Erastus Snow — Miraculous translation of the Book of Mormon into Danish (Scandinavian Mission, 1850)

In 1850 Erastus Snow was called to open the Church’s Scandinavian Mission. Despite having no prior knowledge of Danish and facing intense local opposition, Snow — along with Peter O. Hansen and other associates — reported that the Spirit of the Lord rested upon them and enabled them to complete a rapid, faithful translation and publication effort. Sources describe Snow supervising and participating in the translation of the Book of Mormon into Danish (reported as the first foreign-language translation of the Book of Mormon) in record time; some accounts also report that the Doctrine and Covenants and a hymnal were translated in the same early mission effort. The 1850 publication and related missionary labor in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are credited with facilitating rapid growth and the baptism of hundreds of converts. Snow attributed the success not to his own talents but to the power and testimony of the Spirit.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Publishing Peace in Denmark, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints):

That October, Peter was called to accompany Erastus Snow of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in opening a mission in Scandinavia. With the manuscript in hand, Peter set out for Europe. En route, he met a Danish American soldier who sold him English to Danish and Danish to English dictionaries. Peter arrived in Denmark on May 11, 1850. New missionaries soon arrived from Utah and were assisted by members in spreading the gospel. To support their preaching, Snow hired the press of F. E. Bording in Copenhagen and asked Peter Hansen to translate tracts, excerpts of the Doctrine and Covenants, and Latter-day Saint hymns. Hansen and Snow also began to revise the manuscript of the Book of Mormon with help from Ane Cathrine Mathiesen, a well-educated convert. In May 1851, a complete edition of the Book of Mormon was published in Danish, the first translation to be published in a language other than English.