I was baptized in the LDS church when I was 16 years old.
Three years later, I went on a mission to Guatemala. I spent two years of my life in that country knocking on doors and telling people about how God had restored his church through the prophet Joseph Smith.
As missionaries, we also spoke about the Book of Mormon and how the book has been translated by Joseph Smith.
At that time I thought that the word translation meant what it means to any person who can speak two languages.
A few months later after I came back from my mission, I watched a South Park episode called All about the Mormons.
In the episode José Smith was pressing his face into a hat a dictating words to one of his scribes.
I thought that was a joke since the show has the tendency to ridicule things so I didn’t give it much thought.
Years passed and I kept on thinking that the translation process was something like this
When I started doubting Mormonism back in 2018, one of the things that I discovered was that South Park had done a better job portraying church history than the church itself did.
After the discovery, a few years passed and the LDS church confirmed what the creators of South Park knew and showed in the episode.
One of the articles published in the LDS official site says:
According to these accounts, Joseph placed either the interpreters or the seer stone in a hat, pressed his face into the hat to block out extraneous light, and read aloud the English words that appeared on the instrument.
Book of Mormon Translation
Tabla de Contenidos
Did Joseph Smith Place a Seer Stone inside of a Hat?
Yes, Joseph Smith had a stone, a seer stone that it is kept by the church.
The funny thing about the super stone is that the plates were taken by the Angel Moroni so they can’t serve as proof of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon.
The only thing that was left behind was a rock that hasn’t been used by anybody to do anything extraordinary.
The seer stone is a lucky stone
Was the Church Hiding the Truth?
I must be fair and say that there were publications and books that talked about this process and how a hat played a role in a translation ( I don’t agree with the use of that term to describe that act.
But the point is this, who is collecting all those old magazines and handbooks that talked about Joseph Smith using a hat to write the Book of Mormon?
Not many members I suppose, specially those who joined Mormonism outside of the United States.
So, it wasn’t hidden by any means, but was that part of Sunday School conversations?
The answer is absolutely not.
The church is embarrassed by that church history fact, missionaries don’t talk about it.
If you think that member are comfortable discussing this, talk to them if you have the chance.
If you see a missionary couple walking in your neighborhood and ask them how much about the topic.
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