George W. Bush (right) meets with the First Presidency in August 2006. Seated clockwise are: Gordon B. Hinckley, President; Thomas S. Monson, First Counselor (obscured); and James E. Faust, Second Counselor (obscured); and F. Michael Watson, Executive Secretary. Since this picture was taken, Hinckley and Faust have died and the First Presidency has been reorganized.

George W. Bush (right) meets with the First Presidency in August 2006. Seated clockwise are: Gordon B. Hinckley, President; Thomas S. Monson, First Counselor (obscured); and James E. Faust, Second Counselor (obscured); and F. Michael Watson, Executive Secretary. Since this picture was taken, Hinckley and Faust have died and the First Presidency has been reorganized.

D&C - “The Doctrine and Covenants is a collection of modern revelations. In section 1 of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord reveals that the book is published to the inhabitants of the earth to prepare them for His coming:“Wherefore the voice of the Lord is unto the ends of the earth, that all that will hear may hear:“Prepare ye, prepare ye for that which is to come, for the Lord is nigh” (D&C 1:11–12).This book contains the revelations regarding the Church of Jesus Christ as it has been restored in these last days. Several sections of the book explain the organization of the Church and define the offices of the priesthood and their functions. Other sections, such as sections 76 and 88, contain glorious truths that were lost to the world for hundreds of years. Still others, such as sections 29 and 93, shed light on teachings in the Bible. In addition, some sections, such as section 133, contain prophecies of events to come. God has commanded us to study His revelations in this book: “Search these commandments, for they are true and faithful, and the prophecies and promises which are in them shall all be fulfilled” (D&C 1:37).” p.54

Pearl of Great Price - “The Pearl of Great Price contains the book of Moses, the book of Abraham, and some inspired writings of Joseph Smith. The book of Moses contains an account of some of the visions and writings of Moses, revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith. It clarifies doctrines and teachings that were lost from the Bible and gives added information concerning the Creation of the earth.The book of Abraham was translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith from a papyrus scroll taken from the Egyptian catacombs. This book contains valuable information about the Creation, the gospel, the nature of God, and the priesthood.The writings of Joseph Smith include part of Joseph Smith’s inspired translation of the Bible, selections from his History of the Church, and the Articles of Faith.” p.54-55

“Words of Our Living Prophets - In addition to these four books of scripture, the inspired words of our living prophets become scripture to us. Their words come to us through conferences, the Liahona or Ensign magazine, and instructions to local priesthood leaders. “We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God” (Articles of Faith 1:9).” p.55

“We Should Sustain the Lord’s Prophet - Many people find it easy to believe in the prophets of the past. But it is much greater to believe in and follow the living prophet. We raise out hands to sustain the President of the Church as prophet, seer, and revelator. How can we sustain the prophet? We should pray for him. His burdens are heavy, and he needs to be strengthened by the prayers of the Saints. We should study his words. We can listen to his conference addresses or read them in Church publications. We should follow his inspired teachings completely. We should not choose to follow part of his inspired counsel and discard that which is unpleasant or difficult. The Lord commanded us to follow the inspired teachings of his prophet: “Thou shalt give heed unto all his [the prophet’s] words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me; “For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith” (D&C 21:4-5). The Lord will never allow the President of the Church to lead us stray.” p.49-50

“We Have a Living Prophet on the Earth Today - We have a living prophet on the earth today. This prophet is the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has the right to revelation for the entire Church. He holds the “keys of the kingdom,” meaning that he has the right to control the administration of the ordinances (see Matthew 16:19). no person except the chosen prophet and president can receive God’s will for the membership of the Church.”“We should do those things the prophets tell us to do. President Wilford Woodruff said that a prophet will never be allowed to lead the Church astray: “I say to Israel, the Lord will never permit me to any other man who stands as president of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the program. It is in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that the Lord would remove me out of my place, and so he will any other man who attempts to lead the children of nm astray from the oracles of God and from their duty. God bless you” (Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, pp.212-13; see also Official Declaration 1).” p.49

“I will now give you a description of the manner in which the Book of Mormon was translated. Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.

