|
Thirty-six students from Brigham Young
University-Idaho returned on October 6, 2005 from a month-long
expedition on the Mormon American Travel Studies Tour.
The tour started on September 6 with students visiting the LDS
Church History Museum and Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah.
From Salt Lake City, the students flew to Richmond, Va., where
they spent the next week visiting sites in the area including
the Jamestown Settlement, Petersburg National Battlefield,
Arlington National Cemetery and museums, galleries and monuments
in Washington D.C.
Other highlights from the tour included visiting Joseph Smith’s
birthplace, spending time in the Sacred Grove, attending
sacrament meeting in Palmyra, visiting the Kirtland Temple,
touring Carthage Jail and performing baptisms for the dead in
the Nauvoo Temple.
“After being in places where the Saints had been, I felt a
greater amount of gratitude for them than ever before,” Shawn
Boyle, a sophomore from Shelley, Idaho, said. “I loved every
church history site we visited, especially Carthage Jail because
of the unique feeling and deep reverence there.”
The experience was Boyle’s first time to tour the east coast and
church history sites was the case for a majority of students on
the trip.
“It’s an amazing educational experience,” Robert Bird, a member
of the English Department at
BYU-Idaho and sponsor for the trip, said.
“The Program offers an intense experience with the literature,
history and religion of America’s past. Students tour
Monticello, the mountaintop home of Thomas Jefferson, read Henry
David Thoreau’s Walden on the shores of the pond, study Joseph
Smith’s visions in the Kirtland Temple and hear Abraham
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in the cemetery on the battlefield.
Being on site helps students visualize the history, see the
connections and understand the contexts,” Bird said.
Boyle also felt the trip was a great missionary experience.
“There were several opportunities for missionary work. Our bus
driver wasn’t a member and at the end of the trip, we gave him a
Book of Mormon. Many doors were opened to talk about the
church,” Boyle said.
The tour takes place each year from September to October.
Enrollment is limited to 40 students on a first come, first
serve basis. Those interested in applying can visit
http://www.byui.edu/travelprograms/mormon_american_travel_studies_files/default.htm. |