Author: Daniel Adams

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200th Anniversary of Moroni’s Visit

Angel Moroni Giving the Plates to Joseph Smith by Jorge Cocco

200 years ago, 17-year-old Joseph Smith was under constant and severe persecution for claiming he had seen God and Jesus Christ—persecution intended to make him deny that vision or any heavenly manifestation— persecution which under any other circumstance would have closed the heavens! Yet in this very environment, young Joseph announced a second remarkable vision, one in which the promised messenger of the Lord had come to prepare the way for the long-prophesied restoration.

As is the pattern of restoration, this messenger quoted several Biblical prophecies and stated that they were beginning to be fulfilled, of angels appearing to men, old men having remarkable dreams, young men having glorious visions and power and truth coming to the earth once more!

This messenger called himself Moroni and spoke of a new book of scripture, its translation, and of Joseph’s role in this restoration. This visit was so critical that Moroni repeated it three times over the course of the night and again the next day.

Despite Hell’s intensifying fury, the heavens were forever opened, God stood revealed, and man could finally know his purpose and destiny! Moroni and other angelic visitors would now mentor Joseph as the restoration unfolded and which, as Moroni prophesied, is now filling the world.

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Thursday, September 21, 2023, for the Family Fireside
www.JosesphSmithSr.org

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Dreaming of a Heavenly Home

By Daniel Adams

Father and Mother Smith knew as well as anyone what it meant to be refugees. But their trials had also allowed them to glimpse eternity. They saw their heavenly home and what their family could be, and this knowledge, like that of the saints before, gave them the strength to endure, to continue to dream of their heavenly home.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Father and Mother Smith being driven from their home, and having to rebuild once again, in a tiny log cabin in Palmyra, New York. Here they would find a short refuge until they would be forced again to leave. Here Father and Mother Smith read the Bible to their children and plead for divine protection. Here, Joseph Sr. told his children of his remarkable dreams of the restoration. Here Lucy would tell her children how God answered her desperate prayers in a grove of trees. Here Joseph would read the invitation of the Apostle James and determine to ask of God
what he should do. Here the heavens would rend and the Angel Moroni would descend to reveal a mighty work and a wonder. Here, the family gathered nightly to hear Joseph recount his remarkable visions of the ancient inhabitants of this continent. Here the Smith boys and girls grew
strong in faith and work, believing that God was watching over their family. This place, more than any other, symbolized what can be ours – no matter the coming persecution, trials and difficulties – when we dream of our heavenly home.

On this 200th anniversary, the Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith descendants have the opportunity to gather in Salt Lake and help current refugees who
have been driven from their homes and lost their worldly possessions. We will be building bunk beds for refugee children and their families. We would like them to know that God is aware of them, that our family understands to some degree what it means to be refugees, and now with this gift, perhaps they too can dream of a heavenly home.