Seeds of Faith

Seeds of Faith gathers forty-eight primary-source journal accounts from the earliest era of the Restoration, chronicling visions, dreams, heavenly manifestations, and quiet spiritual convictions that led ordinary people to the Book of Mormon and the newly organized Church. Alongside believer testimonies are the observations of ministers, reporters, and non-member visitors—including Josiah Quincy and Charles Francis Adams—who met Joseph Smith. Compiler Dan Barker adds contextual introductions and follow-up notes, making this a devotional and historical window into how conversion actually unfolded in the 1830s.

• Forty-eight real journal accounts of how ordinary people first encountered the Book of Mormon—many before the Church was even organized
• Includes rare outsider portraits of Joseph Smith by future Boston mayor Josiah Quincy and Charles Francis Adams
• Firsthand testimony from John H. Gilbert, the actual typesetter of the Book of Mormon
• Shows the wide range of conversion paths—from instant burning testimony to years of skeptical investigation

“If any person in this world was ever perfectly happy in the possession of any coveted treasure I was when I had permission to read that wonderful book.”

Perfect for a Latter-day Saint interested in early Church history and firsthand conversion stories who enjoys primary-source testimony over narrative history.