The Prophet Joseph Smith’s own words about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon are:

“On the evening of the … twenty-first of September [1823] … I betook myself to prayer and supplication to Almighty God. …

“While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor.

“He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and brilliant. His hands were naked, and his arms also, a little above the wrist; so, also, were his feet naked, as were his legs, a little above the ankles. His head and neck were also bare. I could discover that he had no other clothing on but this robe, as it was open, so that I could see into his bosom.

“Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning. The room was exceedingly light, but not so very bright as immediately around his person. When I first looked upon him, I was afraid; but the fear soon left me.

“He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.

“He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants;

“Also, that there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim—deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted ‘seers’ in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book. …

“Again, he told me, that when I got those plates of which he had spoken—for the time that they should be obtained was not yet fulfilled—I should not show them to any person; neither the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim; only to those to whom I should be commanded to show them; if I did I should be destroyed. While he was conversing with me about the plates, the vision was opened to my mind that I could see the place where the plates were deposited, and that so clearly and distinctly that I knew the place again when I visited it.

“After this communication, I saw the light in the room begin to gather immediately around the person of him who had been speaking to me, and it continued to do so until the room was again left dark, except just around him; when, instantly I saw, as it were, a conduit open right up into heaven, and he ascended till he entirely disappeared, and the room was left as it had been before this heavenly light had made its appearance.

“I lay musing on the singularity of the scene, and marveling greatly at what had been told to me by this extraordinary messenger; when, in the midst of my meditation, I suddenly discovered that my room was again beginning to get lighted, and in an instant, as it were, the same heavenly messenger was again by my bedside.

“He commenced, and again related the very same things which he had done at his first visit, without the least variation; which having done, he informed me of great judgments which were coming upon the earth, with great desolations by famine, sword, and pestilence; and that these grievous judgments would come on the earth in this generation. Having related these things, he again ascended as he had done before.

“By this time, so deep were the impressions made on my mind, that sleep had fled from my eyes, and I lay overwhelmed in astonishment at what I had both seen and heard. But what was my surprise when again I beheld the same messenger at my bedside, and heard him rehearse or repeat over again to me the same things as before; and added a caution to me, telling me that Satan would try to tempt me (in consequence of the indigent circumstances of my father’s family), to get the plates for the purpose of getting rich. This he forbade me, saying that I must have no other object in view in getting the plates but to glorify God, and must not be influenced by any other motive than that of building his kingdom; otherwise I could not get them.

“After this third visit, he again ascended into heaven as before, and I was again left to ponder on the strangeness of what I had just experienced; when almost immediately after the heavenly messenger had ascended from me for the third time, the cock crowed, and I found that day was approaching, so that our interviews must have occupied the whole of that night.

“I shortly after arose from my bed, and, as usual, went to the necessary labors of the day; but, in attempting to work as at other times, I found my strength so exhausted as to render me entirely unable. My father, who was laboring along with me, discovered something to be wrong with me, and told me to go home. I started with the intention of going to the house; but, in attempting to cross the fence out of the field where we were, my strength entirely failed me, and I fell helpless on the ground, and for a time was quite unconscious of anything.

“The first thing that I can recollect was a voice speaking unto me, calling me by name. I looked up, and beheld the same messenger standing over my head, surrounded by light as before. He then again related unto me all that he had related to me the previous night, and commanded me to go to my father and tell him of the vision and commandments which I had received.

“I obeyed; I returned to my father in the field, and rehearsed the whole matter to him. He replied to me that it was of God, and told me to go and do as commanded by the messenger. I left the field, and went to the place where the messenger had told me the plates were deposited; and owing to the distinctness of the vision which I had had concerning it, I knew the place the instant that I arrived there.

“Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario county, New York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates, deposited in a stone box. This stone was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the ground, but the edge all around was covered with earth.

“Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up. I looked in, and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate, as stated by the messenger. The box in which they lay was formed by laying stones together in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these stones lay the plates and the other things with them.

“I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by the messenger, and was again informed that the time for bringing them forth had not yet arrived, neither would it, until four years from that time; but he told me that I should come to that place precisely in one year from that time, and that he would there meet with me, and that I should continue to do so until the time should come for obtaining the plates.

“Accordingly, as I had been commanded, I went at the end of each year, and at each time I found the same messenger there, and received instruction and intelligence from him at each of our interviews, respecting what the Lord was going to do, and how and in what manner his kingdom was to be conducted in the last days. …

“At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate. On the twenty-second day of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, having gone as usual at the end of another year to the place where they were deposited, the same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me with this charge: that I should be responsible for them; that if I should let them go carelessly, or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would use all my endeavors to preserve them, until he, the messenger, should call for them, they should be protected.

