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. 

Moroni 10:3

As told by historian Susan Easton Black, converts to the Church of Jesus Christ in the 1800s when Joseph Smith was prophet, had heard about the record found near the Smith family farm. Whether they saw the plates themselves or held the printed Book of Mormon in their hands and gained an immediate testimony of it, none of them would ever deny the veracity of the record, whether they stayed or fell away from the Church.

Converts mentioned in this episode are:

William Huntington (1784-1846)

Jared Carter (1801 – 1849)

Noah Packard (1796-1860) 

Parley P. Pratt (1807 – 1857)

Oliver Cowdery (1806 – 1850)

David Whitmer (1805 – 1888)

Martin Harris (1783 – 1875)

Peter Whitmer, Jr. (1809 – 1836)

Christian Whitmer (1798 – 1835)

Jacob Whitmer (1800 – 1856)

John Whitmer (1802 – 1878)

Hiram Page (1800 - 1852)

Joseph Smith, Sr. (1771 – 1840) 

Hyrum Smith (1800 – 1844)

Samuel H. Smith (1808 - 1844)

Lucy Mack Smith (1775 – 1856) 

Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805-1844)

For more testimonies of early converts to the Church, refer to Susan's book Stories from the Early Saints: Converted by the Book of Mormon (1992)

Susan first read the Book of Mormon when she was eleven years old. 

1 Nephi 1:1

Growing up in the heart of the Guatemalan Civil War of 1960-1996, Amanda Barrios McPeek wasn’t accepted by her own family or the people in her town of Parramos, because of the way she looked. When she came across the missionaries in Antigua, and read the Book of Mormon for the first time, she not only learned that God accepted her and loved her, but that she was his daughter.

Stephen Jones' parents got married and joined the Church in 1979 in the southern United States, and both decisions were met with some disdain. Whether it was weakness, preconceived notions, or the law, they held onto the Book of Mormon, and looking to their faith, Stephen learned to turn to the book too. 

Stephen first read the Book of Mormon in the 1990's at age twelve, after being baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at age eight. 

2 Nephi 4:17-20

An aspiring rabbi, Jason Olson was studying at Hebrew High School in Scottsdale, Arizona in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. When talk of the Messiah started circling, Jason brought his questions to the high school lunchroom where he would discuss the topic with his friends. One day, he had a copy of the Book of Mormon in his hands, and unwilling to give it back to his friends or be found with it in his possession at home, he decided the only way to dispose of it would be to burn it… but, something stopped him in his tracks.

Jason first read the Book of Mormon in November of 1999 and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on August 16, 2003

3 Nephi 9:19-20

3 Nephi 15:6-8

Jerusalem was the place of Lindsey Perlman’s dreams as an observant Jew, but by the time she made it there, she had already come across a church she also wanted to attend on Shabbat, but logistically couldn't. She was led to this church when, while studying Hebrew, the words of the prophets, and rabbinic teachings, she began reading another book; a book about the House of Israel, covenants, and the greatest rabbi who ever lived. 

Lindsey first read the Book of Mormon in 2016 and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on October 29, 2022 

2 Nephi 9:26

2 Nephi 9:53

Some of the first people David Taylor met on his mission in Peru were Chinese immigrant restaurant owners, and indigenous Peruvians who barely spoke Spanish. Unable to communicate with them, David started picking up phrases so he could speak with them, planting the seeds for the work he now does dubbing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Book of Mormon videos into indigenous languages. Had it not been for one Thursday morning during his junior year of high school when he read the Book of Mormon for the first time, David wouldn't be where he is today. 

David first read the Book of Mormon on October 30, 2014 and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on November 14, 2014

Watch this to see how the In Their Own Tongue project came to be!

Moroni 10:4-5

When they first met at the Moscow Conservatory in the 1970s, Igor and Vesna Gruppman were both budding violinists absorbed in the world of music. What befell them when they made their way to the western banks of the United States would not only include the opportunities and freedom they were looking for, but also an instrument unlike any they had heard of before. 

Igor and Vesna read the Book of Mormon for the first time around the summer of 1980 and were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shortly after

Alma 29:9

3 Nephi 17:21-24

Growing up on a cattle ranch in South Africa, Judy Brummer lived among the indigenous Xhosa people, and their language was her language. The language, and her testimony, would bring her back to them as a missionary, and to translate the text of the book that had brought her to the waters of baptism. 

Judy first read the Book of Mormon early in the year of 1979 and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 29, 1979

Moroni 10:7

Despite Paul Alan Cox’s congenital illness, he was sent to Samoa as a young missionary. The service rendered to him by a Samoan man coupled with his love for the Polynesian people, charted the course of his prolific career as an ethnobotanist, and a life practicing the healer's art.

Paul read the Book of Mormon as a youth, and had completed reading it five times before leaving on his mission to Samoa on January 6, 1973

Ether 12:27

Mosiah 18:30

Mosiah 2:17 & 19

Alma 37:6