Instead of staff meeting today we all went on a tour of the new Church History Library. Glen Rowe, who grew up in Bellingham, was our guide. He took us to parts of the library visitors seldom see. We saw "first edition" copies of Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants. It was thrilling to see the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon written by Oliver Cowdery as translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith. The Spirit constrained me to even ask to take pictures inside the vaults. It was a powerful experience.


The building is state of the art with climate control throughout to preserve the books and historical documents. It was awesome.


The scriptural mandate for keeping records is found in D&C 21:1 and it portrayed in the foyer.


They showed a 15 minute movie at the beginning. The main story was about Joseph Millet who is Elder Millet's great-great uncle. Briefly, in his day a Brother Hall was without food for his family. He went to the cedars to pray and was told to go to Brother Joseph Millet. When he arrived flour was already in a sack for him as Brother Millet's children told him the Halls had no food. Brother Hall told him he had asked many people for help and after he prayer the Lord told him to go to Joseph Millet. It was a very moving movie. Joseph told Brother Hall he need not repay the flour, It did his heart good to know that the Lord knew Joseph Millet.