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Season Four Episode 10 Joseph Smith and Moroni

September 21, 1823, 17 year-old Joseph Smith Jr. learned from the angel Moroni of the ancient record buried in a hill not far from his home. He expected to receive that record when he went to the hill. He could not have known that it would take four years of instruction and intelligence before he would be able to receive it. This episode of History of the Saints tells the story of those years of preparation.

Season Four Episode 12 Joseph Obtains the Plates

Joseph and Emma Hale Smith, newly married, journeyed to Manchester to live with Joseph’s parents. The family prepared private quarters for them, and life went on. It was sometime after that Joseph returned home three hours later than expected looking quite exhausted. His father asked him where he had been. Joseph didn’t answer. Joseph Sr. pressed him with questions more insistently. Finally, Joseph smiled and said, “I have taken the severest chastisement that I have ever had in my life.” Father Smith was indignant that someone would presume to chastise his son and said as much. “Stop, Father, stop,” exclaimed Joseph. “It was the angel of the Lord…[he] said the time had come for the record to be brought forth; and that I must be up and doing.” It was at that meeting near Cumorah when Joseph was instructed once again to return to the Hill on September 22, 1827. It was this year or never. Accordingly it was just after midnight on the appointed date that Joseph and Emma go the hill.

Season Four Episode 13 Martin Harris and the Three Wise Men of the East

By February 1828, Joseph and Emma Smith were living in Harmony Pennsylvania on the Isaac Hale farm. Joseph had copied some of the characters from the gold plates and by means of the Urim and Thummim had translated a few. It was at this time that a visitor with a keen interest in the plates came for a visit. It was Martin Harris.

Season Four Episode 14 The Lost Manuscript

Martin Harris took the characters from the Book of Mormon and went to New York to talk with the learned men in February and March of 1828. Meanwhile back in Harmony, it was Emma who scribed for Joseph Smith as he translated from the Large Plates of Lehi.

Season Four Episode 15 Oliver Cowdery

It was in the evening of April 5, 1829 when two visitors came to the door of Joseph and Emma Smith’s small cabin in Harmony, Pennsylvania. They had traveled 130 miles down from Manchester, New York in adverse weather. The two visitors were Samuel Harrison Smith, Joseph’s younger brother, often referred to as Harrison, and the other was 23 year-old Oliver Cowdery. Oliver was coming as a man with a purpose. This episode of History of the Saints is the story of the early years of Oliver Cowdery

Season Four Episode 16 Translating the Book of Mormon

Tuesday April 7, 1829, Harmony, Pennsylvania. 23 year-old Joseph Smith and 22 year-old Oliver Cowdery began translating the gold plates delivered by the angel. By July 1^st, a span 85 days, they would produce the 588 pages of the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon. And therein is our story.

Season Four Episode 18 Translating the Book of Mormon Part II

Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery began their work translating the Book of Mormon on Tuesday April 7, 1829. They commenced translating from Mormon’s abridgment in what is today Mosiah I. From then until sometime around June 1 they labored at Joseph and Emma’s farm home in Harmony Pennsylvania. In addition to the demanding work of translation they still needed to tend the farm at this spring season, as well as put food on the table.

Season Four Episode 19 The Witnesses of the Book of Mormon

“Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people unto whom this work shall come, that we through the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which contain this record…. We beheld and bear record that these things are true. And it is marvelous in our eyes.” So testified Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris—the Three Witnesses. This episode of History of the Saints is the story of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon. We begin in ancient America with Moroni, the prophet who sealed up the record, as he spoke to its future translator.

Season Four Episode 20 The Printing of the Book of Mormon

June 11, 1829, the copyright of the Book of Mormon was legally secured against plagiarism. From the very beginning it had been Joseph Smith’s intent to publish the Book of Mormon to the world. There would be 5000 copies of a book with more than 500 pages, bound in leather. And on frontier America that was a daunting and expensive undertaking. Who could they get to print it?

The Miracle of the Book of Mormon

When the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the tomb there were hundreds perhaps thousands of witnesses who attested to the reality of his resurrection. Why was it important that there be witnesses? Because the testimony of witnesses awakened faith in the rest of mankind. And so it is with the Book of Mormon. In this History of the Saints General Conference special we will talk about those witnesses—