NARRATION
#2:
As a young
man, Joseph Smith assisted his family in clearing land, hauling rocks,
and performing a multitude of other duties. His mother, Lucy, reported
that the boy Joseph was given to serious reflection and often thought
about the welfare of his immortal soul. He was especially concerned
about which of all the churches proselyting in the Palmyra area was
right. As he explained in his own words:
“During
this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious
reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and
often poignant, still I kept myself aloof from all these parties,
though I attended their several meetings as often as occasion would
permit. In process of time my mind became somewhat partial to the
Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them; but so
great were the confusion and strife among the different denominations,
that it was impossible for a person young as I was, and so
unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion
who was right and who was wrong. …
“While I
was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of
these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of
James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads:
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that
giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given
him.
TABLEAU
# 2 (Joseph Reading James 1:5)
“Never did
any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than
this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force
into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again,
knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to
act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then
had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different
sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to
destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the
Bible.
“At length
I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and
confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God”
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PART
THREE: (ward/branch assignment)
NARRATION
#3:
On a
beautiful spring morning in 1820, alone in a grove of trees near his
home, Joseph Smith knelt down and began to offer up the desires of his
heart to God, asking for guidance. He described what then happened:
“Immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame
me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue
so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it
seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.”
The
adversary of all righteousness knew that Joseph had a great work to do
and attempted to destroy him, but Joseph, exerting all his powers,
called upon God and was immediately delivered:
“At this
moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head,
above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it
fell upon me.
TABLEAU
#3 (The First Vision)
“It no
sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which
held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages,
whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in
the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said,
pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”
As soon as
Joseph gained possession of himself, he asked the Lord which of all
the religious sects was right and which he should join. The Lord
answered that he must join “none of them, for they were all wrong” and
“all their creeds were an abomination in his sight.” He said that they
had a “form of godliness,” but they denied “the power thereof.” He
also told Joseph many more things.
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NARRATION
#3: (continued)
After the
vision ended, Joseph found that he was lying on his back, still
looking into heaven. He gradually recovered his strength and returned
home.
When the
sun rose on that morning in 1820, Joseph Smith could scarcely have
imagined that with the coming of twilight, a prophet would once more
walk the earth. He, an obscure boy living in western New York, had
been chosen by God to perform the marvelous work and wonder of
restoring the gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ to the earth. He
had seen two divine personages and was now uniquely able to testify to
the true nature of God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. That
morning was truly the dawning of a brighter day—light had flooded a
grove of trees, and God the Father and Jesus Christ had called a
14-year-old boy to be their prophet.
HYMN: “Joseph Smith’s First Prayer”, #26
PART
FOUR: (ward/branch assignment)
NARRATION #4:
As might be expected, so unusual a story caused
considerable excitement. In good faith he spoke of it to one of the
preachers who had been engaged in the revival. The boy was taken
aback when the man treated the story with contempt, telling him that
such things were of the devil, that all visions and revelations had
ceased with the apostles, “and that there would never be any more of
them.” He soon found himself singled out for ridicule; and men, who
ordinarily would have paid little attention to such a young lad, took
pains to revile him.
TABLEAU #4 (Ministers Reviling)
Their contempt and ridicule were a source of great
sorrow to Joseph. He had seen a vision, he knew he had, and all the
persecution under heaven could not make it otherwise.
He explained, “I had actually seen a light, and in the
midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality
speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I
had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they were persecuting
me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil against me falsely
for so saying, I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute me for
telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I
can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I
have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew
that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at
least that by so doing I would offend God, and come under
condemnation.”
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PART
FIVE: (ward/branch assignment)
NARRATION #5:
Life for Joseph Smith was never the same once he had
told the story of his vision. On the evening of September 21st,
1823, three years after receiving the First Vision, Joseph prayed to
the Lord for forgiveness of the follies of his youth and asked for
further direction. The Lord answered by sending a heavenly messenger
to instruct him.
