Smith found the plates buried in a stone box not far from his father’s farm. In 1823 he received another revelation: while praying for forgiveness, he later reported, an angel calling himself Moroni appeared in his bedroom and told him about a set of golden plates containing a record of the ancient inhabitants of America. Although a local minister to whom he related the vision dismissed it as a delusion, Smith continued to believe in its authenticity. In answer to his question about which was the right church, they told him that all the churches were wrong. When he was 14, he prayed for help, and, according to his own account, God and Jesus appeared to him. Religious differences within the family and over religious revivals in the Palmyra area left Smith perplexed about where to find a church.

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Joseph Smith by Richard L. Bushman