Memorial to High Council, 18 June 1840

That your Memorialist feels it a duty which  he owes to God as well as to the Church

The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...

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to give his  attention more particularly to those things connec ted with the Spiritual welfare of the Saints,  (which have now become a great people) so that  they may be built up in their most holy faith and  be eneabled to go on to perfection— — —

That the church having erected an office  where he can attend to the affairs of the church  without distractions, he thinks and very verily  believes that the time has now come when he  Should devote himself exclusively to those  things which relate to spiritualities of the church  and commence the work of translating

To produce a new text through a revelatory, rather than scholarly, process by the “gift and power of God.” In the Book of Mormon, the ancient prophet Mosiah translated records into his own language using “interpreters,” or “two stones which was fastened into...

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the ejyptian  Records— the Bible— and wait upon the Lord for  Such revelations as may be suited to the condi tion and circumstances of the church and  in order to attend to those things, prays that  your honorable body will relieve him from the anxi ety and trouble necessarily attendant on business  transactions by appointing some one of the Bishops  to take charge of the City Plot, and attend to the  business transactions which have heretofore rested  upon your Memorialists

That should your Honors deem it, propper  to do so, your memorialist would respectfully  Suggest, that he would have no means of  Support whatever and therefore would request  that some one might be appointed to see that all  his necessary wants be provided for as well as  Sufficient means or appropriations for a Clerk or  Clerks which he may require to aid him in his  important work [p. [2]]