Day #21 Church and Sharon, VT

We left the beach and went to church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was a smallish ward and they were very friendly. The senior couple who spoke had just returned from serving a mission in Sacramento, CA. They have only been members for seven years. They did a great job. The teacher in Relief Society brought cookies and so did another lady. I teased them that I was coming back next week! ;)

After church we drove about two hours to Sharon, Vermont, the birthplace of the Prophet Joseph Smith. It is tucked back in the small towns of Vermont. It is beautiful.
We heard the amazing story of how the granite pilar was commissioned to be made. It was made 38 1/2 feet high for the age he was when he was martyred. It was cut out of one solid, unblemished stone and it was completed in less than six months, just in time for the 100th birthday of the Prophet in 1905. The last six miles up to the birth site took three weeks to move the stone pilar by wagon. They used teams of oxen and horses and pull it up the hill. There was a muddy patch in the road and everyone asked the man in charge (can't remember his name) how he was going to get this heavy load through the mud. He answered he didn't know but he was going to go home and pray about it. That night the temperature dropped 35 degrees and in the morning the heavy load drove over the frozen mud without a problem. Very cool story I hadn't ever heard before.
We walked down the path through the woods to the home of Solomon Mack, Lucy Mack's father. He owned the property where Joseph Sr and Lucy Smith lived when Joseph was born. He was the only child of theirs to be born there in Sharon.
There was certainly a special spirit there at the site!