Author: Jonathan Neville

The M2C intellectuals and their followers know their theory contradicts Letter VII. They also know Brigham Young and others taught explicitly that the depository was in the New York Cumorah.

M2C organizations such as Book of Mormon Central and FairMormon readily repudiate the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah by claiming the prophets and apostles who discussed the New York Cumorah simply misled the Church by expressing their own opinions.

However, not many Church members realize that the M2C interpretation of Brigham Young’s teaching supports the position of critics of the Church who disbelieve everything about the Restoration.
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M2C scholars claim Brigham Young related a vision, not an actual experience.

The FairMormon explanation omits a critical part of President Young’s teaching, along with the historical context. This misleads Church members.

Here’s the link:

https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Question:_Is_there_a_cave_in_the_Hill_Cumorah_containing_the_Nephite_records%3F

Here is the sentence that precedes President Young’s statement: “I lived right in the country where the plates were found from which the Book of Mormon was translated, and I know a great many things pertaining to that country.”‘

JOD 19:38.

President Young was not talking about an imaginary or “visionary” hill somewhere in southern Mexico as FairMormon wants us to believe.

FairMormon explains it this way: “The geologic unlikelihood of a cave existing within the hill such as the one described suggests that the experience related by the various witnesses was most likely a vision, or a divine transportation to another locale (as with Nephi’s experience in 1 Nephi 11:1).”

Of course, no one said or implied that the depository was a natural cave. The M2C explanation that the experience must have been a vision repudiates Brigham Young’s testimony, as well as what others said, including Wilford Woodruff.

The M2C advocates cite Heber C. Kimball’s statement about a “vision” to justify their claim that the real Cumorah is in Mexico:

In response to a Brother Mills’s statement about the handcart pioneers, Heber C. Kimball said:
How does it compare with the vision that Joseph and others had, when they went into a cave in the hill Cumorah, and saw more records than ten men could carry? There were books piled up on tables, book upon book. Those records this people will yet have, if they accept of the Book of Mormon and observe its precepts, and keep the commandments.

Those of us who still believe the teachings of the prophets interpret this use of the term “vision” to mean a view or sight.

Consider this. If Kimball’s statement was a vision, what about Joseph’s statement about his experience with Martin Harris?

The M2C interpretation of Heber C. Kimball’s statement relegates Martin Harris’ experience as one of the Three Witnesses to a purely spiritual experience.

Which is exactly what critics such as the CES Letter also claim.

For years, M2C intellectuals, their employees and their followers have told me that the views of CES, BYU and COB employees are the views of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve because the Brethren review all of these materials.

If that’s the case, then how did the Come, Follow Me 2020 manual on the Book of Mormon leave Elder Gary Stevenson “deeply saddened and hurt” by a section in the manual that, according to the Church News, included an error “referencing outdated commentary about race” that should not be in the manual (the commentary on 2 Nephi 5:20-21, which is on page 24 in the print/pdf version but has been removed from the online version)?

https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2020-01-20/naacp-elder-stevenson-martin-luther-king-jr-172357

print/pdf version (as of today):
https://media.ldscdn.org/pdf/manuals/come-follow-me-for-individuals-and-families-book-of-mormon-2020/individuals-and-families-book-of-mormon-2020-eng.pdf?lang=eng

Online version (which has been edited to remove the outdated commentary):
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/come-follow-me-for-individuals-and-families-book-of-mormon-2020/06?lang=eng

Was Elder Stevenson the only one of the Brethren who was “deeply saddened and hurt” by the error? That seems unlikely, given the context of his address.

And, as you can see from the links above, the error was promptly edited in the online version and will probably be edited eventually in the pdf and print versions.

How did an error such as this show up in the most important Church manual of 2020?

The answer seems obvious to me. The CES, BYU and COB materials are prepared by employees who convey their own ideas in drafts that they send up the chain. Certainly there are General Authorities who review the work of these employees, but many of them share the same biases and beliefs as the employees.

Anyone who has worked in a large organization know that decisions made at the lower levels constrain the options available to decision makers.

We’ve discussed that before.

