Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon

Instructions:Read the captions under each picture, then color the picture. You could use these captions and pictures for a family home evening lesson or a Primary talk.

Illustrated by Sal Velluto

1. One night, 17-year-old Joseph Smith went to his bedroom and prayed (see JS—H 1:28–29).

2. The angel Moroni appeared to Joseph three times during the night and told him about a book of gold plates hidden in a hillside (see JS—H 1:30–35, 44–47).

3. Joseph went to the Hill Cumorah the next day. Using a stick, he moved a large rock and found a stone box containing the gold plates and the Urim and Thummim—“seer” stones fastened to a breastplate (see JS—H 1:50–52).

4. Moroni appeared to Joseph and told him not to remove anything but to come back each year for the next few years. Joseph returned every year and was taught by Moroni. Four years later, on September 22, 1827, Moroni told Joseph to take the plates and Urim and Thummim (see JS—H 1:53–54, 59).

5. Joseph used the Urim and Thummim to translate some of the plates. At different times he asked Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, Emma Smith (his wife), and a few other people to write down what he said as he translated from the gold plates (see JS—H 1:62, 67; D&C 3:preface; D&C 25:1, 5–6).

6. In 1830, Joseph Smith took the Book of Mormon to a printer in Palmyra, New York (see History of the Church, 1:71).