“After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when 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… and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction…just 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.” (Smith) In the spring of 1820, 14-year-old Joseph Smith Jr. had a vision of God, and started the restoration of the Primitive Church. Over the course of 24 years, Joseph Smith Jr. restored a church that had been lost in time. With guidance from God, he translated the records of ancient people, returned the priesthood to the Earth, and changed the lives of millions. The restoration of the temples, the Angel Moroni, and the Book …show more content…
The Book of Mormon was written by many ancient prophets and tells the history of the people in the Americas and their experiences with Jesus Christ and the gospel. Towards the end of his life, the prophet Moroni buried the gold plates, the records containing the Book of Mormon, in the Hill Cumorah, which was where Joseph Smith was lead to find them centuries later. The Book of Mormon contains truths that are not contained in the Bible and explains in more detail the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Church was given the nickname “Mormon” after the Book of Mormon, and believes the Book of Mormon to be the truest book on the face of the Earth. It was only through the translation of the Book of Mormon that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could even begin to be