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/06/when-employees-have-spoken-thinking-is.html

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2019/03/the-m2c-hoax-part-2-power-of-psychology.html

We see similar problems with the anonymous Gospel Topics Essays, the Saints book, and other curriculum.

For example, I doubt the Brethren specifically approved the errors in Volume 1 of the Saints book, such as the phony Mary Whitmer story that portrays Moroni as a shape-shifter. When he appeared to Joseph Smith, he was taller than average men, wore a robe, etc. If you believe the revisionist historians and M2C intellectuals, Moroni shifted his shape to appear as a short stocky old man with a very long beard.

According to Mary, the person who showed her the plates called himself Brother Nephi. According to David Whitmer, Joseph Smith said the person was one of the Nephites, meaning the 3 Nephites. This is all consistent, as we’ve discussed before.

https://saintsreview.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-mary-whitmer-problem.html

But our revisionist historians and M2C intellectuals insist Mary and David and Joseph were wrong because they can’t have one of the 3 Nephites taking the Harmony plates to Cumorah.
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By now, we’ve all seen how Church curriculum teaches M2C. Some examples we’ve discussed on this and other blogs:

We have the BYU/CES fantasy maps which teach that the Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is anywhere but in New York where Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery said it was.

We have the Mesoamerican artwork throughout Church curriculum, the Ensign, and lesson manuals.

We have the Arnold Friberg painting of Mormon and Moroni at the Hill Cumorah in New York being removed from the missionary edition of the Book of Mormon and replaced with the painting of Christ visiting the Nephites at a ruined Mayan temple with Chichen Itza in the background.

See, e.g., http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/06/correlation-department-uses-two-m2c.html

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2018/03/m2c-technique-4-noah-flood-imprinting.html

http://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2017/05/expectations-and-art-missionary-work.html
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Everyone understands that in a large organization, leaders have to delegate. They have to trust subordinates. Naturally, errors creep into curriculum, as Elder Stevenson pointed out.

The problem is when the subordinates have their own agendas, such as revising Church history and promoting M2C. That problem is compounded by people believing everything that shows up in a manual, the Ensign, the Gospel Topics Essays, etc.

The best solution is for each individual to prayerfully study and consider the source material. When that’s impractical, you need to be very careful about delegating your own beliefs to intellectuals, even when they are employed by CES, BYU, or COB.

My advice: follow the prophets, not the employees.

This journey would “pose no difficulty whatsoever” according to FairMormon.

https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Question:_If_the_gold_plates_were_originally_in_Mesoamerica,_how_did_they_get_to_New_York%3F

You ought to read the explanation at that link to see for yourself.

Another great one is on the web page of BMAF, the corporate owner of Book of Mormon Central.

[Some people still don’t realize that Book of Mormon Central is merely a front for the M2C advocating organization Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum.]

http://www.bmaf.org/articles/joseph_rocky_mountains__christensen
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The trip from Mesoamerica to western New York is about 2,600 miles, if you travel fairly straight over land.

Most people wonder, if this 42-year trip was so easy for Moroni, why was the entire civilization of the Nephites confined to a much smaller area in Mesoamerica for 1,000 years?

The answer is easy: The disparity is the only way to make M2C make sense.

M2C is pure bias confirmation based on a mistake in Church history. It doesn’t have to be logical, or even rational. It doesn’t require evidence. It doesn’t even have to fit the text, because if you believe M2C, you can add anything you need to the text, including volcanoes, massive stone pyramids, jade, jungles, jaguars, etc.

Then, after traveling so far, Moroni stopped at an insignificant, nondescript drumlin, built a stone box, and put the plates and other objects inside.
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If you accept the M2C dogma that such a journey circa 400 AD poses “no difficulty whatsoever,” we need to ask, why didn’t Moroni go the extra 300 miles to Sharon, Vermont?

According to the Saints book, it took the eruption of a volcano in Indonesia to move Joseph Smith’s family from Vermont to New York.

The eruption caused temperatures in India to drop, and cholera killed thousands, destroying families. In fertile Chinese valleys, summer snowstorms replaced a normally mild climate and flooding rains destroyed crops. In Europe, food supplies dwindled, leading to starvation and panic.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/saints-v1/01-ask-in-faith?lang=eng

All this destruction could have been avoided if Moroni had gone just another 300 miles. After all, 2600 miles was no problem. Another 300 miles would have been a walk in the park.

