Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith - Section 3 - The Gold Plates

This section starts with "I shortly after arose from my bed..." to "conducted in the last days."


Again, act out the events of the Testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith. You may want to switch roles. You'll need someone be Joseph, someone to be the angel, someone to be Joseph Smith father, Joseph Smith Sr, and 1 or more family members to narrate or read everything other than the angel's parts."

Why did Joseph collapse? Why do you think the angel wanted him to go tell his father? Would you believe your 14 year-old son or relative if he told you a story like this? Why do you think Joseph's father believed him? What do you think was written on the plates? What was a "Urim and Thumim"? What was the urim and thumim for? What was a breastplate? What was it for? Why did the angel forbid him from removing the items?

Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith - Section 2 - Sleepless Night

This section starts with "Again, he told me..." to "our interviews must have occupied the whole of that night."


Again, act out the events of the Testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith. You may want to switch roles. You'll need someone be Joseph, someone to be the angel, someone to shine a light on the angel (this is a good job for really small children - or they may enjoy just watching), and 1 or more family members to narrate or read everything other than the angel's parts."

Why do you think the Lord chose Moroni to visit Joseph Smith? Why did he visit him 3 times in one night? Have you ever stayed awake all night? Think about the last time you stayed up really late. How did you feel the next day? How do you think Joseph felt after staying up all night?

Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith - Section 1 - Visitation

Who was this visitor? What was the book he spoke of?

Act out the events of the first section of the Testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith. You'll need someone be Joseph, someone to be the angel, someone to shine a light on the angel (this is a good job for really small children - or they may enjoy just watching), and 1 or more family members to narrate or read everything other than the angel's parts (starting with "He called me by name..." to the end of the section - "that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book."

Many people say that Joseph Smith made up the stories about being visited by Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and then later by Angel Moroni. What can you do to find out for yourself if it's true? Have you done that? What happened? Challenge family members to pray to know whether this really happened.

Testimony of the Eight Witnesses

Play the Witness Game.

If we had the 3 witnesses why do we need 8 witnesses?
How were the 8 witnesses related to Joseph Smith and the early church? Why do you think these brethren were chosen as witnesses?

Here is some more details about the 8 witnesses: http://en.fairmormon.org/Book_of_Mormon/Witnesses/Eight_witnesses

The Witness Game

This is hotter / colder with a twist for older children.

The basic game for young ones:

One person is designated as the finder. She leaves the room while someone else hides an object. For little children the hiding place shouldn't be too difficult. After the object is hidden, the finder comes back in and begins to look for the hidden object. Everyone else is a 'witness'. They saw the object hidden, so  they know it's location. They are to share their witness with the finder without directly telling the finder exactly where the object is hidden (where's the fun in that?). They do this by saying, 'you're getting hotter' as the finder approaches the hidden object, or 'you're getting colder' as the finder moves away from the object until the object is found. 

The advanced game for older children:
Make the game a little more challenging for older children by allowing some of the witnesses to be 'false witnesses' who try to lead the finder away from the hidden object. The finder must learn to discern the true witnesses from the false witnesses. This can be very challenging!

Discussion
Discuss the importance of having witnesses to testify of truth. Here are some questions to help you get going:

• Did the witnesses make it easier to find the object? Why? 
• How hard would it be to find the object without having a witness?
• Were you able to discern the true witnesses from the false witnesses? How? 
• What witnesses do we have that tell us the direction we need to go and testify of truth?
• What is the most important witness? (HINT: It's not the 3 witnesses or the 8 witnesses or the scriptures or your parents.) (ANSWER: The Holy Ghost. You can have him as a constant companion if you have the gift of the holy ghost, but he can still be a witness and you can feel his influence even without the gift).

Testimony of the Three Witnesses

Discussion: Why do you think the Lord allowed 3 witnesses to the gold plates? What if Joseph Smith was the only person to have claimed to have seen the gold plates?

Give each person an opportunity to describe something they know about one of the 3 witnesses, David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, and Martin Harris. If you know very little about them, you could take a few days to learn more about them.

