Our New York Trip

Our trip to New York was so amazing! This will probably be a long post...sorry. I wish I could have put all my pictures on the slide show but I have over 1000. yikes! I think we went at the best time of year! The leaves were changing and it was the perfect wheather. I couldn't get enough of the red, yellow and orange leaves! I just kept thinking Arizona is so brown. Ok, Patrick and I were invited to go by Jay and Brooke Johnson. Jay served in the same mission as Patrick. They were never comps but they both were called to the Rochester NY mission. Patrick and I were thinking about going awhile ago but always backed out and then when they invited us we just decided to do it because we dont know when our next chance would be. I am so grateful for the opportunity to have gone. It was such an uplifting and fun vacation. I am so glad that I was feeling better. I only got sick a few times but it never lasted long. I underestimated how much walking we would do and I collapsed into bed every night. I won't be able to recall the timeline exactly but basically these are the main places we went to:
New Jersey, Rochester, Palmyra, Fayette, Wellsville, New york city, Manhatten, Kirtland Ohio, Pennsylvania, Niagra Falls and Canada. NJ and PA we mainly just drove through but still. We enjoyed all the church sites. We saw the log home, John Johnson farm, Morley farm, Kirtland temple, Whitmer farm and much much more. I am so glad that we did the church tours. It strengthened my testimony so much! I was in awe just learning more about our Pioneers who suffered beyond our comprehension. These faithful people organized our church in tiny bedrooms in poor conditions. The Lord truly loved these people though. My love and adoration for Joseph Smith has increased greatly. My appreciation for the gospel has grown so much. And I just loved to watch my husband while we did all this. It is so neat to think that he was a missionary here teaching people about the restoration and the Savior. We got to meet a lady he visited often during his mission. She is an elderly lady that never joined the church but oh how she loved the missionaries. She kept them busy! She was always quick to call them when someone she knew needed help moving, mowing lawns,shoveling snow or whatever it may be. And the boys never minded eating her amazing cooking afterwards. Patrick loves this women and looks up to her so much. I think she made a life long impression on missionaries. Thanks Della! Niagra falls was absolutely beautiful! We went to the Canadian side which was breath taking! We did the Maids of the Mist tour which was so worth it! We got soaked! I loved it. We then went to New York city and went to The Manhatten temple and did baptisms. Then we went to Chinatown, Little Italy, Ground zero tour, Statue of Liberty ( so sad the tickets to go inside were sold out but the outside was still awesome) and Central Park. I am leaving out so many details but there were too many! We did a session in the Palmyra temple which was so special. We went to the Hill Cumorrah and the Sacred Grove. Wow! That was so neat! We immediately felt the spirit as we walked through. Its how I imagined it. Quiet, beautiful and peaceful. I am sure I left out very important things but all in all we had a wonderful amazing time! So many wonderful sites to see and learn more about. Thanks for the wonderul trip Patrick!