Solomon Chamberlain Becomes the First Missionary — Preaching from the Book of Mormon Before Its Publication

After his spirit-directed stop at Palmyra in the spring of 1829, Solomon Chamberlain spent two days with the Smith family, where he read the first 64 printed pages of the Book of Mormon manuscript — the book was not yet published. Moved by what he read and heard, and convinced this was the fulfillment of his sixteen-year spiritual witness, he obtained copies of the pages and resumed his journey.

As he traveled along his route, he preached the message of the Restoration — the coming forth of a new scripture, the restoration of priesthood authority, and the establishment of the Lord's church — to whoever he could find willing to listen. He did this months before the Book of Mormon was officially published (March 1830) and nearly a year before the Church was formally organized (April 6, 1830).

Church historian Larry C. Porter and others have described Chamberlain as arguably the first missionary of the Restoration — a man who preached the gospel of the restored Church before the Church itself existed, based solely on the promptings of the Spirit and the manuscript pages he had read.

He was baptized shortly after the Church was organized, baptized by Joseph Smith himself in the waters of Seneca Lake, and went on to be one of the earliest settlers in Missouri, Nauvoo, and eventually the Utah Territory.