“I soon found out the reason why I had received such strict charges to keep them safe, and why it was that the messenger had said that when I had done what was required at my hand, he would call for them. For no sooner was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions were used to get them from me. Every stratagem that could be invented was resorted to for that purpose. The persecution became more bitter and severe than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually to get them from me if possible. But by the wisdom of God, they remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hand. When, according to arrangements, the messenger called for them, I delivered them up to him; and he has them in his charge until this day, being the second day of May, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.”

For a more complete account, see Joseph Smith—History in the Pearl of Great Price.

The ancient record thus brought forth from the earth as the voice of a people speaking from the dust, and translated into modern speech by the gift and power of God as attested by Divine affirmation, was first published to the world in the year 1830 as The Book of Mormon.

Many years ago, in the time called the Great Depression, there were a few boys, some of them not yet teenagers, who lived in a neighborhood in a Western New York community by Lake Erie, a little ways from Buffalo and Niagara Falls, in a place where the Winters were cold, with a lot of snow, and where the warmer seasons were enjoyable and beautiful. Most people had very little money. IN some places you found grown men working all day for maybe 50 cents to 75 cents or a dollar. If a kid was lucky enough to get an allowance it was usually a nickel to buy an ice cream cone. A quarter seemed as big as a wagon wheel. people called those years the “dirty thirtys”.

But just because these boys lacked money didn’t spoil their fun or mischievousness. And they could mow lawns 10 cents or maybe 15 cents or up to a quarter for a really giant yard. In the winter they shoveled snow. In those days the garages were built in the back of the house with a long drive way to the street. If there was a lot of pavement to shovel the snow was deep a strong boy could make 35 cents for two hours hard work and several would skip school on big snowy days to earn that kind of income. The rest of the kids strapped on their snow boots and mushed their way to school, often getting bawled out by their frostbitten grandmother age teacher who perhaps had to trudge twice as far yet managed to arrive on time, ahead of the youngsters. No one had heard of school busses. There were other ways to earn money every boy needs. Some had newspaper routes, others delivered 5 cent magazines for 1 cent profit per copy, such as The Saturday Evening Post, or Colliers, or Liberty. If a boy had a bicycle he watched for a rare opening delivering for a drug store just for customer tips. Once in awhile a boy could make as much as 2$ on a weekend day and evening during the winter when it was bitter cold and hard pimping a bicycle on streets were slick and maybe not yet plowed. Not everyone gave a tip and a boy the merchandise had to make it up out of his own pocket.

Squash heads father owned a drug store ,so he had a regular delivery job all year long. Pretty soon a windfall came his way when his father began carrying a new kind of frozen treat called, “fudgesicle” ,sort of a chocolate ice cream bar on a wooden stick. Some of the sticks had the letters ” free” stamped on them and were good for another fudgesicle. Squash head found out how to pull the stick out to see if it had the word “free”. When no-one was looking he would go through the freezer cabinet, pulling out the fudgesicle sticks and keeping the free ones after eating the fudgesicle, using the free stick to get a second fudgesicle which he had already set aside with its own free sticks. Very few of the regular costumers ever found a winning stick that squash head had missed. The old man never learned this trick though dumbfounded by the way his son put in so much time at sweeping and window washing duties. He had never met that cranky dried up old school teacher who used to say, ” you show me a perfectly behaved kind and I will show you a rascal”.

Squash head and banana nose were the most inventive of the boys, the natural leaders who planned almost every joint exploit. The other members of the group were crates, and Dutch, and rebel, and two ton, the fat boy, and gorgeous, the pretty boy, and tail baby, and hellfentink, and holly Howie, and the only one who complained about his moniker because, indeed, goose, as he was called, did have an awfully long neck, and there were two cute girls in that neighborhood who were getting some attention from the boys, maybe not as much attention as the would have prefer, however. One of the girls they called cross eyed Katie , sweet as any girl in town, who always seemed to be looking at the end of her nose out of one eye or the other, and then there was picture pretty Normal Eyes who picked up that handle when the teacher drew a laugh in the class by calling on the girl,whos name was Norma, to ” normal eyes” some topic for debate, Norma had eyes of a fascinating lavender shade, any of the boys who later in life ever saw a lady with eyes of such beautiful color would surely have recalled Normal eyes.

Squash head and banana nose earned their position as leaders of the group one dark Halloween night. It was a chilly evening though’ not nearly as frigid as Halloween of the year before when over 6 feet of snow buried sheds, fences, mailboxes and even auto mobiles, drifting in places almost up to second story window ledges. This night there were more exciting things to attend to than soaping windows,letting air out of tires, and greasing the uphill stretch of track of the local interurban trolley line.Leave it to squash head and banana nose to provide the excitement. they were the smartest kinds onto bunch and after they grew up one became the president of a company and the other became a federal judge, having figured out countless sorts of pranks and schemes without ever having to spend a day in jail. A few hours once, but never a whole day.

