2 Hills

Happy Easter!  Today was such a lovely day.  We got home late last night, luckily the Easter Bunny had done her work and baskets were filled and hiding in my closet so I she the bunny was able to hide them in the children's rooms ready to be found this morning. 

Bright and early this morning Lu found her's and woke everyone else.  We did some cooking and getting ready and headed off to church.  Sacrament meeting was especially especially good today.  I loved the talks and the music and felt the spirit so strongly.  We are so blessed to have a Saviour who died for us.  We are sooo blessed to have the blessings of the atonement and resurrection.  It is truly a miracle.

After church we went to the Martines' and enjoyed a lovely dinner with some great friends.  Then tonight I went and picked up a check from the YW fundraiser for the orphanage.  They raised over $800!! I can not believe it!  Jenna and the other cute interns will be able to buy so many books and things the orphanage needs.  Amazing!

So I was thinking about our trip, and the sites we saw and the places we went.  We visited 2 hills that could not be more different from each other.  Our first hill was the Hill Cumorah.  It was quiet and peaceful, the things that happened there were sacred and special.  The feelings we had there were strengthening to testimony, building to family ties, and will be forever etched in my heart and memory.  The children ran and played and laughed but it was the sweet wholesome laughter of youth.  We enjoyed nature and each other and felt such joy that the Book of Mormon was brought forth, that the gospel was restored, that a boy prophet gave his life to the building of the kingdom of God on earth.
The second hill was Clifton Hill, Niagra Falls "fun street".  We drove onto the street and it was lined with wax museums, haunted houses, cosmic golf, unusual sights and thrilling rides, oddities and opportunities to spend $$$, eat too much, gamble and make merry.  We stayed there and the streets were full of the whole time, they were crowded with families dropping money, squeezing their way from event to event looking for fun and there was fun to be found, but it was noisey  and hectic and in stark contrast to the peace and joy that is found in the gospel. 

It was so interesting to me.  Not that fun is bad, it's not and we enjoyed our visit but there is a difference between the joy the gospel offers and the fun the world offers and to see them side by side was an interesting comparison.