Exactly two hundred years ago, the teenage Joseph Smith, Jr. kneeled down to pray after a day’s work on the Smith family farm. The heavenly messenger sent in response to his prayer bore news of an ancient record on golden plates buried in the ground and of Joseph’s prophetic call to translate them. Matthew C. Godfrey, former managing historian of the Joseph Smith Papers, explains what happened that night, adding his own experience with the Book of Mormon at age seventeen.
Matt was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at age eight, and learned how to read by reading the Book of Mormon at age four.