Translation

Give each child a worksheet. Ask the children if they can read any of the words or characters. Give them a few minutes to fill in as many as they can. Help the child with the ones they don’t know.

Discuss the many languages used throughout the world.

What does the word

mean? The word translate means to change writing or speech from one language to another.

Show the picture of the gold plates, and discuss Joseph Smith’s task of translating the strange writings on the plates. Have a child read Mormon 9:32 aloud.

What was the language of the writings on the gold plates? (Reformed Egyptian.)

Usually translators need to understand both of the languages they work with. Joseph Smith, however, had had very little schooling and could not speak or read languages other than English. The reformed Egyptian characters on the plates were very strange to him. He had to rely on the Spirit of the Lord, not his own knowledge, to help him translate the characters on the plates into English.

Scriptural and Historical Accounts

Because of the persecution and people trying to steal the plates, Joseph and Emma left New York and went where?  Because of all the persecution and the people trying to steal the gold plates, Joseph knew that he would not be able to work on their translation in Palmyra. Joseph and Emma decided to move to Harmony, Pennsylvania, where Emma’s parents lived.

Once Joseph

and Emma Smith were settled in Harmony, Pennsylvania, Joseph began to translate the gold plates. At first Joseph spent a lot of time becoming familiar with the plates and the language in which they were written. As he studied and prayed, the Urim and Thummim helped him understand the characters on the plates. Joseph learned that the process of translation requires faith, hard work, worthiness, patience, and obedience.

Martin Harris went to Joseph Smith’s home in Harmony to help the Prophet in his work of translating the gold plates. Martin became Joseph’s scribe

. As Joseph read out loud from the plates, Martin Harris wrote down the words Joseph read. After two months of work, Joseph had translated the first part of the plates. The translation was written on 116 pages of paper.

Martin asked Joseph if he could take the 116

translated pages back to Palmyra with him. Martin’s wife and friends had criticized him for leaving his farm to help Joseph, and Martin wanted to show them the pages so they would believe he was doing the Lord’s work.

Joseph asked the Lord for permission to let Martin take the translated pages, but the Lord said “no.” Martin asked Joseph to ask the Lord a

second time. Joseph asked the Lord again, and again the answer was “no.” Martin pleaded for Joseph to ask the Lord once more. Joseph wanted to satisfy Martin, so he asked the Lord a

third time. This time the Lord said Martin could take the translation if he agreed to show it only to his wife and certain other members of his family. Martin promised that he would not show the pages to anyone else. He took the 116 pages of translation to his home in Palmyra.

Why did Martin Harris persist in asking Joseph Smith to seek permission when he had already been told “no”? How did Joseph fear man more than God? (D&C 3:7.) Why are we sometimes afraid of what others might think of us if we obey Heavenly Father’s commandments?

A few days after Martin left, Emma Smith gave birth to a baby boy who lived only a few hours. Emma

was very sick and almost died. For two weeks Joseph

stayed by Emma’s side and helped care for her. When Emma became stronger, Joseph became concerned about Martin Harris, who had been gone with the translated pages for three weeks. Emma encouraged Joseph to go to Palmyra to find Martin.

Joseph went to his parents’ home in Palmyra and sent a message for Martin to meet him. When Martin arrived, he cried out, “Oh, I have lost my soul! I have lost my soul!” Joseph jumped up from where he was sitting and exclaimed, “Martin, have you lost that manuscript? Have you broken your oath, and brought down condemnation upon my head as well as your own?” (quoted in Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith, p. 128). Martin admitted that he had broken his promise and had shown the translated pages to other people. The 116 pages had been lost or stolen.

Joseph exclaimed, “All is lost! all is lost! What shall I do? I have sinned—it is I who tempted the wrath of God. I should have been satisfied with the first answer which I received from the Lord; for he told me that it was not safe to let the writing go out of my possession” (quoted in Smith, p. 128).

Joseph and Martin suffered greatly because of the loss of the translation. Joseph returned to Harmony, where he prayed for forgiveness. The angel Moroni

took the gold plates and the Urim and Thummim for a while. Later, because of Joseph’s sincere repentance, the Lord forgave Joseph, and Moroni returned the plates and the Urim and Thummim. During this time Joseph received the revelations found in Doctrine and Covenants 3 and 10.

The Lord told Joseph that Satan had influenced some wicked people to take the pages. These people intended to change the words so people would not believe the Book of Mormon. Joseph was told not to retranslate the first portion of the plates. Because the Lord knows all things, he knew that this incident would happen. He had therefore commanded the ancient prophet Mormon to include a similar account of what was included in the 116 pages in another part of the gold plates. Joseph translated this part instead of retranslating the lost part. Joseph learned that Satan and wicked people could not stop Heavenly Father’s work.