When I was 14 years old our youth group took a trip to visit the Nauvoo and Carthage Jail church history sites. I loved roaming the old dirt roads in Nauvoo, touring various buildings and homes listening to stories and collecting various souvenirs like a red brick from the brick maker, a candle stick from the candle maker, a gingerbread cookie from the baker and a nail ring from the blacksmith. I’ll always remember touring the home that Wilford Woodruff built and getting to sign a special book reserved for those who are direct descendants. Wilford Woodruff is my great, great, great, great, great grandfather! I’ll never forget the feeling I had as I visited Carthage Jail and sat in the room where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred. Those experiences are still so vivid in my mind and made a great impact.  But what really stuck with me was the spirit that touched my heart as I listened and learned and pondered about Joseph Smith and those early saints who endured and sacrificed so much. I’ve always had a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ but that experience in Nauvoo and Carthage changed me and gave my testimony an even greater foundation of truth. Since then, I’ve visited those sites several times again as a mother with my own children and as a leader with youth groups. I experienced that same powerful spirit and witness as I did the first time reconfirming my testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel.  Each time I read and study the account of The First Vision that same overwhelming feeling enters my heart again and again. The spirit witnesses to me that Joseph Smith really did see God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, that priesthood keys were restored and given to Joseph Smith who was called as a prophet of God, that the Book of Mormon is true and the restoration of the fullness of the Gospel is on the earth again. I will forever be grateful for those sweet experiences that help form and strengthen my testimony.