TABLEAU # 5 (Moroni’s Visitation)
Describing the visit, Joseph wrote: “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, kindred's, and tongues, or that it should be both good and
evil spoken of among all people.
“He said that 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 fullness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as
delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants.”
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PART
SIX: (ward/branch assignment)
NARRATION #6:
Moroni had been the last prophet to write on this
ancient record, and as directed by the Lord, he had buried it in the
Hill Cumorah. He had also buried the Urim and Thummim, which was used
by prophets anciently and which Joseph was to use in the
translation.
The angel directed Joseph to go to the hill, which was
nearby, and told him many important things about the Lord’s work in
the latter days. He told Joseph that when he obtained the plates, he
was not to show them to any person unless the Lord commanded him to do
so.
On the day following the angel’s visit, Joseph went to
the Hill Cumorah as instructed. Moroni appeared once again and Joseph
was instructed that he would not receive the plates at that time, but
that he would undergo four years of probation, and during that period
he should come to the hill each year on the same day.
TABLEAU #6 (Obtaining the Plates)
Joseph wrote, “At length the time arrived for obtaining
the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and an ancient 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.”
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PART
SEVEN: (ward/branch assignment)
NARRATION #7:
Joseph soon learned why Moroni had charged him so
strictly to guard the record taken from the hill. No sooner was it
rumored that he had the plates, than efforts were made to seize them
from him.
On two different occasions Joseph was shot at, and it
soon became apparent that he could find no peace in the neighborhood
of Palmyra.
Some months prior to the time he received the plates he
had married Emma Hale of Harmony Township, Pennsylvania.
TABLEAU #7 (Emma Hale Smith)
Joseph had met Emma nearly two years earlier when he
boarded at her father’s home while working in the vicinity for a Mr.
Josiah Stoal. Emma was the seventh of nine children. She has been
described as “a tall, attractive young woman with comely features.
Dark complexioned, with brown eyes and black hair, she possessed a
singular, regal beauty of form and of character.”
When in December 1827 an invitation came form his
wife’s parents to live in their home at Harmony, Joseph accepted in
the hope that he could find there the peace needed for the work of
translation.
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PART
EIGHT: (ward/branch assignment)
NARRATION #8
Once comfortably settled, he began work on the record.
It was a strange volume, approximately six inches in width by eight
inches in length, and six inches thick. The golden pages, or plates,
were not quite so thick as common tin, and were bound together by
three rings on one side. Beautiful engravings, small and finely cut,
were found on the plates.
Joseph began his work by copying onto paper several
pages of the strange characters. Some of these he translated by means
of the Urim and Thummim, the “interpreters” which he had received with
the plates.
TABLEAU #8 (Translating the Ancient Record)
Joseph was aided first by Martin Harris, and later by
Oliver Cowdery, both of whom served as scribes. Emma also was an
important help to the Prophet and acted as one of the Book of Mormon
scribes for a brief period.
Joseph and Oliver labored “with little cessation” on
the translation throughout April of 1829. With Oliver’s help, Joseph
proceeded faster than ever before. During the next three months
Joseph and Oliver completed the amazing task of translating
approximately five hundred printed pages. This was a glorious time
period in their lives. Oliver wrote, “These were days never to be
forgotten---to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the
inspiration of heaven….Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to
write from his mouth as he translated, with the Urim and
Thummim…the history, or record, called ‘The Book of Mormon.’
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HYMN: “THE GOLDEN PLATES” Children’s Songbook,
p. 86
PART
NINE:
(ward/branch assignment)
TABLEAU #9 (Lehi’s Family)
NARRATION #9:
They found an unusual story. It concerned the
descendants of a family who left Jerusalem about 600 B.C. The father,
Lehi, had been inspired to flee the city, which was doomed to the
sorrowful destruction which came shortly thereafter. Building a ship,
the family crossed the ocean and landed somewhere on one of the
American continents.
