map where we were going? Thanks to free wifi at Starbucks and a little patience, we figured it out.
It was exciting to see the area where Aaron served his mission. Because he was serving the Korean population, he spent many months street contacting near the corner of Yonge & Finch streets. He told us about a great little Korean restaurant and we ate a delicious dinner there. John talked to the waiter and tried to find something he could eat, but everything except plain rice had salt in it. He went down the street for sushi, but when he brought his food in to eat with us, one of the waiters freaked out. John tried to explain, but they didn't speak English well. John put his food away, but a few minutes later they came and apologized and told him to please eat his dinner. It all worked out in the end. This picture shows a tired Marianne who was a little out of sorts at not being able to text her friends. We made it to our hotel in Brampton, near where Aaron's mission home was located. A good night's sleep made us all feel better.
Melanie
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