May 14th

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
May 14, 2011

We went on an adventure this week with our Doctrine and Covenants classes. Well, not all of them but we took 2 class members for each of the two classes. And then there was the mother and the three children too. We drove to the site of the Aaronic Priesthood Restoration in Harmony,(now called Oakland), PA. The church apparently is planning to develop this site and has bought some of the lots close by the Susquehanna River. This is the monument showing John the Baptist ordaining Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.

It was a beautiful sunny warm day and we sat on the stone benches around the monument eating our lunches. There was another couple with a child there when we arrived and we found out they were LDS and traveling through. While we sat there eating our lunch, a pick-up truck with 2 missionaries and another man pulled up rather quickly. I guess the missionaries were with their Elders Quorum president and saw the crowd at the monument and had high expectations of converting lots of people. They were pretty sad as they walked up and noticed our missionary badges.

At this same site were the footings of Joseph and Emma’s home at Harmony.




Across the road from their home is the site of Emma’s parent’s home. Also just a few yards up the road is a graveyard where Emma and Joseph buried their first child that died at birth and Emma’s parents. It was quite a beautiful place with the Susquehanna River in the background. It was very awe inspiring to stand where these great people had lived, worked and had had joy and sorrow. From here we drove a little further to where we could access the river. We had to walk just a short distance down to the banks. And it is a much wider river and faster than we had anticipated. It would seem difficult for someone to easily step into this river and keep their balance easily. But we were there---approximately where Joseph and Oliver baptized each other.

This is on the spot where their house stood.

These are the two sisters Frazier that come to our classes regularly. They are part Ramapo Indian. They live in the inner city and seemed to be excited to go on this trip with us.