lulu wrote:Well, I'd like to test the idea that if 11 people saw the plates, it would keep turning up in secondary and terciary sources. "Why I'll never forget grandpa Whitmer gathering us all around the fireplace and telling us again and again of that day in the winter of 1829-30 when he handled the sacred plates." To my knowledge that sort of think is not out there.
Here's one:
[When] Elders Edward Stevenson and Andrew Jenson visited Richmond, Missouri, in 1888, John C. Whitmer, a grandson of the lady in question, testified in the following language:
"I have heard my grandmother say on several occasions that she was shown the plates of the Book of Mormon by a holy angel, whom she always called Brother Nephi. It was at the time, she said, when the translation was going on at the house of the elder Peter Whitmer, her husband. Joseph Smith with his wife and Oliver Cowdery, whom David Whitmer a short time previous had brought up from Harmony, Pennsylvania, were all boarding with the Whitmers, and my grandmother in having so many extra persons to care for, besides her own large household, was often overloaded with work to such an extent that she felt it to be quite a burden.
One evening, when she went to the barn to milk the cows, she met a stranger carrying something on his back that looked like a knapsack. At first she was a little afraid of him, but when he spoke to her in a kind, friendly tone and began to explain to her the nature of the work which was going on in her house, she was filled with inexpressible joy and satisfaction.
He then untied his knapsack and showed her a bundle of plates, which in size and appearance corresponded with the description subsequently given by the witnesses to the Book of Mormon.
This strange person turned the leaves of the book of plates over, leaf after leaf, and also showed her the engravings upon them; after which he told her to be patient and faithful in bearing her burden a little longer, promising that if she would do so, she should be blessed; and her reward would be sure, if she proved faithful to the end.
The personage then suddenly vanished with the plates, and where he went, she could not tell.
From that moment my grandmother was enabled to perform her household duties with comparative ease, and she felt no more inclination to murmur because her lot was hard.
I knew my grandmother to be a good, noble and truthful woman, and I have not the least doubt of her statement in regard to seeing the plates being strictly true.
She was a strong believer in the Book of Mormon until the day of her death." Mother Whitmer died in Richmond, Ray county, Missouri, in January, 1856.
(Interview of John C. Whitmer with Edward Stevenson and Andrew Jenson in Richmond, Missouri, 1888, in Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saints Biographical Encyclopedia, vol. 1, p.283; Historical Record, vol. 7, p. 621; Juvenile Instructor, vol. 24, p. 22; The Children's Friend, Deseret News, vol. II, 1903, pp. 190-191)
And:
marg wrote:Why me,
If you really believed David Whitmer was telling the truth as per the quotes, and the quote on his death bed is true..then you should be a Mormon. The fact that you aren't tells me you don't believe it.
Actually, if he did believe David Whitmer, he would leave the Mormon Church like he and most of the Book of Mormon witnesses did. Mormonism is not based on the Holy Book of Mormon and missionaries should be circulating the D&C, not the Holy Book of Mormon.