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Alternatively, of course, Moroni might have buried the plates at the Hill Cumorah; i.e., at the scene of the final battles and the repository of Nephite records.

That’s what Joseph and Oliver taught in Letter VII.

In that case, it would make sense to move Joseph’s family to New York from Vermont, by whatever means necessary–including a volcano.

Here’s an image from a Church website that depicts the stone-in-a-hat scenario.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng

Look at this misleading statement (which is also in the Gospel Topics Essay) found in that web page:

“Joseph and his scribes wrote of two instruments used in translating the Book of Mormon.”

This is misleading because Joseph never wrote of “two instruments.” Nor did Oliver Cowdery.

In 1870, Martin Harris related an anecdote that claimed Joseph used both the Urim and Thummim and a seer stone, but he was referring to the dictation of the 116 pages, not today’s Book of Mormon.

The only “scribe” who possibly wrote about “two instruments used in translating the Book of Mormon” was Emma Smith, and both accounts are problematic.

In 1870, Emma Smith wrote a letter to the wife of the RLDS pastor in Independence, Missouri, who had apparently asked about the translation. Emma wrote, “Now the first that my <husband> translated, was translated by the use of the Urim and Thummim, and that was the part that Martin Harris lost, after that he used a small stone, not exactly black, but was rather a dark color, I can not tell whether that account in the Times and Seasons is correct or not because some one stole <all> my books and I have none to refer to at present, if I can find one that has that account I will tell you what is true and what is not.”

This statement is significant because it demonstrates that, as of 1870, the term “Urim and Thummim” was not used to refer to both the Nephite interpreters and the seer stone. Modern Church historians have invented a new definition of the term “Urim and Thummim” to include both the Nephite interpreters and the seer or “peep” stone Joseph found in a well, but that definition makes Emma’s statement nonsense.

The statement is also significant because it is a direct contradiction of what Joseph and Oliver always taught, as well as Lucy Mack Smith’s 1844-5 history. It also contradicts Martin’s anecdote.

It is especially interesting that Emma could not remember the account published in the Times and Seasons (which published both Oliver Cowdery’s Letter I and the History of Joseph Smith which is today’s Joseph Smith–History in the Pearl of Great Price). We will never know whether she would have “remembered” things differently by referring to that account, but it’s not a good sign when a witness forgets a more recent event (publication in the Times and Seasons) while claiming to remember an earlier event (the translation). Plus, her statement is ambiguous; she doesn’t actually say Joseph translated today’s Book of Mormon using the small stone.

By 1870, the issue had already become part of the controversy between the Utah Mormons (who accepted Brigham Young as prophet) and the other groups who claimed to be the rightful successors to Joseph Smith. Brigham Young and other members of the Quorum of the Twelve often reaffirmed Joseph’s testimony that he translated the plates with the Urim and Thummim. Others claimed Joseph did not use the Urim and Thummim, but used a seer stone instead. This post is too short to get into the reasons, but the details are discussed in the new book, A Man that Can Translate.

In October 1879, a statement attributed to Emma was published the month after Orson Pratt gave two sermons in which he reaffirmed that Joseph translated the Book of Mormon by using the Urim and Thummim. Emma’s alleged “Last Testimony” claimed Emma wrote while Joseph dictated with his face “buried in his hat, with the stone in it” but does not specify what part, if any, of today’s Book of Mormon he dictated this way. Emma did not write this statement; her son, Joseph Smith III, President of the RLDS Church, published it as an interview several months after she died.

Contrary to the statement in the web page quoted above, neither Joseph nor any of his scribes wrote of two instruments used to translate the Book of Mormon.

Joseph and Oliver repeatedly testified Joseph used the Urim and Thummim. They never wrote or said anything about a second instrument.

Martin said nothing about the translation of the Book of Mormon we have today.

Emma’s letter claimed Joseph did not use the Urim and Thummim after the 116 pages were lost, but she admitted she needed a copy of the Times and Seasons to tell what was true and what was not.

