Ever wonder what it looks like running w/ 200lbs of gold?

[_Doctor Steuss]

*apologetic hat*

The Spirit > Steroids.

True story.

[_Madison54]

One more thought from watching this video...

If the Lamanites were in such close pursuit, how did Moroni find the time to build the stone box and bury it? According to many, he even used cement and made pillars too. Where did he get the cement?

Here's what Oliver Cowdery wrote about it:

The manner in which the plates were deposited. First, a hole of sufficient depth, (how deep I know not,) was dug. At the bottom of this was laid a stone of suitable size, the upper surface being smooth. At each edge was placed a large quantity of cement, and into this cement, at the four edges of this stone were placed erect, four others, their bottom edges resting in the cement at the outer edges of the first stone. The four last named, when placed erect, formed a box, the corners, or where the edges of the four came in contact, were also cemented so firmly that the moisture from without was prevented from entering. It is to be observed, also, that the inner surface of the four erect, or side stones was smooth. This box was sufficiently large to admit a breast-plate, such as was used by the ancients to defend the chest, &c., from the arrows and weapons of their enemy. From the bottom of the box, or from the breast-plate, arose three small pillars composed of the same description of cement used on the edges; and upon these three pillars was placed the record of the children of Joseph, and of a people who left the tower far, far before the days of Joseph, or a sketch of each, which had it not been for this, and the never failing goodness of God, we might have perished in our sins, having been left to bow down before the altars of the Gentiles, and to have paid homage to the priests of Baal! I must not forget to say that this box, containing the record was covered with another stone, the bottom surface being flat and the upper, crowning. But those three pillars were not so lengthy as to cause the plates and the crowning stone to come in contact.

[_Zub Zool oan]

I wonder how close the stone box was to the cave with wagon loads of plates well lit by some non torch, lamp or candle. It must be true too because Brigham Young said it was.

[_Jonah]

Readers go on and on about how football players can weave and dodge people and such while downplaying the weighted object.

Perhaps the plates were deflated?? Hey, it worked for the Patriots.

[_Tchild]

In cartoons, characters getting smashed flat by a steamroller and then pop out like a balloon back to life. The Book of Mormon fiction story has elements like that.

[_Brackite]

How far is the fake Hill Cumorah in southern Mexico away from the real Hill Cumorah in Western New York State??
The distance between Mexico City, Mexico and Pittsburgh, PA is about 1,700 miles.

In fact, Mormon 6:6 specifically states that all the Nephite records, except the Book of Mormon plates, were buried in the hill Cumorah near the narrow neck of land by Mormon, not Moroni. Nowhere in the Book of Mormon does it state where the Book of Mormon plates were finally buried.

An examination of a map of North America shows that it is possible to sail along the coast of Mexico, up the Mississippi River, and then up the Ohio River to within less than one hundred miles of the New York hill where the plates were buried. Trails and waterways along these major rivers have existed for several thousand years. Sorenson provides a sixteenth-century example of someone walking a similar route in less than a year;59 Moroni had thirty-five years between the final battles of the Nephites and when he buried the plates.60 Thus, the plates could have been transported by canoe to New York, along well-used waterways of the Hopewell Indians (who flourished c. 200 B.C. to A.D. 400).61

http://publications.maxwellinstitute.by ... 2&index=11

Finally, they became so utterly wicked, so fully ripened for destruction, that one branch of the nation, called the Nephites, gathered their entire people around the hill Cumorah, in the State of New York, in Ontario County; and the Lamanites, the opposite army, gathered by millions in the same region.

http://web.archive.org/web/200409280308 ... 7-024.html

For many decades the Nephites retreated before their aggressive foes, making their way north-eastward through what is now the United States. About 400 A.D. the last great battle was fought near the hill Cumorah;[1505] and the Nephite nation became extinct.[1506] The degenerate remnant of Lehi's posterity, the Lamanites or American Indians, have continued until this day. Moroni, the last of the Nephite prophets, hid away the record of his people in the hill Cumorah, whence it has been brought forth by divine direction in the current dispensation. That record is now before the world translated through the gift and power of God, and published to the edification of all nations, as the Book of Mormon.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22542/22 ... 2542-h.htm

As the fighting neared its end, Mormon gathered the remnant of his forces about a hill which they called Cumorah, located in what is now the western part of the state of New York.

https://www.lds.org/ensign/1978/11/the- ... i?lang=eng

[Guest]

Back when I was into crossfit (forgive me), I would regularly use 45 and 60 lbs kettle bells as a part of my routine. I would fast-walk around a loop on our compound, which was about 1/8-1/4 of a mile carrying the kettle bells in each hand. It's absolutely exhausting, and by the time you complete the loop the weights are slipping from your hands; quite often I'd have to rest mid-loop when I was carrying the 60 lbs weights. I was in fantastic shape.

Let me tell you something. There's no way a dude is carrying a 50 lbs weight, wrapped in clothing, through the woods, fighting off men (one of them armed and having dealt Mr. Smith a blow), and doing this for around three miles. All the men had to do was just follow him, and after about a quarter mile gently take it from him because he would have been exhausted.

The story is complete and utter horse crap.

V/R
Doc

[_Jonah]

All the men had to do was just follow him, and after about a quarter mile gently take it from him because he would have been exhausted.

The story is complete and utter horse****.

V/R
Doc

Or better yet, just go to Bro. Joe's house, wait for him to show up, then kick his ass there. Done.

[_Gunnar]

The story is in:

History of the Prophet Joseph Smith by his mother Lucy Mack Smith.

See p. 108 - he jumps over logs, and knocks down three men who attack him, all while running with the plates.

Deseret Books has this blurb, in which this book is recommended by a prophet and Smith descendant:

In this incomparable classic, Lucy Mack Smith, the mother of the prophet Joseph Smith, Takes a tender look back at the extraordinary life of her son. She relates with stirring personal detail the events that shaped his character, as well as the visions and miracles of the gospel restoration that reshaped the world.

Through the eyes of a devoted mother, we see the remarkable family in which Joseph Smith was born, the hardships and privations that plagued them at every turn, and the heavy calling that would eventually lead to Joseph's martyrdom. From the heartbreaking description of young Joseph's leg surgery, mother Smith follows the trail of miracles to which she was witness, and offers her own powerful testimony of Joseph Smith's prophetic calling.

Of this history, President Joseph F. Smith said that it “contains much interesting and valuable information, found in no other publication, relating to the life of the prophet Joseph Smith. . . Both old and young will be pleased as well as benefited by the perusal of its pages.”

To read this book is to know Joseph Smith more intimately and to be inspired by the insights and stories surrounding the events of this beloved prophet's life.

But, is everything Lucy Mack Smith wrote in her history of Joseph regarded, even by the Church, as canon or indisputable truth?

[_Chap]

But, is everything Lucy Mack Smith wrote in her history of Joseph regarded, even by the Church, as canon or indisputable truth?

Who knows? But a work that is published by Deseret Books and carries the recommendation of a prophet (and a Smith at that) cannot simply be dismissed as mere folklore, can it, even it it is not given the accolade of being 'canon or indisputable truth'?

At the least, it shows that Joseph was not the only member of his family given to spinning tall tales to make a buck or two.