The Gold Plates
In the spring of 1820, while praying fervently about which church to join, Joseph Smith received the First Vision, in which God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to him. They told him not to join any of the churches that were then in existence.
Three years later, on September 21, 1823, seventeen-year-old Joseph Smith was kneeling in prayer when his bedroom filled with light. A heavenly messenger, the angel Moroni, told Joseph about the gold plates. The angel left and came back two more times that night and once in the morning. Each time he told Joseph the exact same thing: sacred scriptures, engraved on gold plates, were hidden under a large stone on a hill near Joseph’s home.
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The Gold Plates
The plates were about six inches wide, eight inches long, and six inches deep. Three silver rings held the plates together. The plates were most likely not made of pure gold because gold would be too soft for writing and extremely heavy. They were probably a combination of gold and copper, and they weighed about fifty pounds! The engravings on the plates were in reformed Egyptian because its characters took less space than Hebrew writing.25 When Joseph finished translating the gold plates, he returned them to the angel Moroni.
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The next day, Joseph climbed the hill and scraped the dirt away from the big rock. He found a lever and, with all his strength, used the lever to lift the rock until he could see a stone box. He looked in the box and saw the gold plates! He reached for them, but a familiar voice stopped him. The angel Moroni told Joseph he could not take the plates yet; the angel told Joseph to meet him at that same place in one year.
The next fall, Joseph climbed the Hill Cumorah, removed the big rock, and saw the gold plates. Again, the angel Moroni met Joseph and taught him. He let Joseph hold the gold plates, but he told him not to set them down or put them out of his hands for a moment. The plates were precious because the word of God was written on them.
The next September and the next, Joseph climbed the Hill Cumorah, dug up the big rock and saw the gold plates. Joseph listened carefully when the angel Moroni told him about the prophets who lived a long time ago. Their stories and teachings of Jesus Christ were written on the plates. Joseph knew that he had been called by God to bring them to the world.
Finally, four years after he first saw the gold plates, twenty-one-year-old Joseph and his new bride, Emma, left during the middle of the night to bring the gold plates home. Emma waited with the horse and wagon at the bottom of the hill while Joseph went to that familiar rock. Emma watched and waited, alone in the dark, for half the night and into the morning. At last, Joseph came down the hill carrying something very heavy in his big, loose shirt. Joseph had been given the gold plates!
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The Witnesses
At least thirteen people saw the gold plates: Joseph Smith; the Three Witnesses, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, who also heard the voice of God and saw an angel; and the Eight Witnesses (listed in the front of the Book of Mormon), as well as Peter Whitmer Sr.’s wife, Mary.
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