The Hill Cumorah Pageant

Pageant season begins on a Monday when about 20 young men age 19 - 26 show up with several adult leaders to begin set up.

By Friday they have set up hundreds of square feet of a 10 level stage, professional lighting on 12 - 30 to 50 foot towers, a ton of professional sound system and Hollywood style special effects.

The Facilities Management people lend whatever support is needed to the setting up of the visitors sites to support Pageant visitors. Elder Parkerson helped with the tents

This is a before picture of Elders Huffacker and Parkerson before mowing about 20 acres of field/parking lots. Its a lot of fun for about an hour. After 7.5 hours we didn't dare show you the "after" pictures. The dirt and grass clipping made the people unrecognizable, not to mention the inability to stand up straight for awhile.....

On Friday, July 3, this year 730 strangers show up as Pageant performers, collect scripts, identification and instructions. On the following Saturday morning they all go to the "bowl" ( a large field below the pageant stage where the audience sits and get chosen for their parts. Seven professional "scene" directors choose the actors for their scene and then rehearsals begin. By Monday they are begin to rehearse on stage and by Wednesday they are prepared for a full run through. On Thursday night is a full dress rehearsal and Friday begin the annual pageant season.

It is referred to by many as 'God's" pageant. over 800 people coming together and putting this thing together in less than a week is truly a miracle!

If you would like to know a little more then visit

www.hillcumorah.org/pageant/

there you can see the opening scene and get a lot of information. We had over 51,000 visitors to the historic sites during pageant. I cleaned more toilets this week than I have in my entire life!

Its been a lot of hard work but a lot of fun too.

I had an interesting experience while heading towards one of our anti-Mormon visitors who was yelling insults to the pageant visitors. I was intercepted by an "usher" who "insisted" I not "visit" with the protester. In a conversation with him I discovered he was not really an usher but a security guard, retained by the Church to "protect" the protesters from the members who they were insulting! It is a move by the Church to prevent law suits as the protesters are on church property yelling insults at the members of the church and if they were to have an "accident" at the hands of some members the church could be sued in court. Oh well you got to love America for the freedom to stand on someone else's property, violate them and be protected by law. Also found out the "Mike" shows up every

year, they know him by name, and he is from Rochester. He is paid money by some anti organization to come down here every night and yell and protest. The others were mostly locals dressed in hobo attire.

The only justice is that once an opening prayer is given the pageant is then deemed a "religious" meeting and if the protesters make any sounds they will be arrested by the sheriffs that are standing by and hauled off to jail for disturbing a religious meeting. They did one last year and it didn't happen again this year.

Other than that it was a beautiful pageant season. It did get rained out the first Saturday night. Actually they will perform in the rain but the intense lightning and thunder with over 700 people on a steel stage was too much of a risk so they ended Saturday night at the death of Abinidi scene.

Our love to all of you who are following, praying and supporting us in our Mission Adventure.

A Night At The Museum

Early July brings about the annual Hill Cumorah Pageant. The Hill Cumorah Pageant brings about a whole lot of extra work.

We call this post " a Night at the Museum" because it details a bit of our work (outside of the bathrooms that we needed to clean) One thing that is kind of neat is the ability to clean and get behind the "barriers" where the regular visitors can't get. Here Sister Parkerson is standing in the "bindery" where the Book of Mormon was most probably bound together.

Here is a copy of the original printers manuscript which the Book of Mormon was set in type by.

Elder Parkerson was standing next to the printing press that was exactly the same type of standing press that the Book of Mormon was printed on. It would have been the latest invention and was the most advanced printing press in the country. It was shipped on the Erie Canal which has just recently been completed.

Geoff is standing next to a display case which holds one of the original 5000 copies of the "Book of Mormon". A volume like this one sold at an antique book auction in New Hampshire a few years ago for over $40,000. While the antique books are of great value the words which they contain are priceless!

Elder Parkerson at E. B. Grandin's old desk. This is the room that Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration, Martin Harris, and E. B. Grandin would have been sitting in when they signed that contract, Martin putting up 150 acres of his farm where we are living, to cover the cost of printing the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon.

Sister Parkerson behind the counter of the bookstore section of Mr. Grandin's printing establishment. Behind are replicas of old paper back/bound books which were the most common of the day. Paper back books were far more afforable. The Book of Mormon was to be bound in pigskin leather. It would sell for $1.25 or about 3 days wages of that day. It was a book of great worth. It is today.


There was and is a special "Spirit" in that building as one works and cleans there. Although E.B was not converted by the book, one of the workers in the bindery was. As one learns of the history that took place and the miracles of the creation of the Book of Mormon from its translation to the completion of the first edition, its coming forth was truly miraculous.

Late June - Early July

Still catching up. Sister Parkerson ( I strongly Suspect) had something major to do with a marathon effort to have me receive 60 birthday cards for my 60th birthday. It was almost a complete success.. I actually got 58 birthday cards. Oh how I wouldn't mind being 58 again or better still 48! I have told some that I feel like a 30 year old mind trapped in a 60 year old body. I feel like a healthy strong construction worker in an old house that is starting to fall down around me.....