Emma’s “Last Testimony” claims Joseph dictated with his face buried in a hat with a stone in it, but does not specify what parts, if any, of today’s Book of Mormon he dictated this way.
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The only unambiguous explanation for the translation of the Book of Mormon is the one Joseph and Oliver always gave. They said Joseph translated the engravings on the plates by using the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates.

For me, the testimonies of Joseph and Oliver outweigh all the other statements by observers, but others are free to interpret the evidence however they see fit.

However, is it too much to ask to have accurate statements on the Church’s website instead of misleading ones such as the one quoted above?
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Here’s the official account from the Pearl of Great Price. Note that none of these passages are quoted in the above website on the translation. Note also that the messenger referred to the stones in silver bows as the Urim and Thummim.

34 He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants;

35 Also, that there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim—deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted “seers” in ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.

42 Again, he told me, that when I got those plates of which he had spoken—for the time that they should be obtained was not yet fulfilled—I should not show them to any person; neither the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim; only to those to whom I should be commanded to show them; if I did I should be destroyed.

52 Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up. I looked in, and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate, as stated by the messenger.

Maybe someday soon we’ll have the statements attributed to Emma Smith and Martin Harris and David Whitmer canonized. We shouldn’t be surprised, I suppose. But until then, I stick with what Joseph and Oliver said.

The Book of Mormon describes King Mosiah as “a man that can translate.”

I believe Joseph Smith was also “a man that can translate.” Hence the title of my new book about the translation.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1944200797?pf_rd_p=ab873d20-a0ca-439b-ac45-cd78f07a84d8&pf_rd_r=1E2576T8HVB76EV5QB76

Because our intellectuals are so excited about showing that Joseph didn’t actually translate the Nephite records, I though we should preview comments from an upcoming post to my supplement for Come, Follow Me 2020.

https://comefollowme2020.blogspot.com/
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Let’s take a moment to look at this passage:

Mosiah 8:13 Now Ammon said unto him: I can assuredly tell thee, O king, of a man that can translate the records; for he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and it is a gift from God.

As we saw the other day, some faithful LDS scholars now claim the Book of Mormon is the product not of Joseph Smith translating the plates, but of a translation (if it can even be called that) that was performed by an unknown individual circa the 15th century, which appeared on the stone Joseph put in a hat. They think Joseph didn’t even look at the plates, which remained under a cloth the whole time he was dictating the text.

If Joseph Smith didn’t really translate the plates, what about King Mosiah? Did he, too, merely read words that appeared on a stone, put there by some unknown translator of the Jaredite record from prior centuries? Did the 24 gold plates, found by Limhi’s explorers, also sit under a cloth while King Mosiah put his face in a hat (or Mayan headdress) to read words that appeared on a stone?

Here’s how Mosiah 8:13 would read according to this theory:

Mosiah 8:13 Now Ammon said unto him: I can assuredly tell thee, O king, of a man that can read the words of an ancient, unknown translator; for he has a stone and a hat to put it in, and he can look, and read the words that appear on the stone, and he needeth not any plates or ancient records; and it is a gift from God.

If you think that scenario sounds absurd, I agree. But why would Mosiah be any different than Joseph Smith?

Here’s an image from a Church website that depicts the stone-in-a-hat scenario.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/book-of-mormon-translation?lang=eng

Look at this misleading statement (which is also in the Gospel Topics Essay) found in that web page:

“Joseph and his scribes wrote of two instruments used in translating the Book of Mormon.”

This is misleading because Joseph never wrote of “two instruments.” Nor did Oliver Cowdery.

We’ll discuss the other scribes tomorrow.
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One of the most obvious problems with the “seer/peep stone in a hat” scenario is the pointlessness of having the plates at all. The scholars tell us Joseph didn’t even use the plates. They sat under a cloth the entire time, as depicted above.

For centuries, the Nephites kept records. For months or years, Mormon abridged those records. He moved them from the Hill Shim to the Hill Cumorah to prevent the Lamanites from getting them. Moroni concealed them in the Hill Cumorah until Joseph could find them.