The characters I speak of are the engravings on the golden plates from which the book was translated. They were engraved thereon by the hand of a holy prophet of God whose name was Mormon, who lived upon this land four hundred years after Christ. Mormon's son, Moroni, after witnessing the destruction of his brethren, the Nephites, who were a white race--they being destroyed by the Lamanites (Indians)--deposited the golden plates in the ground, according to a command of God. An angel of the Lord directed Brother Joseph to them. The language of the Nephites is called the reformed Egyptian language.” An Address to All Believers in Christ —Chapter 1, By A Witness to the Divine Authenticity of the Book of MormonDavid Whitmer, Richmond, Missouri — 1887

D&C 5:1-4, 11-15 “BEHOLD, I say unto you, that as my servant Martin Harris has desired a witness at my hand, that you, my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., have got the plates of which you have testified and borne record that you have received of me; And now, behold, this shall you say unto him—he who spake unto you, said unto you: I, the Lord, am God, and have given these things unto you, my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and have commanded you that you should stand as a witness of these things; And I have caused you that you should enter into a covenant with me, that you should not show them except to those persons to whom I commanded you; and you have no power over them except I grant it unto you. And you have a gift to translate the plates; and this is the first gift that I bestowed upon you; and I have commanded that you should pretend to no other gift until my purpose is fulfilled in this; for I will grant unto you no other gift until it is finished.And in addition to your testimony, the testimony of three of my servants, whom I shall call and ordain, unto whom I will show these things, and they shall go forth with my words that are given through you. Yea, they shall know of a surety that these things are true, for from heaven will I declare it unto them. I will give them power that they may behold and view these things as they are; And to none else will I grant this power, to receive this same testimony among this generation, in this the beginning of the rising up and the coming forth of my church out of the wilderness—clear as the moon, and fair as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners. And the testimony of three witnesses will I send forth of my word.”

“History of the Book of Mormon - The book of Mormon claims that a people called the Jaredites, refugees from the Tower of Babel, migrated to America about 2247 B.C. They occupied Central America about until they were wiped out by internal strife. One survivor, the prophet Ether, recorded the history of the Jaredites on 24 metallic plates.

About 600 B.C. the two families of Lehi and Ishmael left Jerusalem, crossed the Pacific Ocean and landed in South America. Two sons of Lehi, Laman and Nephi, got in a fight and the people took sides and divided into to warring camps - The Lamanites and the Nephites. The Lamanites were cursed by the Lord because they were rebellious and against His commandments. Part of their curse included dark skins, which supposedly accounts for the origin of the American Indians.

God favored the Nephites who migrated to Central America about the time of Christ. Just after His crucifixion, Christ came to the America and instituted baptism by immersion, the sacrament of bread and wine, the priesthood, and gave many other teachings. Both Lamanites and Nephites were converted. Things were fairly smooth for about 200 years, then apostasy came. The term “Lamanite” then was placed on everyone who left the faith. One hundred and fifty years later, the religious Nephites and irreligious Lamanites went to war again. In about A.D. 421 the Nephites were all killed, and the infidel Lamanites were left in control of the land. Columbus discovered them when he landed in 1492.

