Latter-day Saint Life

Seer Stones & Hats: How to Answer Difficult Questions About the Book of Mormon Translation So Even Kids Can Understand

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Why did Joseph Smith need seer stones and a hat to translate the Book of Mormon? These LDS parents answer these and other tough questions in terms so simple even their little kids could understand.

In teaching their children how Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, these parents also taught me some insights I'd never known as to why Joseph Smith translated the way he did.

After church on the first Sunday of 2016, I was enjoying dinner with my wife Lisa and our two children David, 8, and Rachel, 5. As is typical around many dinner tables, we asked our kids, “What did you learn at church today?”

Our children’s response to that question sparked an important, unplanned teaching moment about Joseph Smith, who restored The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the translation of the Book of Mormon.

I’m hopeful that, because we taught our children at a young age the process God used with Joseph Smith to translate the Book of Mormon, our children will know Joseph Smith to be a prophet of God and the Book of Mormon the word of God.

Parents: What did you learn at church today?

Kids: We learned that the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God.

Lead image from Deseret News.
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