Eve Gail McDaniel's Hand-Copied Book of Mormon

Eve Gail McDaniel of the Reedsport, Oregon ward suffered brain damage from a case of meningitis when she was a baby, and as an adult she could not read. In 1990, at twenty-eight years old, she and her parents, Bishop Jerry Lee McDaniel and his wife, visited President Thomas S. Monson's office and presented to the Church Historical Department a copy of the Book of Mormon that Eve had written out entirely by hand, filling three large binders over a period of about eighteen months. Though unable to read, she had copied the book letter by letter, and in doing so she learned to recognize certain words and phrases, such as "commandments" and "nevertheless." Her favorite — and she glowed as she repeated it — was "And it came to pass." President Monson, recounting the visit in his October 1992 general conference address "Miracles, Then and Now," said Eve reflected the joy of accomplishment and the smile of success, that her parents rejoiced in her gladness of heart and buoyancy of spirit, and that Heaven was very near. He offered her hand-copied book as a witness that after a day of despair and a night of sorrow, joy can come in the morning.