The commander in chief of the Nephites was a prophet and priest name Mormon. When he saw that they were defeated, he gathered the record of his predecessors and made an abbreviated history which he wrote on gold plates. He gave these gold plates to his son Moroni. Moroni hid them in a hill near Palmyra, New York, and about 1400 years later appeared as an angel to Joseph Smith and told him where to find the plates. In the box that held the plates was a large pair of spectacles, one glass called Urim, and the other Thummim. According to the three witnesses, by the help of these spectacles, Urim and Thummim or “interpreters,” plus a “seerstone,” Joseph Smith translated the hieroglyphics into English. The hieroglyphics were “Reformed Egyptian,” according to Joseph Smith, a language now “known to no man.” in this fashion, the Book of Mormon was supposedly revealed.” p.259-260 from Jesus Christ - Joseph Smith, Floyd McEleven)

JOSEPH SMITH—HISTORY EXTRACTS FROM THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH SMITH, THE PROPHET, Martin Harris shows characters and translation to Professor Anthon, who says: "I cannot read a sealed book." (Verses 55–65.)63-65, Sometime in this month of February, the aforementioned Mr. Martin Harris came to our place, got the characters which I had drawn off the plates, and started with them to the city of New York. For what took place relative to him and the characters, I refer to his own account of the circumstances, as he related them to me after his return, which was as follows: "I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet translated, and he said that they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic; and he said they were true characters. He gave me a certificate, certifying to the people of Palmyra that they were true characters, and that the translation of such of them as had been translated was also correct. I took the certificate and put it into my pocket, and was just leaving the house, when Mr. Anthon called me back, and asked me how the young man found out that there were gold plates in the place where he found them. I answered that an angel of God had revealed it unto him. "He then said to me, 'Let me see that certificate.' I accordingly took it out of my pocket and gave it to him, when he took it and tore it to pieces, saying that there was no such thing now as ministering of angels, and that if I would bring the plates to him he would translate them. I informed him that part of the plates were sealed, and that I was forbidden to bring them. He replied, 'I cannot read a sealed book.' I left him and went to Dr. Mitchell, who sanctioned what Professor Anthon had said respecting both the characters and the translation."

Book Of Mormon

Mormon 9:32-34

“And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech.

And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also; and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have had no imperfection in our record.

But the Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other people knoweth our language; and because that none other people knoweth our language, therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof.”

“New York, Feb. 17, 1834Dear Sir – I received this morning your favor of the 9th instant, and lose no time in making a reply. The whole story about my having pronounced the Mormonite inscription to be "reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics" is perfectly false. Some years ago, a plain, and apparently simple-hearted farmer, called upon me with a note from Dr. Mitchell of our city, now deceased, requesting me to decypher, if possible, a paper, which the farmer would hand me, and which Dr. M. confessed he had been unable to understand. Upon examining the paper in question, I soon came to the conclusion that it was all a trick, perhaps a hoax.”“Whoever examined the plates through the spectacles, was enabled not only to read them, but fully to understand their meaning. All this knowledge, however, was confined at that time to a young man, who had the trunk containing the book and spectacles in his sole possession. This young man was placed behind a curtain, in the garret of a farm house, and, being thus concealed from view, put on the spectacles occasionally, or rather, looked through one of the glasses, decyphered the characters in the book, and, having committed some of them to paper, handed copies from behind the curtain, to those who stood on the outside. Not a word, however, was said about the plates having been decyphered "by the gift of God."“He requested an opinion from me in writing, which of course I declined giving, and he then took his leave carrying the paper with him. This paper was in fact a singular scrawl. It consisted of all kinds of crooked characters disposed in columns, and had evidently been prepared by some person who had before him at the time a book containing various alphabets. Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses and flourishes, Roman letters inverted or placed sideways, were arranged in perpendicular columns, and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle divided into various compartments, decked with various strange marks, and evidently copied after the Mexican Calender given by Humboldt, but copied in such a way as not to betray the source whence it was derived. I am thus particular as to the contents of the paper, inasmuch as I have frequently conversed with my friends on the subject, since the Mormonite excitement began, and well remember that the paper contained any thing else but "Egyptian Hieroglyphics."

“I have thus given you a full statement of all that I know respecting the origin of Mormonism, and must beg you, as a personal favor, to publish this letter immediately, should you find my name mentioned again by these wretched fanatics.”Yours respectfully, CHAS. ANTHON.”