Before you learn about each of them, write down at least 3 questions and try to answer those questions as you read about him. Here are some ideas:

• What was his profession?
• What was his relationship to Joseph Smith?
• Why do you think he was chosen as one of the 3 witnesses?
• Did he stay with the church throughout his life? If not, why not?

Here are some online resources to find out more about these men:

• http://www.lds.org/manual/doctrine-and-covenants-student-manual/sections-1-9/section-6-the-arrival-of-oliver-cowdery?lang=eng
• http://history.lds.org/article/doctrine-and-covenants-oliver-cowdery?lang=eng
• http://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/07/the-life-of-martin-harris-patterns-of-humility-and-repentance?lang=eng
• https://www.lds.org/ensign/1979/08/the-whitmers-a-family-that-nourished-the-church?lang=eng
• http://www.gapages.com/3wit.htm

1 Nephi 1:1-5,13 I Nephi, having been born of goodly parents...

As you read, have everyone write down 1 thing they learn about Nephi from these verses.

What does goodly mean? What does it mean to be highly favored of God? Why did Nephi testify about his own writing in verse 3? What is your testimony of the Book of Mormon? Was Lehi the only prophet at the time? What did Lehi see in a vision?

Book of Mormon Introduction

Together draw a timeline of the events described in the Introduction of the Book of Mormon. Feel free to add any Book of Mormon events for which you know the approximate time. Also if you know some times from the bible or from world history it would be useful to see those and be able to compare them to Book of Mormon events. Even though it doesn't talk about Lehi and his family, you could start your timeline with that in 600BC. Make sure you leave room in your timeline for Joseph Smith who translated them.

What should you do to know the Book of Mormon is true? Why is that important?

Book of Mormon Title Page

Why do we have the Book of Mormon? Who was it written for? Who wrote the title page? Before you begin reading, have each person write down briefly the answer to these questions. As you read, look for at least 3 purposes for the Book of Mormon.

1. That they [Nephites and Lamanites] might not be destroyed.
2. To the convincing of the Jew and gentile that Jesus is the Christ.
3. To show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers.
4. That they [the remnant of the house of Israel] may know the covenants of the Lord that they are not cast off forever.

After reading, discuss the purpose of the Book of Mormon. As you read, did family members find any purposes that they didn't write down?

Book of Mormon Table of Contents

It's very helpful to be familiar with the books in the scriptures. Children who feel confident they can find a scripture are more likely to open their scriptures to look up verses. The primary songbook has songs listing the books in each of the standard works. The tunes are familiar to most of us. It would be a good exercise to learn all of these scripture songs. Since this is a Book of Mormon blog, this exercise is focused on "The Books in the Book of Mormon" .

Learn "The Books in the Book of Mormon" primary song. It will probably take several days. The church's website at the link above includes a music player and the words and music so you don't need to have a musician to learn the song. But if you do have someone in the family who plays an instrument, even better!

4 Nephi 1:23-46 They did not dwindle...but they did willfully rebel

This section is a little longer than most - you may want to take 2 days to read this section.

Which single chapter in the Book of Mormon covers the greatest span of time? How many years does it cover? What fraction of the time span of the Book of Mormon (600BC to ~421AD) does this chapter cover? Hint: use the year references at the bottom of the pages to help you. For how many years after the Savior's visit did the people of the Book of Mormon have peace in the land?

It seems like the wickedness and evil deeds and pride entered the land suddenly because it all happened in the second half of this one chapter. However, these things actually crept in gradually. These 21 verses actually span almost twice the number of years (120 years - 201AD to 321AD) as all 93 chapters in the books of Mosiah and Alma combined (77 years - 130BC to 53BC). There was simply no one keeping the record.

As you read these verses, together list the steps that led to pride and wickedness and evil deeds.

Why do you think this happened? What can you do so it doesn't happen to you and your children and your grandchildren and great grandchildren?

