Saints Volume 1: The Standard of Truth

191 flashcards by Nathan

A dated timeline of Latter-day Saint history from 1815 to 1846, drawn from every chapter of Saints, Volume 1. Covers the First Vision, the Book of Mormon, the organization of the Church, Kirtland and the first temple, the Missouri conflict and expulsion, Nauvoo, the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and the exodus west. Every card carries the date and the chapter it comes from, in order.

What volcanic eruption opens the story of Saints?
April 1815. Mount Tambora on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa exploded, throwing ash high into the atmosphere and disrupting the global climate
What was 1816 remembered as?
1816. The year without a summer, when snowfall and killing frosts destroyed crops across the northern hemisphere
Why did the Smith family leave Vermont for New York?
1816 to 1817. Repeated crop failures after the Tambora eruption ruined their farm, so they moved west to the Palmyra area seeking better land
What religious event stirred the countryside near the Smith farm in 1819?
Summer 1819. Methodist preachers held a conference nearby and spread across the region seeking converts, touching off intense competition between ministers
What scripture led Joseph Smith to pray in the grove?
Early 1820. James 1:5, which says that if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God
What is the First Vision?
Early spring 1820. Joseph Smith's account of God the Father and Jesus Christ appearing to him in the woods near his home, telling him to join none of the existing churches
How old was Joseph Smith at the time of the First Vision?
Fourteen, in the early spring of 1820
How did local ministers react when Joseph told them about his vision?
1820. They treated it with contempt, and Joseph found himself opposed and ridiculed for describing it
Who appeared to Joseph Smith on the night of September 21, 1823?
September 21, 1823. An angel named Moroni, who told him of a record written on gold plates buried in a nearby hill
How old was Joseph Smith when Moroni first appeared to him?
Seventeen, on September 21, 1823
How many times did Moroni deliver his message that night?
The night of September 21 and 22, 1823. Three times in the night and once more the next day in the field, repeating the same instructions
What happened when Joseph first went to the hill for the plates?
September 22, 1823. He was told he could not take them yet and must return each year on the same date until he was prepared
How did Joseph Smith and Emma Hale meet?
November 1825. Joseph boarded with the Hale family in Harmony, Pennsylvania while working for Josiah Stowell, who had hired him to search for buried Spanish treasure
What counsel did Moroni give Joseph in September 1826?
September 22, 1826. To quit the company of the money diggers, since Joseph was still not ready to receive the plates
When did Joseph Smith and Emma Hale marry?
January 18, 1827. They married in the home of a local justice of the peace in South Bainbridge, New York, without her parents' approval, then settled with Joseph's parents in Manchester
When did Joseph finally receive the gold plates?
September 22, 1827. He went to the hill shortly after midnight to stay ahead of treasure seekers and received the plates from Moroni
Where did Joseph and Emma move to escape harassment over the plates?
December 1827. Harmony, Pennsylvania, where they lived in a home along the Susquehanna River near Emma's parents
Who acted as Joseph's first scribe for the translation?
Winter and spring of 1828. Emma Smith, who wrote for him while well along in her pregnancy
What happened to the first 116 pages of the translation?
June and July 1828. Martin Harris borrowed the manuscript to show his family and lost it, and it was never recovered
What loss struck Joseph and Emma in the summer of 1828?
June 15, 1828. Their first child died shortly after birth and Emma nearly died as well
What happened after the manuscript pages were lost?
July 1828. Moroni took back the plates and the interpreters, and Joseph lost the gift to translate for a season
When were the plates returned to Joseph?
September 22, 1828, after he humbled himself and repented, as the angel had promised
How did Oliver Cowdery first learn about Joseph Smith?
Late 1828. He was teaching school near the Smith farm and boarded with the family, where he heard about the gold plates, and he reached Harmony to serve as scribe on April 5, 1829
What did the Lord say would happen if the world rejected Joseph's words?
March 1829. If they will not believe my words, they would not believe you, my servant Joseph, even if you showed them all these things
Who restored the Aaronic Priesthood, and when?
May 15, 1829. John the Baptist appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery near the Susquehanna River and conferred the Aaronic Priesthood on them
What did Joseph and Oliver do immediately after receiving the Aaronic Priesthood?
May 15, 1829. They baptized each other in the Susquehanna River
Where was most of the Book of Mormon translated in 1829?
June 1829. In the Whitmer home in Fayette, New York, after Joseph and Oliver moved there to escape harassment in Harmony
Who were the Three Witnesses to the gold plates?
Late June 1829. Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, who testified that an angel showed them the plates
When was the translation of the Book of Mormon finished?
Early July 1829, when Joseph had the completed manuscript in hand and sought a publisher
Who printed the first edition of the Book of Mormon?
August 1829 to March 1830. Egbert B. Grandin, at his printing office in Palmyra, New York