Ether 3

In order to provide light, Mahonri smelted 16 transparent white stones, two for each boat, and climbed a mountain to pray to God.

“Oh, God!” Mahonri prayed, “You say we will be embraced by floods as we cross the ocean. Please don’t be angry with me for my weakness before you. I know that you are holy and that you live in heaven. We are unworthy because of our inclination to sin, but you have commanded us to call on you to receive your instructions and blessings. Even though you have punished us because of our sinfulness, and driven us forward for many years through the wilderness, you have also shown us great mercy. Please look upon me with pity and don’t be angry when I ask that you not send us across the raging ocean in total darkness. I have prepared these stones you see before me from molten rock. Because of who you are, and your great power, you can do anything for the benefit of men. Would you touch each of these stones with your finger and make them luminous for us, so that they will light the vessels during our ocean crossing?”

According to Mahonri’s wish, God appeared and laid out his hand to touch each stone individually with his finger while Mahonri prostrated himself before God in fear.

“Why have you fallen down, Mahonri?” asked God. “Arise.”

“Seeing the finger of God become flesh, I was afraid that I would be killed for the insolence of my request,” replied Mahonri.

“No man before you has ever held greater faith in me. It is your faith which allows you to see my finger, where no other man might have seen it. Did you see anything more than my finger?” asked God.

“No,” replied Mahonri. “Will you show yourself to me?”

“Will you believe in me always, and in my word?” asked God.

“Yes,” replied Mahonri, “for I know that you are a God of truth and cannot lie.”

Upon hearing these words, God showed himself to Mahonri, saying, “Because you know these things, you will be redeemed from the fall, and brought back into my presence. I have prepared the redemption of my people since the foundation of the world was laid. I am Jesus Christ, I am the Father, and I am the Son. All of those who believe in me will be my sons and daughters, and have life everlasting. Before this, I have never shown myself to any man, because no man before you has ever believed in me as you have. I have created all men in my own image. The body you see before you now is my spirit body, in whose likeness all men are made. As I appear to you now, I will also appear some day to my people in flesh.”

While I do not make a full account of Jesus Christ’s appearance to Mahonri, wrote Moroni, it is enough to say that Jesus Christ appeared to him in the same manner and appearance in which he later showed himself to the Nephites [2234 years later in AD 34]. Jesus Christ ministered to Mahonri just as he did later, to the Nephites. Because Mahonri’s faith was so great, he saw beyond the veil. He knew beyond doubt that it was Jesus Christ himself that he was talking with, and by whom he was being ministered to.

“But it is not yet time for men to know of me and my word,” Jesus Christ said, as he continued talking to Mahonri, “so you will not permit others to hear what you have seen and heard. I command you to engrave on metal plates what has transpired, in an unknown language that cannot be interpreted by others.” God then gave Mahonri two more magical stones with which to seal up the engraved plates of his record, telling him that in due time the stones would permit the translation of Mahonri’s engravings.

After this, God showed Mahonri a vision of all the people who had ever lived and who would ever live on earth. God withheld nothing that would ever happen from Mahonri’s sight, saying, “Because you believe in me, I show you everything. Engrave what I have shown you on the plates and seal them with the two stones I have given you. At the appropriate time, I will show them to all people, but until then show them to no one.”