4 Nephi 1:13-18 There was no contention in the land

Before you read the verses, think about the last time someone in your family was fighting. What happened? Have both sides tell the story. Then read the verses.

What would you like to have no contention? Is this just a parable that Nephi made up? Or did this really happen? How do you think they were able to live without fighting?

Now think back to fight you discussed earlier. How could you have prevented the fighting? What can you do next time so that a disagreement doesn't become contentious?

4 Nephi 1:1-5 And they had all things common among them

As you read these verses, together write down a list of all of the many wonderful blessings that these people had received because they were living as the Savior had taught them. How many can you find? Which blessing do you think is the most awesome?

3 Nephi 28:24-32 They are as angels of God

What do you think the 3 Nephites who chose to remain to preach the Gospel are doing right now? Have each person write a few sentences or draw a picture of what you think they might be doing now.

What do you think it means that "they are as angels of God?" What sort of great and marvelous works do you think they have wrought?

Of course, we really don't know what they are doing. As it says in verses 27 and 28 "the Gentiles shall know them not" and "the Jews shall know them not." So it's all speculation. But someday we will probably be able to find out what great works they have wrought on the earth.

3 Nephi 28:13-23 They did go forth among all the people

3 Nephi 28:13-23

Draw a picture of one of the events in these verses. You have many choices:

• They were caught up into heaven
• They did go forth upon the face of the land and did minister unto all the people
• baptizing and as many as were baptized did receive the Holy Ghost
• they were cast down into the earth but were delivered
• they were cast into a furnace with no harm
• they were cast into a den of wild beasts

Why did they spend so much time preaching? Why would they sacrifice so much to preach the Gospel? Do you think you could be saved from such dangerous situations? How?

3 Nephi 28:1-12 What is it that ye desire of me?

3 Nephi 28

Draw a picture of the Savior and His 12 apostles. It could be as they are talking, or when they are caught up into heaven, or the 3 who chose to tarry ministering.

What did the disciples desire from the Savior? Did they all ask for the same thing? What would you ask for (could be the same as the apostles, or something different). Why?

Are the 3 Nephites still on the earth? What do you think they are doing?

3 Nephi 27:28-33 Ask and ye shall receive

What are we promised in v29? What would you ask for? Have each person draw a picture of one or two things they would ask for.

3 Nephi 27:27 What manner of men ought ye to be?

3 Nephi 27:27

Memorize. Take some time to commit this verse to memory. If you have young children at home, you may want to simply memorize the last 2 sentences. It may take several days to memorize it.

Ideas for memorizing verses

3 Nephi 27:22-26 Write the things which ye have seen and heard

3 Nephi 27:22-26

Discuss
What were the things that they had seen and heard?
Why do you think Jesus asked them to write these things down?
Why do you think prophets have asked us to keep a journal?

Make a journal entry for today. If you need ideas about what to write, write down the good things that happened to you today. Or write down how the Lord has blessed you today. Or write down the things that impressed you from these verses. Or write down a goal, something that you feel like you should be doing.

3 Nephi 27:13-22 This is my Gospel

 3 Nephi 27:13-22

Scripture search for big kids:
What does Gospel mean? Who can be the first person to find the meaning of the word Gospel? (Easiest place to find it is in the Bible Dictionary). Maybe provide a treat for the first person who can find it.

Scripture search for everyone:
As you read these verses, try to pick out those things that make up the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Make a list together. If you're feeling competitive, list them separately and see who can find the most. Then discuss what you've found. How many did you find?

According to verses 13-22, the Gospel of Jesus Christ includes these things:

• The Savior came into the world.
• The Savior was lifted up on the cross.
• Men are to come unto Christ.
• Men are judged according to their works.
• In judgment, the Savior will find men guiltless who 
• repent and 
• are baptized and 
• endure to the end.
• Men who do not endure will be "cast into the fire". 
• (discussion for another day: What does it mean to be "cast into the fire?")
• After repentance and baptism men are sanctified by the Holy Ghost.
• Men shall do the works they have seen the Savior do.