Church History - Day Four

First stop of the day was the Smith homesite near the Susquehanna River where a good deal of the Book of Mormon was translated. The bus driver exibited some extrodiany skill in backing the bus up a half-mile on a muddy road so that we could walk down near the river where Joseph and Oliver went often to pray. The driver Dan and his wife sang Sweet Hour of Prayer for us there along the bank of the river.



We then had a fun stop at a grocery store near Binghamton to stock up on goodies and eat lunch.

In Elmira, NY, we had stopped at Elmira College for a short talk on Mark Twain, whose wife was from there. Mark Twain travelled to Salt Lake City and had some humorous, if unflattering, things to say about the Mormons. On the campus they have the eight-sided study his sister-in-law built for him where Tom Sawyer, among others, was written. We continued the session at Mark Twain's grave.

We had a long transit from Elmira, New York, to Erie, Pennsylvania, which we passed quickly as we took turns introducing ourselves. It is quite a diverse group with members from New Zeland, Austraila, and Cananda. A good portion are from Utah, and most are retired, but there are several mother-daughter teams. The introductions were followed by a quiz. The question for me was "who is pretending to be a batchelor because his wife is afraid to fly?" I also burned a DVD and previewed the first three days of video for everyone on the bus's DVD system.

We had a buffet dinner in Erie, and then got back on the bus for another hour and a half ride to Kirtland, Ohio. We arrived after 10 p.m., but by now had the key/luggage/room drill down and were quickly settled in for the night.