The Prophet Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith Jr. was born December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont, the fifth child of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith. In the spring of 1820, at age fourteen, he retired to a grove of trees near his family's farm in Palmyra, New York, to pray about which church to join. What followed was the First Vision — the appearance of God the Father and Jesus Christ — inaugurating the greatest outpouring of divine revelation since the meridian of time.

Over the next several years, Joseph received visits from the angel Moroni, who directed him to a set of ancient gold plates buried in the Hill Cumorah. After a period of preparation and testing, Joseph received the plates in September 1827 and, through the gift and power of God using an instrument called the Urim and Thummim, translated them into what became the Book of Mormon. The translation was completed in approximately 65 working days — a fact that scholars of every persuasion have found remarkable.

The Book of Mormon was published on March 26, 1830. Eleven days later, on April 6, 1830, Joseph organized The Church of Christ (later renamed The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) in Fayette, New York. Over the next fourteen years, he received 138 revelations now canonized in the Doctrine and Covenants, restored the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods, organized the Relief Society, introduced the temple endowment, and taught doctrines about the nature of God, the eternal progression of man, and the plan of salvation that were entirely new to the Christian world.

On June 27, 1844, Joseph and his brother Hyrum were shot by a mob at Carthage Jail, Illinois. Joseph was 38 years old. In his 24 years of prophetic ministry, he had established a church that would grow to become one of the fastest-growing religions in the world, translated an ancient scripture from a dead civilization, and restored doctrines and ordinances that had been lost for centuries. He is, in the words of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "the most important figure in the religious history of the Western Hemisphere."