The Book of Mormon:

In 1820, a boy named Joseph Smith went into the woods near his home and prayed for Christ’s truth.

In 1830, he stood in a print shop in Palmyra and held truth in his hands.

Because the First Vision and the Book of Mormon’s publication are remembered today as the founding moments of a global faith, it’s easy to forget the 10 years between them.

But the man who brought the world new scripture in 1830 was also the boy who was told in 1820 by a preacher he trusted that God’s revelations had ended long ago.

A boy who had to choose between what others said and what he knew.

Joseph’s choice to follow what he was told in the vision and not join a church cost him some mentors and friends. As a boy “of very tender years” in a new town, he felt their absence. Left to find his own friends and his own way, he sometimes struggled to live up to his sense of greater purpose.

Joseph frequently “felt condemned” for his “weaknesses and imperfections.” How could a person feel God’s love so strongly and still stumble?

One night in September 1823, he stayed awake “meditating upon [his] past life and experience” and began to pray. “I repented heartily for all my sins,” Joseph recalled, “and humbled myself before Him whose eyes are over all things.” And then, once again, he saw a bright light.

In later years, Joseph would often be mocked and persecuted by those who didn’t believe his experiences had been real. His first problems, though, were with some old friends who fully believed he had gold plates—but cared far less about their spiritual value than their monetary worth.

In the fall of 1827, several attempts were made to steal the plates. To protect them, Joseph hid them in different locations in and near the family’s frame home.

At one point, Joseph buried the plates under the hearth and carefully relaid the bricks. Later, Joseph hid the plates in the cooper shop loft.

One night when the house was broken into, Joseph gave the plates to his sisters Sophronia and Katharine to hide in their bed.

In December, Joseph and Emma left Palmyra for the relative calm of her family’s farm in Harmony, Pennsylvania. Most of the Book of Mormon was translated there by revelation to Joseph Smith. At least seven scribes—including Emma and her brother—wrote as Joseph dictated.

“Though I was an active participant in the scenes that transpired, and was present during the translation . . . it is marvelous to me, ‘a marvel and a wonder,’ as much as to anyone else.” -Emma Hale Smith

In the unfolding Book of Mormon text, Joseph Smith found answers to some of the questions that had brought him to the Sacred Grove as a 14-year-old boy. Many people close to the process were moved by the book’s message and eagerly waited for a renewing of old covenants and the restoration of Christ’s Church.

At the same time, opposition to the book grew in Palmyra. Some saw the miraculous story of its origins as superstitious; others saw the claim of new scripture as blasphemy. Even before a printer was found, a boycott loomed.

E. B. Grandin, Palmyra’s only printer, initially refused to publish the book but reconsidered after friends assured him his role would be seen as “merely a business matter.” Martin Harris, a firm believer in the work, mortgaged part of his farm to finance the printing.

It took Grandin and his staff seven months to complete the printing process. During that time, early believers worked in small and simple ways to support the work.

Even before the first finished copies of the Book of Mormon became available on March 26, 1830, Solomon Chamberlain preached from loose pages in Canada and Thomas B. Marsh carried the book’s message back to his home in Boston. A few weeks after the book’s publication, the restored Church of Jesus Christ was organized, bringing to a close Joseph Smith’s 10-year wait for a spiritual home.

The Book of Mormon is now read by millions of people in over a hundred languages. The same words published in Palmyra nearly two centuries ago still answer questions and bring Christ’s power into lives today.