From this family sprang two nations known as the
Nephites and Lamanites. For the most part, the Nephites were a
God-fearing people, while the Lamanites were indolent, quarrelsome,
and wicked. The Nephites had among them the history of Israel up to
the time the family had left Jerusalem, and with this they kept a
record of their own nation as well as translations of writings from
other civilizations they encountered.
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PART
TEN: (ward/branch assignment)
NARRATION #10:
Their history records that prophets and priests taught
them principles of righteousness and administered to them the
ordinances of salvation. Most remarkable of all, the Savior visited
these people following his resurrection.
TABLEAU #10 (Christ Appearing to Nephites)
The visit of
the risen Lord to the Nephites was in fulfillment of his statement
recorded in the Gospel of John: “Other sheep I have, which are not
of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice;
and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” He taught them the
principles he had taught in Palestine and set up his church among
them, giving its leadership authority identical to that which he
conferred upon the Twelve Apostles in Jerusalem.
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PART
ELEVEN: (ward/branch assignment)
NARRATION
#11:
Following
the teachings of Christ, these people lived in peace and happiness
for generations. But as the nation grew prosperous it became
wicked, despite the warnings of the prophets. Among these prophets
was Mormon, who in his day kept the chronicles of the nation. From
these extensive records he had compiled
on plates of
gold an abridged record.
TABLEAU #11 (Moroni Burying the Plates)
Mormon gave the plates containing the record of his
people to his son, Moroni, who survived the destruction of the Nephite
nation at the hands of the Lamanites. Moroni, prior to his death,
buried the record in the Hill Cumorah, where Joseph Smith received it
some fourteen centuries later. A remnant of the Lamanite nation is
found today among the American Indians.
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PART
TWELVE: (ward/branch assignment)
NARRATION #12:
Because
of increasing persecution, Joseph and Oliver left Harmony and
completed the work of translation at the Peter Whitmer farm in
Fayette, New York. The completion of this work in the midst of such
trying circumstances is truly a modern-day miracle. With little
formal education, Joseph Smith dictated the translation in just a
little over two months of actual working time and made very few
corrections. The book stands today essentially as he translated it
and has been the source of testimony for millions of people throughout
the world. Joseph Smith was a powerful
instrument in
the hands of the Lord in bringing forth the words of ancient prophets
for the blessing of Saints in the latter days.
TABLEAU #12 (Witnesses of the Plates)
While the Prophet Joseph Smith was in Fayette, the Lord
revealed that Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris were to
be three special witnesses who would be permitted to see the gold
plates. They, along with Joseph Smith, would be able to testify of
the origin and truth of this ancient record.
Soon after these men viewed the plates and other
artifacts found with them, Joseph Smith showed the plates to eight
additional witnesses, who handled them in a secluded setting near the
Smith family home in Manchester, New York. The testimonies of both
groups of witnesses are recorded at the beginning of the Book of
Mormon.
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PART
THIRTEEN:
(ward/branch assignment)
NARRATION #13:
Among the doctrines taught in the ancient record was
that of baptism for the remission of sins. Joseph Smith had never
been baptized, for he had not become a member of any church. As he
and Oliver discussed the matter, he resolved to inquire of the Lord
concerning the ordinance.
They went to the seclusion of the woods along the banks
of the Susquehanna River. While they were engaged in prayer a light
appeared above them, and in it a heavenly messenger descended. He
announced himself to them as John, known in scripture as John the
Baptist.
TABLEAU #13 (Restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood)
He said he had come under the authority of Peter,
James, and John, who held the keys of the priesthood. He then laid
his hands upon their heads and ordained them, saying, “Upon you my
fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer the Priesthood of
Aaron, which hold the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the
gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of
sins.”
He then instructed them that with the authority of the
priesthood they had received they should baptize each other by
immersion.
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PART
FOURTEEN: (ward/branch assignment)
TABLEAU #14 (Restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood)
NARRATION #14:
It was not long thereafter that another remarkable and
even more significant event occurred. The ancient Apostles Peter,
James, and John appeared to and conferred upon Joseph Smith and Oliver
Cowdery the higher powers of the priesthood and they became apostles
and special witnesses of Christ. With this ordination there was
restored to earth the same authority to act in God’s name that had
been enjoyed in the primitive Church.
