Joseph Smith Receives Golden Plates - Book of Mormon Delivered

After three and a half years of divine preparation, Joseph Smith received the plates containing the Book of Mormon. He recorded: 'After having received many visits from the angels of God, unfolding the majesty and glory of the events that should transpire in the last days, on the morning of the 22nd of September A.D. 1827, the angel of the Lord delivered the records into my hands. These records were engraved on plates which had the appearance of gold; each plate was six inches wide and eight inches long, and not quite so thick as common tin. They were filled with engravings in Egyptian characters, and bound together in a volume, as the leaves of a book, with three rings running through the whole. The volume was something near six inches in thickness, a part of which was sealed. The characters on the unsealed part were small and beautifully engraved.' With the plates came the Urim and Thummim: 'With the records was found a curious instrument which the ancients called "Urim and Thummim," which consisted of two transparent stones set in the rim on a bow fastened to a breastplate. Through the medium of the Urim and Thummim I translated the record, by the gift and power of God.' This translation produced the Book of Mormon, a witness to Jesus Christ and testimony of ancient America.