All this effort only for Joseph to keep them under a cloth the entire time?

As you read the account of Mosiah, see how well it fits this “seer/peep stone in a hat” scenario.

7 And the king said unto him: Being grieved for the afflictions of my people, I caused that forty and three of my people should take a journey into the wilderness, that thereby they might find the land of Zarahemla, that we might appeal unto our brethren to deliver us out of bondage.

8 And they were lost in the wilderness for the space of many days, yet they were diligent, and found not the land of Zarahemla but returned to this land, having traveled in a land among many waters, having discovered a land which was covered with bones of men, and of beasts, and was also covered with ruins of buildings of every kind, having discovered a land which had been peopled with a people who were as numerous as the hosts of Israel.

9 And for a testimony that the things that they had said are true they have brought twenty-four plates which are filled with engravings, and they are of pure gold.

10 And behold, also, they have brought breastplates, which are large, and they are of brass and of copper, and are perfectly sound.

11 And again, they have brought swords, the hilts thereof have perished, and the blades thereof were cankered with rust; and there is no one in the land that is able to interpret the language or the engravings that are on the plates. Therefore I said unto thee: Canst thou translate?

12 And I say unto thee again: Knowest thou of any one that can translate? For I am desirous that these records should be translated into our language; for, perhaps, they will give us a knowledge of a remnant of the people who have been destroyed, from whence these records came; or, perhaps, they will give us a knowledge of this very people who have been destroyed; and I am desirous to know the cause of their destruction.

13 Now Ammon said unto him: I can assuredly tell thee, O king, of a man that can translate the records; for he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and it is a gift from God. And the things are called interpreters, and no man can look in them except he be commanded, lest he should look for that he ought not and he should perish. And whosoever is commanded to look in them, the same is called seer.

14 And behold, the king of the people who are in the land of Zarahemla is the man that is commanded to do these things, and who has this high gift from God.

15 And the king said that a seer is greater than a prophet.

16 And Ammon said that a seer is a revelator and a prophet also; and a gift which is greater can no man have, except he should possess the power of God, which no man can; yet a man may have great power given him from God.

17 But a seer can know of things which are past, and also of things which are to come, and by them shall all things be revealed, or, rather, shall secret things be made manifest, and hidden things shall come to light, and things which are not known shall be made known by them, and also things shall be made known by them which otherwise could not be known.

18 Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings.

19 And now, when Ammon had made an end of speaking these words the king rejoiced exceedingly, and gave thanks to God, saying: Doubtless a great mystery is contained within these plates, and these interpreters were doubtless prepared for the purpose of unfolding all such mysteries to the children of men.

According to the “seer/peep stone in a hat” narrative, Mosiah didn’t need the plates any more than Joseph did. Some unknown translator from the past created the words that appeared on Mosiah’s interpreters.

It’s true that, according to verse 17, a seer can know anything. In that sense, the plates are unnecessary, theoretically. A seer could reveal the secrets of the past with or without any plates.

But the interpreters were prepared to unfold the mysteries contained in the plates. That’s a special translation purpose, a subset of the power of a seer.

It’s entirely possible that King Mosiah did merely read words that appeared on the interpreters, words that were put there by some unknown ancient translator. We cannot say that is impossible.

But look at how Chapter 28 describes this process.

10 Now king Mosiah had no one to confer the kingdom upon, for there was not any of his sons who would accept of the kingdom.

11 Therefore he took the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, and also the plates of Nephi, and all the things which he had kept and preserved according to the commandments of God, after having translated and caused to be written the records which were on the plates of gold which had been found by the people of Limhi, which were delivered to him by the hand of Limhi;

12 And this he did because of the great anxiety of his people; for they were desirous beyond measure to know concerning those people who had been destroyed.

13 And now he translated them by the means of those two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow.

14 Now these things were prepared from the beginning, and were handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages;

15 And they have been kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord, that he should discover to every creature who should possess the land the iniquities and abominations of his people;

16 And whosoever has these things is called seer, after the manner of old times.

17 Now after Mosiah had finished translating these records, behold, it gave an account of the people who were destroyed, from the time that they were destroyed back to the building of the great tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people and they were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth, yea, and even from that time back until the creation of Adam.