Well we have this assignment for the rest of the summer to keep the lawns mowed at the old farm house which the church owns adjacent to the HCVC. I am getting a little proficient at running one of these zero turn lawnmowers. So like Tom Sawyer I figured its time to share the fun. I had a bit of a job convincing her to get on it. Actually I had the wisdom and foresight to actually have her drive it around for a little bit before showing her how to activate
the mower deck...........

She now loves to drive it and I almost have to fight her to get my turn....

Sister Parkerson and Sister Huffacker were going to have a 2,500psi squirt gun fight but decided it would be more fun to pressure wash the outside of the Palmyra Temple.

They really enjoy working together. They really are like a couple of sisters.

They spent the whole day washing just one side of the temple.

They both took turns holding this stool down!

We both ( of course she's the one taking the pictures as usual) had an assignment to install lawn edging around the flower beds in front to the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center ( HCVC) so that the dirt wouldn't run all over the sidewalk.

After a good workout the zero turn mowers need to have the blades sharpened. We have this really neat mineature lift that can be used to put heavy stuff up over your head for working on it.

Sisters Huffacker and Parkerson enjoy gardening, planting, watering and tending the beautiful gardens around the Smith Farm, the Yellow Mills Farm house, and our garden behind the Harris House. They also work on some plantings around the Harris House, the Temple, and other areas.

Tomato plants at the Yellow Mills Farm where the Huffackers live.

This is the farm garden near the Joseph Smith Log Home on the Smith Farm property. We all worked on planting it with plants that the Huffackers started in February. Almost every visitor stop and admires these gardens.

Every missionary that you can talk to will tell you that theirs is the best mission in the whole church. Well they are all wrong. Sister Parkerson and I have the best mission in the whole church.

Cabin Restoration

A special week and a half of training for Elder Parkerson.

It was discovered last year that several of the logs in the walls of the Whitmer Farm log cabin have rotted and were in serious condition. Elder Young was serving in the Palmyra NY FMG at the time. Being a master carpenter of sorts he was called in to figure out what to do. He had a dream one night of how to repair the logs and has been working hard on them tis spring. It was learned that he would not be able to complete the task before his mission was finished so they invited me to learn how to do it. Here's me in my favorite position about a story up!

First you have to loosen up a log that needs major repair. You have to jack hammer out all the mortar and chinking that surrounds the log.

Then you remove bad log from the building. Not necessarily an easy feat as even rotten logs are heavy. In many cases though you don't have to take the log out of the building and can effectivly repair it in place.

After removing the log you bring it down where you can work on it. You have to remove any and all rotten material. Sometimes the log is so bad that you have to make a form to hold the pieces in place while you prepare to fill it with concrete. The log is then prepared with an epoxy based sealer to lessen further rotting and to protect the log from any chemical action by the concrete.

The prepared log is now hoisted back up on the scaffolding in preparation for filling with concrete.

Concrete is mixed on the ground, passed up in buckets and tamped into the waiting log. It is leveled and shaped and allowed to harden.

Now we are ready to slide the cement filled log back into teh building. And I thought it was heavey before the concrete was added!

The repaired log is now set into place where the notches hold it in place and mortar mix is used to fill in between the logs. After that hardens a good caot of "chinking" is applied between the logs. After that hardens you wouldn't even know that the log was worked on. It may sound easy but with the drying times for the epoys, glues and concrete and mortar it takes almost a week to do one log. It was fun and interesting. Now the Peter Whitmer farm house where the Church was organized will stand well for another 50 years...

Best wishes to all.

June 14 - 22, 2009

Well Pagent and the aftermath is over for this year and I guess its time to get this Blog caught up. I am weeks behind with Sister Parkerson's hundreds of pictures to identify and a Blog layout and program that I absouletely hate. It is the most user unfriendly thing I've ever had the mispleasure of using but its free so I can't complaint too much. I don't know if there is anyone even following this anymore.

Elders Parkerson & Murphy woring on rebuiding a Kawasaki engine that runs a 6 person transporter cart that the Pagent people use to bring disabled folks in from the parking lots. We got it done and running before Pagent!

We have a really nice shop with a car lift, welding equipment and a full compliment of mechanics tools.

We got to go strawberry picking on a Saturday off. The weather was warm and wonderful and the berries plentiful. The farmer would take you out into his field on a wagon pulled by his tractor and drop you off to pick. It was a lot of fun. We are looking forward to returning as they also grow cherries, rasperries, corn and peas.

Sunday, Fathers Day Sheri from the FM office managed to organize a surprise 60th Birthday party for Elder Parkerson. It was quite a surprise as I never expected it. I think Sister Parkerson also played a roll in it. We had a really nice afternoon and evening. All of the Senior couples we work with were there.

From the left is Elder Huffacker ( Sister Huffacker is taking the picture) Elder & Sister Parkerson, Sister Sheri and her husband Peter Baxendale (our hostess and office manager), behind Sister Sheri is Elder Murphy, Elder & Sister Picanco, and Elder and Sister Young

For anyone who isn't aware of it yet our e-mail address is

gaparkerson@gmail.com. So if you ccan't find a way to leave a message here don't hesitate to send off an e-mail. Also as our home is 2095 Maple Avenue, Palmyra all our mail should be sent to Elder or Sister Parkerson, 653 State Route 21, Palmyra, New York, 14522. Our apartment telephone number is 315- 597- 1567 and we now have an answering machine. Our love to all of you.