Eighteen (1823)Moroni, however, had a remedy for this. The very moment Joseph seemed confused
by what the “angel” was telling him, Moroni reached towards Joseph and lightly touched
his right temple. A rush of energy surged through Joseph’s body. It seemed as if every fiber
of his being was invigorated. At that moment, with this advanced “micro-surgery,” Moroni
readjusted Joseph’s mortal brain so that he could access memories of his past lives and form
a more complete perspective of real truth.
Joseph immediately then recalled that he was Mormon, and also recognized
Moroni as his son in another life. Perceiving Joseph’s thoughts and considering the new
enlightenment Joseph had received from the advanced surgical procedure, a smiling
Moroni quipped, “Well, hello father!”
Joseph Smith was indeed Mormon, the very same mortal man who was responsible
for preparing a third of the ancient record, engraving it, and passing it on to his son at that
time, Moroni, to be completed. Now the record became much more significant to Joseph
and a cause worthy of sacrificing his life for. No one would ever again have to impress
upon his mind the personal importance and the overall purpose of the record. Regardless
of how anyone else might react to the gold plates of Mormon, it was now very important
for “Mormon” to finish what he had started fifteen hundred years previous—only now as
a young man in a new age, nation, and social environment as the seventeen-year-old
American boy known as Joseph Smith, Jr.
Having an Eternal Perspective
With his mind opened and access to his past memories restored, Joseph now had a
complete view of real truth—an eternal perspective of how things were, how they are, and
how they will become. With this profound perspective, Joseph began to understand that there
were advanced beings who were working alongside Christ in preparing him for this role as
the “modern-day Moses.” He realized that these advanced editors were not going to present
the record as he now remembered writing it as Mormon, but as they knew was necessary for
the inhabitants of the earth in the latter days. The specific purpose of Joseph’s role as “Moses”
made a lot more sense to him now and he better understood what he had to do.
As he pondered on the presence of thought and memory he was having after his
brain adjustment, he then remembered exactly where he had lived as Mormon upon the
American Continent, and that his home had been near the areas in which he had lived
during his childhood as Joseph. After Moroni explained where he had hidden the plates,
Joseph then recognized the area from the memories that he had stored as Mormon. The
memory was of such profound detail that he knew right where to go, writing later:
While [Moroni] was conversing with me about the plates, the vision was
opened to my mind that I could see the place where the plates were
deposited, and that so clearly and distinctly that I knew the place again when
I visited it. ...Owing to the distinctness of the vision which I had had
concerning it, I knew the place the instant that I arrived there.^31Many of Joseph’s enemies eventually contended that he was the one who wrote the
Book of Mormon by his own hand and out of his own mind. Can one imagine what his
friends and followers would have thought had he told them that he actually did, only in a
different body under the ancient hand of Mormon, the prophet and father of Moroni?!