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I will now give you a description of the manner in which the Book of Mormon was translated.
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Joseph Smith Jr. would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine.
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A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing.
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One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English.
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Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct,
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Then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear.
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Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.
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¶ The characters I speak of are the engravings on the golden plates from which the book was translated.
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They were engraved thereon by the hand of a holy prophet of God whose name was Mormon, who lived upon this land four hundred years after Christ.
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Mormon’s son, Moroni, after witnessing the destruction of his brethren, the Nephites, deposited the golden plates in the ground, according to a command of God.
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An angel of the Lord directed Brother Joseph to them.
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¶ My mission is to testify concerning the truth of the coming forth of the work of God.
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¶ I was plowing in the field one morning, and Joseph and Oliver came along with a revelation stating that I was to be one of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon.
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I got over the fence and we went out into the woods, nearby, and sat down on a log and talked awhile.
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We then kneeled down and prayed; Joseph prayed.
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We then got up and sat on the log and were talking, when all at once a light came down from above us and encircled us for quite a little distance around; and the angel stood before us.
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He was dressed in white and spoke and called me by name and said: Blessed is he that keepeth His commandments.
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This is all that I heard the angel say.
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A table was set before us and on it the records were placed.
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The records of the Nephites, from which the Book of Mormon was translated, the brass plates, the Ball of Directors, the sword of Laban and other plates.
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While we were viewing them the voice of God spoke out of heaven saying that the book was true and the translation correct.
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¶ We knew it was the voice of God; I knew it was the voice of God just as well as I knew anything.
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¶ Joseph Smith Jr. was a religious and straightforward man.
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He had to be; for he was illiterate, and he could do nothing of himself.
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He had to trust in God; he could not translate unless he was humble and possessed the right feelings towards everyone.
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To illustrate, so you can see: One morning when he was getting ready to continue the translation, something went wrong about the house and he was put out about it.
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Something that Emma, his wife, had done.
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Oliver and I went upstairs, and Joseph came up soon after to continue the translation, but he could not do anything; he could not translate a single syllable.
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He went downstairs, out into the orchard, and made supplication to the Lord;
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He was gone about an hour; came back to the house, asked Emma’s forgiveness, and then came upstairs where we were, and the translation went on all right.
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He could do nothing save he was humble and faithful.