Sacred Grove & Hill Cumorah: I Will Not Deny The Christ

My husband and I visited some church history sites a few years ago and have been wanting to take the kids. So when we heard that you’re now able to walk the grounds of some sites even though tours and visitor’s centers are still closed, we made it happen! We visited the Sacred Grove at dawn today, walking the paths as the sun poked through the trees, and then stopping to pray and think. I loved sharing this holy, peaceful place with my kids! So much of who I am hinges on what happened here 200 years ago, as God the Father and His Son appeared to an earnest 14-year-old. And now that I have a 14-year-old, it really puts it into perspective.

We also visited the Hill Cumorah where I had a really beautiful experience. I felt so close to God, and had the thought to read some of Moroni’s last words before sealing up the plates. I felt such a connection to him, sitting on the very hill he buried the plates he had abridged and preserved. The very hill where ALL but 24 of the Nephites, Moroni’s brethren, were killed in battle. The very hill he appeared to Joseph Smith, instructing him year after year until he was ready to receive the plates. The very hill the record went from darkness to light!

I felt immense gratitude for The Book of Mormon. I love that book more every time I read it. It’s like a light is turned on, the words just for me, so profound and familiar, aligning with what I know in my soul.

I wish I could go back in time and witness the events for myself at these sacred places. But I felt pretty darn close today.

“Therefore I will write and hide up the records in the earth; and whither I go it mattereth not...

And blessed be he that shall bring this thing to light; for it shall be brought out of darkness unto light, according to the word of God; yea, it shall be brought out of the earth, and it shall shine forth out of darkness, and come unto the knowledge of the people; and it shall be done by the power of God.”

Mormon 8:4,16

“I make not myself known to the Lamanites lest they should destroy me... because of their hatred they put to death every Nephite that will not deny the Christ.

And I, Moroni, will not deny the Christ.” 

Moroni 10:2-3