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PART
FIFTEEN:
(ward/branch assignment)
NARRATION #15:
With this authority, the Prophet Joseph Smith was able
to organize the Church of Jesus Christ in this dispensation.
The Lord revealed to Joseph Smith that the sixth of
April, 1830 was the day on which the Church of Jesus Christ in this
dispensation was to be organized. Notices were sent to believers and
friends, and some 56 men and women gathered in the log home of Peter
Whitmer, Sr. in Fayette, New York.
TABLEAU #15 (Organization of the Church)
The Prophet recorded: “Having opened the meeting by
solemn prayer to our Heavenly Father, we proceeded, according to
previous commandment, to call on our brethren to know whether they
accepted us as their teachers in the things of the Kingdom of God, and
whether they were satisfied that we should proceed and be organized as
a Church according to said commandment which we had received. To
these several propositions they consented by a unanimous vote.”
Sidney Rigdon, who later became a member of the First
Presidency, spoke of the humble beginnings of the Church and the grand
vision of the future that the organizers had even then:
“I met the whole church of Christ in a little old log
house about 20 feet square….and we began to talk about the kingdom of
God as if we had the whole world at our command; we talked with great
confidence,…although we were not many people;…we saw by vision, the
church of God, a thousand times larger,…the world being entirely
ignorant of the testimony of the prophets and without knowledge of
what God was about to do.”
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PART
SIXTEEN: (ward/branch assignment)
NARRATION #16:
The events that transpired during those years in
western New York have changed the lives of millions of people. From a
handful of converts in a small log house, the gospel has spread
throughout the world. From the Church’s very beginning, prophetic
knowledge of its eventual success has provided hope, encouragement,
and optimism to the Latter-day Saints. The Prophet Joseph Smith
declared, “…no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing;
persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny
may defame, but the truth of God will go boldly, nobly, and
independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every
clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the
purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say
the work is done.”
TABLEAU #16 (Joseph Smith Preaching)
Josiah Quincy, prominent New England citizen who later
became the mayor of Boston, visited Joseph Smith two months before the
Martyrdom. Many years later he wrote about the people who had most
impressed him during his life. Regarding Joseph Smith, he wrote “It
is by no means improbable that some future text-book, for the use of
future generations yet unborn, will contain a question something like
this: What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted
the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen? And
it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may
be thus written Joseph Smith, the Mormon
prophet.”
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PART
SEVENTEEN: (ward/branch assignment)
TABLEAU #17 (The Prophet Joseph Smith)
NARRATION #17:
In the words of John Taylor, “Joseph Smith, the Prophet
and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the
salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in
it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book
of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has
been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the
fullness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four
quarters of the earth…gathered many thousands of the Latter-day
Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be
slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his
people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has
sealed his mission and his works with his own blood…”
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HYMN: “PRAISE TO THE MAN” #27
CONCLUSION: As we commemorate the 175th
year since the Church of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth again,
let us consider the recent words of our modern-day prophet, President
Gordon B. Hinckley, “…I believe the Church is in better condition than
it has been at any time in its entire history…I am satisfied that
there is greater faith, there is a broader measure of service, and
there is a more general measure of integrity among our youth. There
is greater vitality in all aspects of the work than we have ever seen
before. Let us glory in this wonderful season of the work of the
Lord. Let us not be proud or arrogant. Let us be humbly grateful.
And let us, each one, resolve within himself or herself that we will
add to the luster of this magnificent work of the Almighty, that it
may shine across the earth as a beacon of strength and goodness…”
HYMN: “CARRY ON’ #255
Closing Prayer
Sources:
Our Heritage, Chapters 1 & 2; Truth Restored, Chapters 1-4;
Church History in the Fullness of Times, Chapters 4, 5; & 23;
Doctrine and Covenants, section 135; Ensign,
November 2004, p. 6.
