A visit to the Joseph Smith farm

After our jaunt to the state park on Saturday afternoon, we had planned to head back to the Budget Inn for a brief rest. We just couldn't resist a stop at the Joseph Smith farm.

This log cabin is a reproduction of where young Joseph and his family lived.

Years later, the Smith family would move into a larger house. Pictured above, one of the several bedrooms in the new home. Eighty-five percent of the original structure still stands. We learned many facts about Joseph Smith and his family – for example, his brother contracted a horrible sickness (possibly acute appendicitis) and gangrene spread through much of his body in approximately two days).

Our tour guides here and throughout the weekend were young sisters, most on mission. Unfortunately, we were expressly prohibited from videotaping these women, young and old, while they were speaking. Each spoke softly and sweetly, staring at the ground and clipping off the end of their sentences. The syntax of the women we heard throughout the weekend was completely consistent and unique to this group. Each presentation ended with a soliloquy constituting the sister's "testimony." Heads bowed, hands wringing, each sister would say, "I know in my heart that you will feel a spirit of peace in this holy place," or speak of "Heavenly Father's" tender mercies in preserving Joseph Smith's farm, or the Sacred Grove. By Saturday afternoon, we all felt that some profound organizing force engenders a remarkable uniformity in these missionaries, even in their speech.