 
My involvement with the Joseph Smith
Papers—it's hard to know where to
start and to where to stop. but I think the
the most appropriate place to start
would be when a friend of mine named
David Brown got called to be the visitor
center director in Kirtland Ohio. He
called the the church archives and
history department and asked for an
expert to give him a crash course on
Kirtland history. The response he got back was from fellow named Ron Barney.
Ron Barney said to David you're welcome to bring a few people with you and so it
was that on January 13, 2001, David
Brown and a few of his children and my
wife Gail and I got invited to that too
because of our close friendship with
David Brown I thought well this is
exciting i've always liked and
appreciated church history and this is a
rare opportunity maybe a unique
opportunity. When we came down to the
church office building and went into the
room that Larry called the Relief
Society room there was a table set up a
long table and it had original documents
on it from church history his eyes got
as big as saucers and he knew what he
was seeing, but it was so surprising to
him and as we sat from you know three to
four feet away from these documents he
was mesmerized. It was a stack as I
recall about an inch thick that turned
out to be the actual manuscript of of
all that the church has of the Book of
Mormon this is the original manuscript. I
had no idea how to put it in perspective
its historical significance its
spiritual significance to me, to the
church, it just—I didn't know how to put
it away my mind was just swimming. And as
we left the room that day he said to me,
"There's something I need to be doing
with this project and I don't know what
it is but I have got to call Ron Barney
and talk to him." So I called Ron on the phone
I said Ron I know this a little bit
strange but I feel like I need to come
talk to you and I'm not even sure why
but let me do it he said, "Okay we'll
schedule such a such a time." And so we
set up a meeting a couple of days after
my phone call him I went by his office
and I sat down and we kind of exchange
pleasantries and stuff for five or ten
minutes and finally said what can I do
for you? And I said I don't know why I'm
here. Do you? And you looked at me and says
no I told he said you asked for the
meeting. And I said you know I know so we
talked a little bit I said, You know? I
can't zero in on it but it seems like
it's got something to do with the
project that you Ron would be involved
with. And he said, well it could be so and
so's work on this and maybe it's this
and I think he named four or five
projects they were working on but
nothing really stuck with him or with me
at that time so anyway we enjoyed
probably the better part of an hour
together and without any conclusions and
I just said thank you for your time and
and see you later. A few days later he
says I think I've figured out what it is
I need to go back and see wrong so they
met again and he said I know why I came
to visit you and Ron said so do i so
they went back and forth again and
finally they talked about what the
project was he said I think it's
something that Dean Jesse's working on
and you need help with and I'm here to
help you and that was the beginning of
our involvement with the Joseph Smith
Papers project not really knowing the
scope of it or what it involved or how
we could help but it was something that
Larry was prompted to do and acted on
that prompting which you know a lot of
times those promptings come to us and we just brush them off or the well that's
all under control there's nothing I can
do but when we act on those promptings
there are things that we can do that can
make a difference that anybody can do
they get a prompting or you get an
impression
you need to act on it because sometimes
it opens the door that you never ever
expected to walk through that can make a
big difference. I have had experiences
where I've been there late at night
reading manuscripts about him or words
from him things that he's been involved
with feelings he had where I had felt
very very strongly that this project
that we're about with the Joseph Smith
Papers I'm pretty sure
that those feelings were coming from
Joseph himself and I don't mean to make
light of it in fact just the opposite
that one night it was as though the
words in my mind were a validation that
this is the right project it is the
right time coming from Joseph thank you
for doing it and by the way it's about
time my commitment was I will stay
involved I'll do whatever I can do and I
told my son who was running the company
I said you can cut wherever you need to
because of the economy you can cut back
inventory you can come back you can have
people take early retirement if if that
works out but you can't stop giving in
my mind there was no question that this
would continue and we've been able to we
were well positioned during that time to
be able to continue our business efforts
and still support the joseph smith
papers project we have felt strongly
that Joseph needs to have all of his
story told that can't possibly be told
and on that basis we feel that that the
nature and character of the man not only
can stand up to truth and light but will
be that he will come forth in millions
of people's minds who otherwise might
have quested might have been on the
fence and that's the reason we feel this
project is so important if the project
accomplishes its purpose
we won't have to worry about a legacy
because it will have done what it was
supposed to do it will have helped
people to know who Joseph Smith was and
is and the truthfulness of the gospel.
 
