2.) Three years after Joseph Smith had the first vision, in 1823, when he was just 17, Moroni visited Joseph and told him that God had a marvelous work for him to do. On September 22 of that year and the September 22 of the following four years, Joseph would meet with Moroni to receive more instruction concerning the plates.
What many people don’t know is that on that first visit to see the plates, Joseph made three attempts to get them, and couldn’t, and that he was frightened in his effort. After failing, in his memoirs, he said, “[...] I cried unto the Lord in the agony of my soul.”
He asked the angel why he couldn’t obtain the book and Moroni told him that he could not have the book for wealth, emphasizing covetousness.
While Joseph was no more covetous than anyone else, his family did owe a hundred dollars on the mortgage on their farm at the end of every year. And Joseph along with everyone else in his family, was very aware of this pending due date. Here Joseph is a young man working hard to help take care of his family, and also aware of gold in this hill that could help solve his family’s financial problems.
This was the root of the problem he had obtaining the plates, and the reason why Moroni kept telling him to come back the following year for four years. Joseph ultimately had to reconcile the fact that in no way or means would he be able to use the plates for financial gain in order to help his family.
Of course from year one to year two, he’d gone from thinking of the monetary value of the actual plates to thinking, “I know that Moroni has told me I can’t use the plates for my personal wealth or fame, but there's other things in there that might be beneficial in those ways,” which of course is what resulted in him not being able to get the plates in 1825 and Moroni reminding him that he must have an eye single to the glory of God.
When he went home that night, in 1825, the expectation from his family was that he would have the plates, and when he didn’t, he and they were all very disappointed. His father even said that if he’d been there, he’d have gotten the plates. Joseph had to tell his dad that it was the angel that had prevented him from taking them.
As you can imagine, Joseph was very upset, and he was worried that his family would no longer believe him. Thankfully that wasn’t the case, but it was tough for him.
We don’t know much about Joseph's visit with Moroni in 1826, mostly we just know it happened. We know that when Joseph went to the hill to get the plates, his older brother had passed away, and that his family had lost their farm. And we also that Moroni gave Joseph an ultimatum, saying that “if he would do right according to the will of God, that he might obtain the plates the following year.”
Well, despite all that had happened, Joseph rose to the challenge. In 1827, he was married to Emma Hale, and she accompanied him to the hill at midnight, a time he’d chosen to avoid his enemies, where he went up and finally received the plates from Moroni.
He later hid the plates in a log, but brought back the seer stones.
Then my personal favorite part of the story happened. The next morning at breakfast, he sat at the table with his head in his hands, acting all distraught, and actually tells his family that he’s so disappointed.
Of course, they automatically assume he didn’t get the plates again because it’s been three years of not getting them. And his dad tries to console him, telling him everything will be all right.
And this is when Joseph excitedly tells his family, speaking of the seer stones, the urim and thummim, “It is 10 times better than I expected. They are marvelous,” he says. “I can see anything.”
He playfully tricked them into thinking he hadn’t succeeded once again, then told them what had really happened.
This, all of this story really, makes Joseph so relatable to my mind. From the very human response of thinking about how plates of gold could help his family, to being so disappointed in himself when he fails over and over to gain the plates, to being so excited when he actually gets them and teasing his family into thinking he hadn’t.
To learn more, and get a much more in depth version of this story, check out this video from the church website here.