To me, these verses establish as plainly as words can be that Mosiah translated the records. He did not merely read words that appeared on a seer stone that were put there by an unknown ancient translator.

I think Joseph Smith did the same thing; i.e., he studied the characters on the abridged plates with the Urim and Thummim and was able, with the gift and power of God, to translate the engravings.

“There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.”

That is apparently a rewording of something he wrote in Notes on Nationalism (1945):

“One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.”

In my view, we’re in this territory with respect to M2C, the recent revisionist versions of the translation of the Book of Mormon (i.e., the stone-in-a-hat theory), and the language of the Book of Mormon (EME, or Early Modern English theory).

We’ll be discussing those issues this week for reasons I’ll explain tomorrow.
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I’ve been asked many times why I care about all of these issues. Why not just enjoy retirement and all the other things I’m involved with? Or why not just go on a mission somewhere?

My answer to one General Authority is that I don’t want to go on a mission and have to tell people that Joseph Smith produced the Book of Mormon by reading words that appeared on a stone in a hat, that when he said he translated the ancient plates, he didn’t really mean that because someone else translated it, or that the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica among Mayans, whose DNA is all Asian and whose cultural history is anything but Christian or Hebrew in any sense.

I’m fine with people believing all those things, but I don’t think anyone has to believe them to be a faithful member of the Church.

And I don’t think it helps the cause of the Restoration when our intellectuals teach that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were wrong about such things as the translation of the Book of Mormon and the location of the Hill Cumorah.
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I’m writing this from Sri Lanka. Here’s a photo of my “office” this week. We attended Church here Sunday. It was awesome.

Last week we attended Church in Laos. Another awesome experience.

There, one local brother asked me about things he’s read on the Internet about Church history.

These are the same questions I get wherever we go. They came up last year when we lived in Africa. Church history matters–a lot. That’s why it is such a problem to have narratives in Saints that contradict the original sources in favor of the revisionist Church history and M2C.

Here’s a map of 415 cities I’ve visited. (The one in Antarctica is a Chilean military base we visited, but this software counted it as a city.) Living abroad gives one a much different perspective than
living in Utah, for sure. I’ve lived in Europe for 8 years and in Asia for 2 years, so far.

I’ve spoken with Church members and missionaries throughout the world. I think the Church’s prospects are exciting and there is great hope and optimism for the future, both within and outside the Church.

The one big impediment is the uncertainty brewing about the truth claims; specifically, the origins and historicity of the Book of Mormon. Missionaries have told me their investigators ask about these things all the time, but the missionaries have no answers.

The anonymous Gospel Topics Essays are so ambiguous they create more problems and raise more questions than they answer.
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We often hear that the world is getting more wicked, which is why they reject the gospel.

Maybe that’s true in some sense, but in my experience, people everywhere are becoming more kind and loving, more focused on their families, more prosperous and happy.

There are definitely “first world” problems in the U.S. and Europe, and to some degree in other countries, mostly of a psychological nature. Of course there are areas of political danger, but that’s always been the case. I grew up during the Cold War when it was a big deal to visit Berlin, especially East Berlin. When I visited Lebanon for two weeks, the State Department told us it was too dangerous and we shouldn’t go, but everyone was friendly and helpful.

Everywhere I go, things are much better than they were 10, 20, or 30 years ago.

Except in the Church today, members and investigators (friends) don’t know what to believe. Do we believe what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery wrote and testified to? Do we believe the teachings of the prophets and apostles starting with Joseph and Oliver and continuing with all their successors?

The M2C intellectuals and revisionist Church historians are telling us no. Do not believe Joseph and Oliver, they say.

They want us to believe Joseph didn’t even use the plates, that he didn’t even translate, and that the Hill Cumorah is somewhere in Southern Mexico.

People are confused and disturbed in their faith because of all of this, just as Joseph Fielding Smith warned many years ago.

Fortunately, we can each make up our own minds on these topics. We can study, pray, and ponder. We can believe whatever we want.

Let’s all hope we make informed decisions.