Monday, December 19, 2022

A Stroll Down Stafford Road

 

My brother, Kris, reminded me that I hadn’t been writing in my blog, and I agreed with him that it is high time that I share the feelings and experiences of this place.

Today, we worked as tour guides at the Smith Farm. Although I have walked Stafford Road, which passes through the middle of the Farm, many times, I always sense the same, wonderful spirit as I walk down it through the farm fields, past the apple orchard, and to the heart of the farm. I know that I am walking where the Prophet Joseph Smith had walked countless times as a young man, and where his mother, father, brothers, sisters, and his wife also walked. The testimony of all those people seems to surround me, as I see the same sights they saw. I can almost hear their voices in the fields as they worked. The Smith family lived here for nearly 12 years, working together. They were a very close-knit family.

As I have learned the stories told about their time here by Lucy, the mother, and by others in the family, I have grown to sense their complete support for their son and brother, Joseph Smith Jr. They believed that he had seen the Father and the Son and that he was meeting with the Angel Moroni. They saw the covered golden plates and hefted them as they helped Joseph to protect them. His mother, father, brothers and sisters and also his wife, who knew him very well, were willing to sacrifice everything to follow him as he left the farm and followed the Lord’s directions.

That’s what I sense when I walk down Stafford Road, not just Joseph but his whole family confirming that it is all true.

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