The first thing people need to know is that God exists and is a human being who in every aspect of mind and body is exactly like us humans except that He is perfect. The next thing people need to know is that very sacred events occurred in 1820 that demonstrates that God has always been fully active in preparing mankind to live with Him as married couples in a fullness of romantic joy in the Celestial Kingdom. Eternal marriage is most important when a couple comes into the Lord’s church and prepares themselves to live forever with Him. You will feel in your soul these most important truths God and Christ LATELY have brought to earth by BEING with the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints! All your feelings will change about life since your ENTIRE life will enter into a heavenly atmosphere that was once experienced by those saints anciently recorded in the Bible. This holy experience can not be imagined! This only true church of Christ that once was upon the earth 2000 years ago with 12 apostles has all been restored back on earth! God and Christ appeared to Joseph Smith in 1820 in New York and for 24 years gave him revelations and sent to him all the Biblical prophets and Jewish prophets of ancient America to ordain and set apart and instruct Joseph on restoring back to earth the original New Testament church of Christ with 12 apostles! These great and wonderful revelations are recorded in the DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS. This is the greatest event since Christ’s resurrection, and unknown to Americans this is WHY AMERICA WAS ESTABLISHED! Nothing is more important than for you to find out that this is TRUE, for then, you will feel that wonderful spirit that comes to you from God who lives among perfected saints of Celestial glory. You can only feel and experience this Celestial glory after you investigate The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. There is nothing sweeter or more joyous than becoming a Latter day Saint and marrying one of over a million men, and women. YES, OVER A MILLION wonderful men and women, world wide of a 15 million population church, to share that light and glorious romantic feeling of celestial life. All else pales in comparison and everyone could have a CELESTIAL MARRIAGE. Baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is the first great step to prepare oneself for a marriage in the temple of God. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is exactly what it says it is; THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST of THE SAINTS OF THESE LATTER DAYS. Sacrament meets every Sunday. Everyone gets assigned to give talks. The Lord wants all to share in revealing truths they have learned as members of His church. God still gives laws just as He did anciently by direct word to His prophets. The New Testament scriptures for today is the Doctrine and Covenants. Doctrine never taught to mankind in the age of modern science reveals truths so deep that it takes the spirit of God to reveal the meaning of such revelations that were given to Joseph Smith. Look into the eyes of a little child, you will see and feel a divine light. This divine light is given to everyone at birth. This light of purity brings endless variety and strength of mind and heart to every experience one will go thru in this life. Every person needs to take the missionary lessons from the Latter day Saint missionaries who have been set apart to go worldwide and preach the only true gospel of Christ. No other missionaries or gospel has the authentic priesthood powers to renew the mind and flesh of people at baptism!! Latter day Saints have been commanded to not drink alcohol, or smoke. Purity of the flesh expands heavenly feelings and romance. Your very body can only receive a celestial glory of light in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Such celestial feelings come from priesthood powers from God that was administered by the laying of hands of ancient prophets upon the head of Joseph Smith. These most holy manifestations of receiving priesthood powers from ancient prophets and apostles demonstrates the exactness of how the Kingdom of God comes upon the earth. The spirit of the Kingdom is felt among the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. The members can talk to you about everything and answer your questions about life. Latter day saints come from all kinds of religions and back grounds and they work at being bonded together in purity and love as little children. After baptism, your unique characteristics and talents blossom. You will understand the mission of America as the place where God chose to restore His church again with 12 apostles to prepare the whole world for the coming of Christ. Eventually your love will grow deeper and infinitely more meaningful as you understand and feel all of creation was created for you by God for your joy. Do not just read these words for glorious feelings will come to you after baptism when you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost that will separate you from the world and establish you as a saint among the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. The Lord wants you to be a light unto the world and become like Him!! You developed talents in heaven before your birth on earth to help the Lord establish Zion here upon earth. After baptism, which takes a month, the spirit of God will guide you into everything you do. God wants to help you in everything to overcome all obstacles that challenge your growth to become perfected. Christ brought wonderful truths to the world thru His prophet Joseph Smith for your happiness and eternal marriage that will last forever in heaven with your resurrected and immortal spouse. Nothing is more important for your eternal happiness!! Here is the website to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints: https://churchofjesuschrist.org
Here is the the link to find a church nearest to you and the time: https://www.comeuntochrist.org/worship-with-us/nearby-churches

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton